Bridge Disasters at the “expert” table on BBO

Everybody is an expert on BBO, just about.  The three disasters below all happened this morning.  Really.

There are some interesting points to be made in following some of the disasters.  How do they happen?  I think a lot has to do with male hormones.  Here is an example of male hormones run wild.  The only excuse I have for West’s bidding is that he took the colours too seriously.

West had a borderline overcall but I think it is right given the vulnerability.   I made a negative double.  Do you like East’s raise?  He has a pretty awful hand.  Francine and I found our way to the spade game.  West who had no suit, no shape and defense took the noise dive into the pool.  His hand is completely wrong for a save.  This is a case of bidding the same cards twice.

This next disaster is quite funny in a way.  It ended with East leaving the table in disgust.  It wasn’t that West didn’t understand East’s bid, he just thought that he (West) knew where to play the hand.  He was wrong.  Trust your partner.  West had exactly what he said he had.  If East wanted to consult him on the contract he would have bid it differently.

West opened a weak two spade bid.  East reasonably bid the heart game.  But West had such meaty spades and a heart void.  Could hearts really be right?  He decided to overrule his partner.  He bid 4♠. Ray and I have a rule.  You don’t put down an eight card suit in dummy unless it is trump.  I expect it would apply to a ten card suit as well.  I would have bid 5♥ over 4♠ but maybe East is right.  If he bids spades let him play there.  The heart suit did get a startled reaction from me when it hit the dummy.

I think this next hand is about deciding a bid means what you want it to mean.  I have done this myself.  In a major event playing with Ray years ago I decide that 1♠ -4♥ should be lots of hearts, to play.  It wasn’t.  But I wanted it to be that.  I bid it and bad things happened.  I wasn’t the only one to fall into this trap.  But East on this hand did it in quite a spectacular fashion.

When I opened 2♠ West decided that unusual notrump would described his hand perfectly.  (I think this is highly dubious vulnerable against not after a preempt by his opponents).  Unfortunately 2NT is natural in this auction.  West thought that if his partner had a strong notrump with a spade stopper that he had just enough to double.  Woops.