Sunday, September 22, 2002		Bridge

Making the most of an eccentric contract

BOB Rowlands, many times an English international, tells me an amusing story. He sat South on this deal and opened 1D, his partner responding 2D. Having nodded off for a brief moment, Rowlands looked across at his partner’s 2D bidding-card and imagined that this was the opening bid! He alerted and explained to the opponents that it was the Multi 2D, usually showing a weak two in one of the majors. Rowlands responded 2H, in case partner had a weak 2H, then noted to his horror that he had in fact opened 1D. There was no further bidding and he now had to make the most of this eccentric contract. West led S4 to the ace and Rowlands took two spade ruffs, using the top clubs as entries. When he played a diamond to the king and ace, West defended carelessly by playing ace, king and another trump. East cashed his winners in the majors but had to lead to dummy’s jack of clubs at trick 13. So, that was only two down and 100 away. Most pairs had made 4H on the East-West cards, so Rowlands took a good score on the board!