About 45 years ago, I came to Minnesota to attend grad school. I had learned to play bridge as an undergrad, but rubber bridge only. I focused on my studies and other activities my first few years here - and then got introduced to duplicate.
Roughly when this sweet photo of Kerry Holloway, wife Cara and daughter Megan was taken, I met Kerry and he took this newbie under his wing. While we both play with others, Kerry and I have had a partnership for over 40 years now!
Along the way, I added another very talented and long time partner; Bill Kent of Iowa City. Between Kerry and Bill, I've played literally thousands and thousands of hands with each of them. You'd think that we'd have every agreement down pat by now, and never be on different wavelengths.
But - you would be wrong.
This past Friday night at the Minneapolis Grand Slam Club, I held this hand: AQ95, Q754, AJ7, 42. After 2 passes, my RHO opened 1D. Though my shape wasn't quite right, I judged to double. With both majors and 13 hcp, I decided doubling rather than passing or guessing which major to bid was the lesser of evils.
LHO bid 1H, Kerry bid 1S and RHO passed. What now?
Well. Had my LHO passed and had Kerry then bid 1S, I, too would have passed. Without the 1H bid, my call would show at least 16+ HCP and at least 4S. But, since Kerry took a "free bid" (bidding when he was not forced to do so), I knew he had some values. Thus, I raised to 2S, showing a reasonable opener with at least 4S - but not extras.
LHO passed, and to my surprise, Kerry bid 4S!
Alas; not surprisingly, given that he was only able to bid 1S the first time, we didn't have enough "wood" for Kerry to take 10 tricks. Here is the layout:
| Dealer: W Vul: None |
North ♠ KJ764 ♥ K96 ♦ 84 ♣ 863 |
|
| West ♠ 83 ♥ J1032 ♦ KQ10 ♣ QJ95 |
East ♠ 102 ♥ A8 ♦ 96532 ♣ AK107 |
|
| South ♠ AQ95 ♥ Q754 ♦ AJ7 ♣ 42 |
What happened?
Well, Kerry thought that my 2S call showed a hand with 16+. Thus, not at all unreasonably, with a 5th spade and the heart king behind the heart bidder, he thought he had enough to bid game.
And me? As explained above, I thought that my bid only showed a decent hand with spades, and thus 2S was useful call to make communication between our opponents a bit tougher.
After our game ended and we saw our "different wavelength" produced a zero, I asked Kerry if he minded if I shared the hand on Bridgewinners, a site akin to "Facebook for bridge players."*** I thought it might be interesting to see what others thought; Kerry agreed.
What happened when I posted the auction on Bridgewinners? This happened.
https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/what-is-partner-showing/
As of right now, 309 votes and 102 comments!
Was Kerry right? Was I right?
Depends upon whom you ask! If you look at each of the options I gave to players, expert to world class players voted in every choice that this one was the right explanation! Many Minnesotans voted - and disagreed on what the "right" selection was! Especially amazing to me was that Bill, my long time regular partner, asserted that Kerry's view was correct and mine was not!
I share this story with you not to show what a doofus I am and how often I screw up. (Anyone who has played with me or against me knows this!) But I give you the auction and the very different perspectives on what this fairly simple sequence shows, as it so dramatically highlights how tough this game is.
If this sequence can have varied opinions as to meaning by long time partnerships - then how tough is it for newer partnerships to sort everything out? And how about less frequent and longer auctions - some with treatments from opponents that are not familiar? Even tougher still.
Now, I need to make certain that Kerry and Bill and other partners appreciate that my treatment is the proper one (ha ha ha ha ha!) But seriously and far more importantly, to remember yet again, this lesson. Part of why bridge is so fascinating, so challenging, so intriguing and never ever boring is how complex and difficult it is. Master it? Never. Just hope to learn a little more, improve a little bit - and be amazed almost every time you sit down to play that something new may occur, yet again!
**** By the way, if you have not seen Bridgewinners before, please do look around. It has all sorts of posts for players of every experience level and interest. A great resource!
While there was some variance, the poll results can be explained as follows. If you are 20 years old, you need 11 hcp to raise to 2S. (Most juniors happily double with a 4414 10 count; 11 hcp is "extras.") Add one hcp for each additional 10 years of age above 20. Note, this would mean that Peg is 40 years old. That is close enough..
Posted by: David Caprera | March 17, 2019 at 08:14 PM
David - I hang out with juniors! :D
Posted by: Peg | March 17, 2019 at 08:19 PM