Sometimes the deals having such exceptional features are made up to explain certain peculiarity of bridge which seem quite illogical but the case is not so. Because the law of probabilities of hands is of accepted norm in bridge. Again, at times, an apparently illogical approach to bidding in the game comes under quite logical a phenomenon according to bridge experts.
The hand under discussion is not a piece of imagination but it was played in an European International Team Event between Britain and Sweden in 1986, in which a spirited bidding was witnessed and ultimately a hand having eight points held by Swedish player reached a grand slam in club suit as a scarifies bid that turned out to be a genuine bid on merits of his card holding.
The British player sitting in the East position doubled the contract of seven clubs with confidence of beating the contract by many tricks, but it was made which fell on him like a thunderbolt and he was dumbfounded at the result when his powerhouse hand went down the drain without taking single trick.
When the game was over the East realised that he could have made a grand slam in spades only if diamond suit was not led. With any other lead he could have romped home with a grand slam in spades, which really deserved a hand having thirty-one point count.
Following is the hand which remained a topic of bridge talk for weeks and months in Stockholm for its striking feature and how a powerful hand was reduced to dust because of peculiar distributional value with fewer points held by opponent.
(1) Strong opening with 23+ points
(2) Natural bid showing long diamond suit
(3) Cue bid showing much stronger hand indicating major suits
(4) Natural bid showing club suit intending a sacrifice
(5) Guarding the king of clubs against a club lead
The above bidding has been of a very interesting sequence of competing spirit behind it on the part of East and South and the South mainly went on bidding for a sacrifice seeing no defence to a slam or a grand slam by opponents in major suits.
West led heart ten:
The South invited a bit of trouble by making a sacrifice bid at that high level and thought he would go down many a trick more then he could afford to lose. But seeing the dummy he was hopeful that the sacrifice was worth when the partner was void in diamonds and five small clubs.
After a little thought a ray of confidence crossed his mind that if he could tackle the hand rightly and the cards in diamond and club suit behaved favourably he would even succeed in making a grand slam.
So after ruffing the ace of hearts in hand, he moved a small diamond and ruffed with a small club in dummy on which the West dropped the ace of diamonds then he moved a small club from dummy, which East covered with nine and South finessed the ten of clubs.
The West showed out. At this point Hans Goth went deeper into his thoughts whether to try a grand slam or to be content with one down if the East had a singleton ace of diamonds because he could always overruff the second diamond trick.
But undaunted by his own fears he moved another diamond and ruffed a small diamond in the dummy on which the East dropped the king.
At this stage the South was enthralled by his line of play and felt assured of a grand slam and he pulled another small club from the dummy on which the jack came from the West and the declarer finessed the queen of trump and played the ace of clubs dropping the king from the East and claimed the contract for the surprise and joy a host of kibitzers.
It was as if the heavens were on his side in making a success of a bid, which was intended basically for a sacrifice.
Golden Tips:
The principle of logical bidding was perfectly applied on both sides of the contest in this case.
Dealer East
East-West Vulnerable
North West East South
S 10865 S 97432 S AKQJ S ---
H 7543 H 109862 H AKQJ H ---
D --- D J109 D AK D Q8765432
C 76532 C --- C KJ9 C AQ1084
The bidding:
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West North East South
Raymond Bjorn Robert Hans
Brock Fallenius Sheehain Goth
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---- ---- 2C(1) 2D(2)
Pass Pass 3D(3) 4C(4)
4H 5C 6NT(5) Pass
Pass 7C Dbl Pass
Pass Pass
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