One of the most memorable bridge-hands ever reported occurred during a Canadian regional tournament about 10 years ago and featured what was then Canada's best partnership, Mark Molson and Boris Baran.
Mark and Bo bid efficiently to a small slam in clubs only to see their opponents, who had a 13 card-fit, take a save. Bo made a forcing pass, implying 1st round control in the opponents suit, so Mark bid 7clubs, which would have been cold had the the opps not saved again at the seven level.
At this point the rot set in. Holding a void in the opps. suit, Molson decided that Baran's forcing pass must have been based on the ace of the opps. suit, so he shot out 7 no-trump which was smartly doubled.
Eager to grab their seven cashing tricks, the opps. serendipitously led out of turn, which momentarily transformed our heroes' -2000 into +2930 since declarer had 13 tricks in the side-suits.
However, before Moon could bar the led suit, Bo tabled his hand as the dummy, thereby ratifying the opening lead.
The title of the next day's bulletin was "Molson Brews While Baran Stews" -:)
Cheers.
Nick
(posted on rec.games.bridge 30-May-2006)
The original post asked the question: "3NT (explained as gambling) on your right, all pass. What do you lead with J943 Q104 82 A854 ?"
Decide first before you read on. Prepare for some giggles!
Hello
OK, since the obvious lead is the Ace of Clubs, the "catch" is: That is the only card in your hand that allows the contract to make. BTW, for those who asked, the 3NT bid was alerted by North as "Gambling, with no outside A or K." Here are the four hands:
K65
A76
KQJ1094
6
J943 A107
Q104 J852
82 63
A854 KQ109
Q82
K93
A75
J732
This hand was from the 1987 Summer Nationals in Baltimore, MD, the first round of the first session of the open pairs game. Here's how this deal was reported in Bridge Today:
"Easy [opening lead], right? You'd make the book lead of the club Ace to have a peek at dummy. Unfortunately, you've also chosen the only card in your hand to allow the contract to make. ...
"Naturally, my partner and I called for the director in ringing, two-part harmony. The explanation? North-South had just been introduced at the partnership desk a few minutes before the event.
Here was the table postmortem:
"North: What on earth did you bid on?!
"South (indignantly): It was a Gambling Three-No, just as you explained it.
"North: I never told you to open three notrump on trash like that!
"South: Yes you did! You said not two minutes ago that it showed a weakish hand with maybe nine or ten high card points!
(long, long pause)
"North: I MEANT ALL IN ONE SUIT!!"
Is that classic, or what?
Steve Sun