As many of you may know, Bill Voedisch and his GNT Flight B team of Dennis Cerkvenik, Andrew Clements and Jonathan Cohn earned a very respectable 5/8 finish in their event. Well done, men!
Denny wanted to share a moment from their competition. This is not some insightful declarer play or devilish defense. Instead, it is one of the many whacko oddities that we all have experienced at the bridge table.
Thanks, Bill!
By now you know we failed against a solid CA team in the quarter finals. But along the way we had one if the all time crazy director calls.
Cerks opens 1D and my RHO sitting on the same side of the screen as me bids 2S which he alerts to me as like a good weak 2 bid. I held : T, Qxx, ATxxx, ATxx.
I tried 3S at the moment, looking for a spade stopper. LHO passes, Cerks bids 3NT, RHO passes and after some thought of 4D, I also passed. (We have favorable vulnerability.)
The skate board slides back to the other side and in little time slides back to us.
The skate board may not have been pushed all the way back to us as both RHO and I failed to notice that LHO (North) had called 4S !!
We pushed it back and of course neither of us added another PASS card but the other side never would have caught that anyway.
Now the other side of the screen is waiting for me to lead against 4S while i'm waiting for RHO to lead at 3NT which he dutifully does.
You can predict what happens next. RHO puts the 4 of spades on the table, I put down dummy (creating 13 penalty cards) we lift the window ... and the guys on the other side say something like "What are you bozo's doing?" To which we reply "Playing 3NT!"
They call the director and my side of the screen still doesn't know what's going on. The director shows up and they explain the contract is 4S but DECLARER made the opening lead while West put down his hand.
The director marches over to our side and asks us both, what's the contract? We both say 3NT by East. "You both failed to see North bid 4S?" Errr .. Huh? RHO and I just sat there, stunned.
"Well, isn't this side of the screen a treat. Lead out of turn and 13 penalty cards!"
Now we have two directors. They declared the board fouled and warned as to pay attention .. get the trolley all the way over etc.
When comparing scores Clements and Cohn had plus 620. Even though they are short on HCP they have 2 excellent suits, the cards are well placed and 10 tricks are there.
I sheepishly announced the board was fouled at our table. We tried to explain it as best we could ...
Had I seen 4S out of North at favorable vulnerability i would have called 5D which gets cracked for minus 500 and a 3 imp win for us.
Ahhh ... those bidding screens.
Bill Voedisch
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