The operation failed but the patient survived…
Who said that only grand champions could write bridge articles? A few months ago, Funbridge launched a brand-new format of articles that allow talented players to share their expertise on the deals that inspire them the most. We have the pleasure of presenting you with a captivating article below that was written by one of the members of our community.
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Yoram Aviram is an experienced bridge player and a former member of the Israeli Junior and Open teams with several achievements on the national and international scenes.
Yoram left the game many years ago to focus on family and work (in the field of computerised trading of financial instruments) and switching hobbies from the mind sport of bridge to the physical sport of competitive road cycling.
He returned to his old passion and adopted Funbridge as the platform on which to refresh his old skills.
He is happy to share deals of particular interest with the Funbridge community on the blog.
The operation failed but the patient survived…
The 2024 European National Team Championships were held in Denmark, in the small and hospitable town of Herning. I had the privilege of being part of the Israeli Open team, together with my partner Gilad Altshuler. Many years ago we both represented Israel on the international scene, so for us the event also had a nostalgic side.
The other two pairs of the team, the super-talented Birman-Padon and Zamir-Toledano, were the driving force of the team and earned us the 5th place.
Gilad and me, although not in top form, did have some interesting moments. Here is one, where a funny bidding position occurred, from our match against Finland:
Red vs green, I held the following powerful hand:
For those who are not familiar with playing conditions at competitive events, note that we play with diagonal screens across the table, preventing a player from seeing his partner during the game. The bidding is done using tablets. Only after the bidding and the opening lead are made, a window is opened in the screen to play the cards.
So, at this instance the tablet showed that my partner, the dealer, opened 2♦️. We play this as simple “multi” showing a weak 2 bid in one of the majors. RHO (on my side of the screen) overcalled 2♥️ (natural).
The situation was already a bit awkward. RHO showed a heart suit, I had Spades and no idea whatsoever as to what Partner’s major suit was! Anyway, thinking to myself that my Diamonds could make a nice trump suit, no matter what Partner’s major was, for now I could easily ask. So, I bid 2NT, which is an asking bid. After a small pause, the tablet showed that LHO bid 3♠️, and Partner passed.
Things just got a lot more awkward… Not only RHO bid Hearts, but now LHO bid Spades (which I hold as well). Partner was rapidly running out of majors… Of course, LHO might be just psyching around with that spade bid (many partnerships actually play other major bids after opponent’s multi as cue bids), but if Spades were Partner’s suit, why didn’t he double??
Taking my time, I observed RHO who slowly raised his pen and started writing something on his scorepad. Then he raised it and I saw “undiscussed” written there. Still, I was thinking, if indeed LHO’s bid wasn’t natural and Partner’s suit was Spades, why didn’t he double?
Then it occurred to me. Suppose LHO (remember, he is on my partner’s side of the screen), who knew that his spade bid was not natural (showing heart support), accordingly alerted his 3♠️ bid to my partner. Now my partner “knew” that I knew that opponent’s suit was Hearts, and thus that his suit was Spades, and he didn’t have to double in order to just show Spades. He could pass to show relatively weak Spades. That, of course, coincided perfectly with my own spade holding, which didn’t leave much quality for Partner’s Spades.
That, I decided, is the most logical explanation for what happened. So, my Partner’s suit is Spades and it just remains to see how many Aces he has. RHO inserted a bid of 4♣️, which after everything didn’t surprise me. I bid 4NT, asking for Aces. The next bids on the tablet were 5♥️ by LHO (I guess, on that board, opponent’s pass buttons were disabled) and Pass by my partner. Playing DOPI, my partner‘s Pass showed one key card. As a matter of fact, LHO’s 5♥️ bid, by showing his real heart fit, actually helped clear the confusion. Trusting my previous analysis, I left behind any thought of playing in Diamonds and just bid 6♠️.
Partner’s hand was:
Opponents led a club, won the trick, and I claimed the rest for +1430.
The full hand and bidding: Board 16, Dealer W, E-W Vul.
Discussing the hand after the match, it turned out that things weren’t that clear on the other side of the screen either. The opponent on my partner’s side didn’t alert his 3♠️ bid (actually, if it is not an agreement, but a psychic bid, he doesn’t have to). But, like me, my partner believed that the opponent on my side would alert and therefore chose not to double to show his spade weakness.
It appears that both me and my partner each trusted and acted on the assumption (proven wrong) that the other side’s opponent gave a real explanation, so we can say that the operation failed but the patient survived…
That turned out to be a swing in our favour since at the other table the Finish pair stayed in game. Actually, +680 is not a bad score for the opponents on that hand as a 7♥️ sacrifice by NS goes down for just -500!
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Such psychic bids ought not to be allowed in tournament Bridge where not even the partner can understand it, let alone the opponents ( even though our hero guessed correctly). It makes a nonsense of the language of bidding IMHO.