The Gondoliers of Venice
This story has nothing to do with
Gondoliers, but the name does make an attractive introduction to the events,
that happened at the
Venice Sectional in March 2007. I believe the construction of our team was most
interesting. See if you don't agree. You know how team formations go by now.
We'd been planning this team for about 4 weeks. It came down to the night of the
tournament and still no teammates had emerged from the depths of bridgedom. I
asked one pair of old friends at the tournament, Harold and Carol Emme, from
Chicago. They would have loved to play with us, but had just made arrangements 5
minutes before. Finally it was game time, with 4 tables ready to play the side
game. We'd make it 4 & 1/2 (tables), yucky!
I asked my pardner if it would be OK with him if I asked one
of the 8 side game pairs to join us tonight. He encouraged me so off I went.
Each of the first three tables were not interested, mostly because they could
not commit to 3 consecutive sessions with the same partner. I got to the last
table, where 3 people were seated. I asked the husband and wife pair, but - same
story -they had other plans for the next day, so I was down to my last hope. I
asked the third person at the table if she were interested in playing the team
event, instead of the match-point side game. She had a concern, however.
At least this wasn't the outright no that I had been getting.
Beverly Nill from Tiverton, Rhode Island wanted to know why I was interested in
playing the team game, and I told her that it was more like real bridge, that
is, where the quality of contract bridge counts more than the quantity of hand
frequency found in matchpoints. That answer seemed to satisfy Beverly and her
partner, Grace Charron from Bradenton, Florida was in agreement. We simply
exchanged our 2 side game entries for one team entry and the powerful (bottom
seed) Nill Team found itself in the Top Bracket of the Knock-Out Teams.
The first round was a three-way and we survived by having a
higher negative imp quotient than the third team. We won that all important
second round of the event. Beverly and Grace bid a grand slam where our
opponents only managed to get to a game, each making seven. The stage was set
for the finals of the Knock-Out.
Like rattlesnakes, good hands come in pairs. On the first
hand my partner, Harry Leopold, had his bid. (Did you feel the earth tremor?)
They opened 1 Spade and Harry bid 2NT (unusual, of course) and my vulnerable RHO
bid 4 Spades. I held : xxx - AQTxx - x - xxxx. Well, white against red, I felt
that a 5 club "sacrifice bid" was in order. It went pass by my LHO and pard
thought for a long time. His hand: Void - xx - KQxxx - -AKQJxx. Harry finally
passed (he knows that I like to bid) and when the heart finesse failed, it was a
sound decision.
We still found ourselves down by 15 imps at the half-way
point. We were having a good second half, but not outstanding. It all came down
to the last hand of the match. This rattlesnake in high grass was truly the
female mate of the other creature. This time my LHO opened 1H, white against
red. My vulnerable partner bid 2NT and my RHO chimes in with 3 Hearts. Last time
they had spades and we had clubs Here's my meager holding: QTxxx - Jxx - Jxxxx -
Void. Can you believe it? This time we have blood diamonds and they have hearts.
I know I should only bid 4 diamonds, but what if they bid 4 Hearts, and it's
passed to me? Now I'll get doubled for sure if I bid 5 D's. I confidently slap
down 5 D (take that) and it goes All Pass. Partner doesn't go into a hesitation
this time, small wonder. The king of spades is led and we quickly see why he
passed in tempo. Dummy !!!
S: Jxx | H: Ax | D: Akxx | C: Qxxx
Perhaps sometime I should explain the rationale behind the term vulnerable to my partner. Oh well, just be glad that I wasn't doubled, right? On the last snake (white vs. red), he had:
0 + 2 + 1 + 0 = 3 losing trick count.
On this creepy crawler (red vs. white), he
has: 3 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 7 losing trick count.
Eons ago I learned to forget about the bidding when dummy hits the table. It's ancient history. No one put a gun to my head and made me bid 5 D's, now did they? Sure enough, RHO plays the spade 9-spot, so what do I do? I want LHO to continue spades, but then stop. I followed woodenly with the 10-spot. When LHO plays the ace, I drop the spade queen. Zia taught me this lesson over a decade ago when he dropped his king (fourth hand) under his dummy's ace on the third round of hearts, concealing his heart deuce (he had a crowd of kibitzers) as the 13'th card in this square suit, making it appear to me that my partner held it. He executed a progressive squeeze on me later in the play of the hand as he served up that red deuce. I patted him on the back, feigning outrage, playing up to his admirers - as JFK once said, "Don't get mad, get even."
The opening leader shouldn't fall for my deception. His partner completes her echo with the 6-spot. His original holding was: AKx - KQTxx - Tx - JTx. He switches to the heart king! I win the ace. I play the diamond ace and everyone follows. I call for the diamond king and as RHO follows with the queen, I play the jack and LHO contributes the ten. You don't see that very often, now do you? The king, queen, jack and ten played to the same trick in Venusian order. I thought it appropriate to at least have a "100-honors trick" in perhaps a not so honorable contract.
The rest of the hand is simply style. I ruffed a club, led a high spade back to the jack, ruffed a club, discarded the club queen on a spade. It just wouldn't do to ruff up her ladyship, after all. Then it was time to get even, discarding dummy's remaining heart on the carefully preserved spade deuce. Partner was getting a little nervous, but I thought it only right to make him sweat this one out to the end. A cross-ruff produces the last 3 tricks. In all, 7 D, 3 S and 1 H. I'm continuously amazed by these two hands. Thanks Beverly and Grace for accepting our humble invitation. We could not have done it without you. A team of destiny!
See ya' at the table,
Chris Niemann
