Two Turtle Doves
It is December 26th, Boxing Day, a holiday in Canada. I don’t know for sure where the name Boxing Day comes from. I have heard rumors that it may be that people ran to the stores to return all their Christmas presents on the 26th (in boxes presumably) but does that make much sense? Anyway it is a day off work so I am not going to complain.
This time I am sitting South partnered with my husband Ray. Ray doesn’t play bridge much any more so this was a rare treat. It is not clear why he quit the game. Some members of my family think it is because I used to yell at him when we played together. But I don’t believe that slander.
My daughter-in-law Luise was playing with Colin, her husband and my son. Luise comes from a bridge-playing family but seldom plays these days. Like many mothers she is too busy with other things.
With nobody vulnerable, I pick up “my usual hand”, as Ray would call this poor assortment.
Luise opens 1♣ and Ray doubles. Colin redoubles showing values. I bid 1♥ . In this position I don’t think 1♥ shows any particular values. It is just suggesting a denomination, and as long as Ray has made a traditional takeout double hearts is pretty certain to be the right spot. Luise passes and Ray cuebids 2♣ showing a good heart fit and extra values. Colin, who is never one to stay quiet long, bids 3♣ and it is up to me again.
While Ray is certainly showing a good hand I think I have said my piece with my original 1♥ bid so I pass. Luise passes again and Ray now bids 3♥ .
This comes around to me. Should I bid again? Before I decide I think it is time to spike my egg nog with a bit of rum. I offer the rum around to the table and find that everyone is a taker. Should I bid on? A few sips of fortified nog later I am still thinking. Finally I pass and 3♥ becomes the contact.
Luise leads the ♣ J and Ray puts down this dummy.
At any form of scoring you don’t really want to be in non-vulnerable games unless you have at least an even shot of making the contract. How good a contract is 4♥ ? I know I should put this out of my mind. My task is to make 3♥ and that is what I shall try to do. I have lots of losers and I need some winners. I have drunk too much rum to form a coherent plan but on general principles I ruff the open club lead and go about setting up diamonds, leading the ♦ 2 from dummy. I would prefer to play spades from my hand. I don’t want to draw trumps just yet since I will need some as the hand goes on to ruff clubs.
Colin plays low and Luise wins the D9 with the D10 and persists with clubs. I ruff in dummy and this is the situation:
I think it is still right to hold off on playing trumps. I will have a trump in dummy to ruff a club later and I do want to keep the hearts for communication between the two hands. I persist with diamonds. From the bidding and play so far it doesn’t seem to me that either Colin or Luise has a singleton diamond, so I lay down the ♦ A. Both follow with low diamonds, leaving two out. I lead a low diamond from dummy and Colin follows with the ♦ K so I know Luise has the third diamond, the ♦ 10 and I can comfortably trump low. Things are going well.
At this point I could play the top two trumps ending in dummy. If the hearts don’t break I will have a heart loser. The defense has taken one diamond trick. So that makes two. I will play a top diamond from dummy discarding my last club. The defenders could ruff in with their hypothetical trump queen but they can take only one more trick, the ♠ A, since I will be able to discard the third spade in my hand on dummy’s diamond winner. When I play the top two trumps the ♥ Q comes down and I actually make five. The cards are friendly but even not vulnerable we should probably have been in game.
I know what the game will be now. Who should have bid four hearts? Before Ray can say anything I smile and say, ‘Remember it is the second night of Christmas and we are two turtle doves.’
Ray smiles back. Thank goodness we have all had enough rum.
The whole hand was:
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You said “At any form of scoring you don’t really want to be in non-vulnerable games unless you have at least an even shot of making the contract. ” Aproximately true but not entirely true at IMPs. If you bid 3 and make 4 and the other table bids and makes 4, you lose 6 IMPs. If you bid 3 and make 3 while they bid 4 and go down 1, you pick up 5 IMPS. That’s close to an even shot, but technically you should bid game if there is a 46% chance of success. But if you can judge the 4% difference between that and 50%, you are a better judge of such things than I am.
Actually a vulnerable game at imps scoring favors being quite poor games since if you bid3 and make 4 you get +170 abd if they bid and make 4 they get +620 a difference of 450 or 10 imps. But if you go down in 4 for -100 and they bid and make 3 it is 240 which is 6 imps. So you have about 10-6 odds or so in your favor at imps. Suggesting it is worth pushing for vul games, even somewhat risky ones.
What you are saying is true NV at imps or at matchpoints .. you want to be close to 50%
I am ignoring things like needing a top or situation of match, swinging, and other strategies.
Hi Linda
“Boxing Day” comes from the tradition of giving tradesman a gift /box
on the day after Christmas for services rendered during the year.
A little bit of useless information.
Happy holidays
Norman
I enjoying this series so far, thanks.