Your most memorable hands

[W Kovacs]

Sorry if this has been done elsewhere, but i didn't see a thread like this. And if it belongs in another forum, feel free to move it.

 

Everyone has one or more hands that have stuck with them their entire bridge career. Whether it's the hand where you found the impossible lead to set a cold contract, or you making against all odds. I would like to hear your stories.

 

I actually have three very memorable hands.

 

The first was during a Swiss Teams tournament. I was sitting South, and West was dealer, both N/V. I held an ~18 HCP monster with AKQ10xx♣, but Righty opened 1♣ before I got a chance to speak. After some doubling and competition, they ended up in 3♣, so I doubled, and it got passed out. Partner made an excellent lead, and when the smoke cleared, the opps found themselves down 8, doubled! It certainly was the biggest beatdown I've ever given.

 

The second hand was a club game against a pair of rank Novices. They tried their best, but they never seemed to improve (yet their play at other tables always seemed to push us into avg-, grrr). I was dealer, R vs W, and picked up something that looked like Axxxxx x AQ xxxx, so I bid 2♠. Righty looks to my partner and asks what my bid meant, almost like he couldn't believe it. My partner answered correctly, and RHO doubles for takeout. After a competitive auction, LHO ends up playing 4Hx. I lead a low club, and dummy comes down: KQJ10xxx - Jxx AQx. Declarer had 7 Hearts to the Q, but partner had AKJxx♥, and a few other high cards. so when he led diamonds, I duly gave him spade ruffs. I eventually made my singleton ♥ good as well. A true massacre (but not -8x).

 

The last hand was again at a Swiss tourney. i was dealer, and held 7 spades to the QJ10, and had another monster hand. After opening a Precision 1C and a non-competitive auction, we ended up in 4♠, which got doubled by RHO. I was relieved when dummy came down to see that we had most of the HCP and dummy had the singleton A♠. Until I led that A♠, and LHO discarded a club! A 5-0 trump break, missing the K, offside. So I went about playing as best I could, knowing I needed three finesses to work (at least the ♣ finesse was somewhat marked). In the end all three finesses did work, and with an endplay of rHO, the contract was made. That one hand is probably the best I've ever done declaring, and I hope never to have to do it again.

[mgoetze]

I was dealer, R vs W, and picked up something that looked like Axxxxx x AQ xxxx, so I bid 2♠. Righty looks to my partner and asks what my bid meant, almost like he couldn't believe it. My partner answered correctly, and RHO doubles for takeout. After a competitive auction, LHO ends up playing 4Hx. I lead a low club, and dummy comes down: KQJ10xxx - Jxx AQx. Declarer had 7 Hearts to the Q, but partner had AKJxx♥, and a few other high cards. so when he led diamonds, I duly gave him spade ruffs.

So, uh, you had 6 spades, and dummy had 7 spades, and therefore you "gave" partner a spade ruff? Am I reading this correctly?

[Dirk Kuijt]

[hv=d=e&v=n&s=shakq10xxxdakjxxcx]133|100|Scoring: MP

East opens 3♥! I couldn't think of anything intelligent to do, so I passed. We beat it 7 tricks, for +350 (declarer dropped a trick, not that it mattered). East intended to open 3♠, and was happy enough with -350. However, North had ♦Q10xx and ♣A, and everyone else North/South was in at least 5♥, going down. A cold top for us![/hv]

[W Kovacs]

So, uh, you had 6 spades, and dummy had 7 spades, and therefore you "gave" partner a spade ruff? Am I reading this correctly?

Perhaps I phrased this poorly. I led low spades, and partner ruffed high, while declarer had to discard.

 

I have one more memorable hand, not because of anything my partner or I did, but because the distribution was so wacky. this was neither a club nor tournament game, just 4 friends playing some bridge. Dealer picked up his hand, and thought, and thought and then thought some more. He finally said "I've no idea what to do here" and bid 4♥. Turns out he had and 8 card ♥ suit, 2 through the 9! He only had 2 HCP, but had to do something. Even worse, my partner and I had the five ♥ honors split between our hands, 3-2. I've never seen anything like that before.

[mikeh]

[hv=n=sq92hkj2da542cak8&w=s10xxhxxxdq10xxcqj10&e=sxxhq10xdkjxxxcxxx&s=sakjxxhaxxxdcxxxx]399|300|After an aggressive auction to 6♠ against silent opps, and the club Q lead....this was a Flt A KO final years ago...Grant Baze kibitzed the other table where a pro failed...he called it the 'hand of the tournament', gave it to a mutual friend, to whom I had already described my line of play (which had taken me some time to figure out) and my friend pretended not to have seen the hand and after 15 seconds for 'thought' rattled off the working line. We picked up 14 imps, but didn't need it...we won by 15.[/hv]

 

Another memorable hand also involved Baze...we started against him and client in a mp event...and the client bemoaned the fact that hand records resulted in weird deals...he was convinced that the ACBL removed bland hands...I said that the only 5=8 hand I'd ever held was hand dealt....5 spades and 8 hearts, and my RHO had opened a Flannery 2♦. He wasn't impressed, but I was struck by deja vu when the first board that round was Jxxxx KJxxxxxx void void.

 

Partner opened a minor, I bid 1♥ and partner jumped to 2♠! I bid a quiet 3♠ for want of any better idea and partner keycarded. Ok...all of you systems fanatics out there...do YOU have a response that shows no keycards and two voids?

 

I didn't either....I showed 0 keycards, partner tanked and bid 5♠ and I raised, causing a sh*tstorm of mutterings and hard looks from both opps...and me calling the director. One of the mutterings was 'You'd better have a void', to which I refrained from replying. I'd like to say that all ended well, but partner, with a close choice to make late in the play made a reasonable but, on the hand, incorrect choice and we were -1.

 

I apologize if I've posted these hands here before...I live a boring life so the few weird hands I've been involved in tend to stick in my mind.

[W Kovacs]

It's amazing how talking about these hands brings other memories to the forefront. This was another hand from those 4 friends sessions:

 

[hv=n=sxxhakq10xxxdakxxc&s=sakqjxxxhjxdqjcxx]133|200|The auction was quite contested...between partner and I. The ops stayed silent. Back and forth, partner and I argued over who's major deserved to be played. I bid 6♥ at one point, but partner raised to 6♠. Guessing that that showed the A♠, I raised to 7♥, thinking that ended the auction. Of course it didn't, so I sat fuming as partner started to play what I was certain was a contract that was going down. Turns out that playing in spades, we had 18 winners (dummy got to ruff the club lead) vs a mere 17 winners in hearts. [/hv]

[hanp]

I'm trying to come up with my favorite hands but I know I'll never beat the "you'd better have a void"!

[hanp]

It's amazing how talking about these hands brings other memories to the forefront. This was another hand from those 4 friends sessions:

 

[hv=n=sxxhakq10xxxdakxxc&s=sakqjxxxhjxdqjcxx]133|200|The auction was quite contested...between partner and I. The ops stayed silent. Back and forth, partner and I argued over who's major deserved to be played. I bid 6♥ at one point, but partner raised to 6♠. Guessing that that showed the A♠, I raised to 7♥, thinking that ended the auction. Of course it didn't, so I sat fuming as partner started to play what I was certain was a contract that was going down. Turns out that playing in spades, we had 18 winners (dummy got to ruff the club lead) vs a mere 17 winners in hearts. [/hv]

Sorry but if partner bids 7S over 7H and you have that dummy, you should be sure you are making.

[hotShot]

It was our Clubs team night and we (a team of beginners) had to play a guest team that had won the national championships some time ago. After 6 (embarrassing) of 8 boards I found a 6♠X sacrifice over their making 6♥ that I could make. The double slam swing gave us a draw .....

 

I had regular opening strength and 7♠ when the player in front of me opened a 2♠ weak 2. I passed, LHO passed and my partner bid 3♣, LHO looked relieved, I was frustrated and than opener raised his own preempt to 3♠. Now I could dbl for penalties it since opener has the trump ace he was down 8.

[babushkka]

[hv=d=e&v=n&n=sq974haq865dck874&w=st653htdakj42cjt3&e=sakj82h74dt98c952&s=shkj932dq7653caq6]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

My partner was someone whom I had never played with before. I was sitting south and bid 1H. The auction progresses

 

Pass 1H Pass 4D

4S 4NT 5S 6H

P P 6S (!) 7H(!!)

Pass Pass Pass

 

Auction leaves a bit to be deserved, but it was clearly a junior match. They both did well not to double, but there was a lot of cursing by LHO after the lead of Ad. After ruffing 4 diamonds and not having the Kd drop I had to resort to hoping for a 3-3 club split, and when that worked the slam came home. As cool as it is to bid a making grand on 23 HCP, I think what happened at the other table was even cooler.

 

Bidding

P-1D-1H(!!!) X

2H X 2S 4H

4S P P X

P P P

 

Minimeck was the one who psyched 1H. Not sure why he did, but it couldn't of possibly worked better. There are 4 tricks to be taken off the top, but a heart was led and returned. After finessing spades, then diamonds, they came up with 11 tricks. 4Sx+1=+690 7H= +2210 +2900 was good for 21 IMPs. Most IMPs I have ever got in one hand.

[jjbrr]

I was once playing against two world champions with my brother and reached a slightly aggressive 6♠ contract. On the actual hand, I can never make, except that RHO made a lightner double. His partner duly gave him his ruff, which rectified the count for me. I'll try to reproduce the hand, but I don't remember exactly.

 

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=skqxhaxxdktxcaxxx&s=sajxxxhjxdaxckjtx]133|200|Scoring: IMP

1S (p) 2C (2H)

3C (p) 3S (p)

4D (p) 4NT (p)

5H (p) 6S (dbl)

ap[/hv]

 

A low club was ruffed and the HK returned. I won A, pulled trumps, ran my clubs, ran the rest of my spades pitching H in dummy, and righty had the ♥KQ and the ♦QJ, which seems normal on the auction. On a ♥ lead i'm pretty sure i just have a natural ♥ loser and a ♣ loser, though i might be wrong.

 

The play wasn't interesting, but the fact that the auction, the double, the opening lead, and the play were VERY quick, which might give a hint who LHO was, it was all very interesting. good bridge all around?

 

Anyway, being a young, dumb kid and claiming a doubled slam against a couple of world champions is a good feeling. We won that KO match, despite this board being a push. LHO at the other table led a heart against 6S and didnt cover either the CJ or CT B)

[dkharty]

I was much younger and playing in possibly my first regional, with my similarly inexperienced partner. We were playing against two older guys who seemed pretty torqued even before the round began; this hand didn't help. LHO dealt and opened 2NT, which they were playing as something like 5-9 HCP with 5-5 minors. Partner passed, and RHO went into the tank for about two minutes before he raised to 3NT. My hand was AQJxxxx/xx/xx/xx. I passed, and resigned myself to pitching a whole bunch of spades. Partner made his lead without much thought, and dummy came down with a 23-point moose. Then, I realized that partner had led the spade 10...right through dummy's Kx. Twelve tricks were cold for them if played from the other side.

 

I was later told they scrapped the 2NT convention because of this hand.

[awm]

I don't actually remember the entire hand, but here's one of the most memorable things that happened to me at the bridge table. This was day two of the Reisinger.

 

RHO opened 1♠, I passed, LHO bid 1NT. This was alerted (my side of the screen with LHO) as forcing. When the board came back, both partner and RHO had passed. LHO was visibly upset by this state of affairs, and after recovering from his shock wrote "I guess only semi-forcing." I had a borderline 2♥ balance, but decided to pass based on LHO's tell.

 

Partner made his lead and the first trick was won in dummy. Dummy had a flat 12 count or so (normal pass of SF notrump) and at trick two declarer called for the ♦Q from dummy's ♦Qx. I made the natural cover with my ♦Kx, only to see the trick continue with small from LHO and ♦A from partner!

 

Yes, my LHO held eight diamonds. My cover of the diamond queen took the contract from "no play for 1NT" to "making with three overtricks." Our teammates were in some normal contract (3♦+1 or the like) so this action lost the board.

 

Every time I have to decide whether to cover an honor lead from dummy in a short suit, I remember this board. Nonetheless, I always cover Q from Qx with the king...

[gnasher]

Dealer: ????? Vul: ???? Scoring: Unknown

♠ Q92 ♥ KJ2 ♦ A542 ♣ AK8 ♠ 10xx ♥ xxx ♦ Q10xx ♣ QJ10 ♠ xx ♥ Q10x ♦ KJxxx ♣ xxx ♠ AKJxx ♥ Axxx ♦ [space] ♣ xxxx

After an aggressive auction to 6♠ against silent opps, and the club Q lead....this was a Flt A KO final years ago...Grant Baze kibitzed the other table where a pro failed...he called it the 'hand of the tournament', gave it to a mutual friend, to whom I had already described my line of play (which had taken me some time to figure out) and my friend pretended not to have seen the hand and after 15 seconds for 'thought' rattled off the working line. We picked up 14 imps, but didn't need it...we won by 15.

Win, ruff a diamond high, and play a heart to the jack. If that loses, ruff two more diamonds in hand, using a trump finesse to provide the extra entry. Eventually draw trumps in dummy, and make whenever either round suit breaks 3-3 or there's a squeeze.

 

If the heart holds, continue with the plan of ruffing diamonds, but don't take the trump finesse.

 

If I had played this line, RHO would have held 10xxx xxx xxx xxx.

[Cyberyeti]

Two favourites, one was the 24 IMP swing that got away.[hv=d=e&v=b&n=skh1092dq74cakj1053&w=sa42hkdaj865cq987&e=sqj10987653h3dk92c&s=shaqj87654d103c642]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

The auction went: 4♠-5♥-5♠-6♥-6♠-7♥-X

 

Now you might expect to beat this with 2 aces and the king of trumps, but after leading the A♠, declarer ruffed, cashed the A♥, played a club to the A revealing the position, so 2 trumps back to hand and 2 club finesses for +2470.

 

At the other table they played 6♠x, now had team mate made it this would have been +1660 and 24 IMPs. Unfortunately on a club lead he hooked the diamond rather than playing any of the endplay lines which work. So he put a vulnerable doubled slam on the floor and still gained 20 odd IMPs

 

The other I think I've posted before, but caused an otherwise rational bridge player to stand up on his chair in one of the biggest bridge clubs in the UK and bellow "Who perpetrated that obscenity on board 10".

 

This was many years ago before fit jumps really existed and I was just out of school. I went to the club on a different night to my usual, and assumed I was playing normal pairs.

 

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=saq6543h8da4cq1086&s=shaq103d109865caj97]133|200|[/hv]

 

The auction went 1♦-(1♥)-2♠-3♣-4♣-5♣-6♣-X and I redoubled thinking if I was going to get a silly score, I may as well get a memorably silly score. At this point I was informed that this was not a good idea at Butler pairs B)

 

Anyway, a spade was led I finessed the Q to the K and a ruff. I decided to have a faint chance, the K♣ was probably going to have to be stiff and I was still going to need a miracle. I played the A♥ and then the 10, LHO played low and I noticed something about the way he played the card that indicated he was having second thoughts. I pitched a diamond from dummy and it held. anyway I now cashed my 2 aces and crossruffed to score all my trumps separately, sure enough the K♣ was stiff and unable to ruff in profitably 12 tricks.

[gnasher]

I can only remember hands where I did something stupid. I still cringe at the thought of a hand I played against Robson a few years ago, where I ruined a perfectly good bulletin hand by forgetting how many spades they'd discarded.

[kfay]

In my two most memorable hands I was declarer and I went down both times in cold contracts....

:) :( :( :( :(

 

Actually I just remembered a 3rd hand where I made. So that's nice.

 

OH! And I've mentioned this before. Even though I don't remember this hand, I cried the first time I ever squeezed someone.

 

I'll post 1 or two of these hands on here eventually.

[1eyedjack]

I am no good at remembering hands long after the event. I did play one hand at the near-top table toward the end of the EBU summer congress teams, against Michelle Brunner. I had pre-empted in Spades and they ended up in a grand slam in clubs (duplicated in the other room). The auction suggested that LHO had the Ace of Hearts so I led ♥x from ♥Kx doubleton. Without that lead she had a chance to test the Diamonds which, had they behaved, would have avoided the need for Heart finesse. Well, Diamonds did not behave (it needed partner to have Jxxxx for them not to), but Michelle took the trick 1 finesse anyway. Spade lead at the other table flattened the hand. It was written up in the bulletin later, but my partner was credited with the opening lead. Ah, well.

 

I did rather like a hand playing in a university congress when I had a 3-5-1-4 shape and opened 1H. Partner had a 7-2-2-2 shape 11 count and responded 1S. The only problem was that we were playing Kaplan Inversion and partner had fogotten. I rebid 2C and partner remembered that 1N initial response would have been correct. How to recover? No amount of bidding Spades was going to show a length that was denied by the first response, so next best thing was 2N (well it had no singletons). Having extras I decided to pattern out on the way to 3N in case partner had a 4 card Spade suit, and a relieved partner raised 3S to 4S. Person on lead with xx of Spades thought that a trump lead was indicated by the auction, I was missing the King and decided that opening leader probably didn't have it, rose with the Ace in dummy and crashed the stiff King that I would normally have lost on a finesse.

 

One of the first hands that I played in a local club after moving to the area, I opened 1N (12-14). Next hand doubled for penalties, and partner redoubled for penalties. There was a stony silence for about a minute before the next call, which I later found out was them waiting patiently for me to alert the redouble. Apparently but no-body plays penalty redoubles in that club. Anyway, after a minute RHO shrugs and passes, as do I. When the dust clears we write up plus 1610 while opponents launch into the usual club-level verbal attack on each other. Much later I realised that I had miss-scored it. It should have been plus 1910. Oh, well, it was Matchpoints.

[y66]

The first time I dropped an offside singleton king based on counting the hand. That was a thrill.

[Fluffy]

we need gwnn for the old thread, someone had his 6-8 year old daughter make 5 clubs doubled on a 4-2 fit when she had no idea what this game was about.

[gnasher]

The first time I dropped an offside singleton king based on counting the hand. That was a thrill.

The first time I did that, I'd already gone down by misguessing trumps, so all I did was save an undertrick. That didn't stop my partner (who happened to be a bridge journalist) writing an article about it. By the time it made it into print, my line in trumps had mysteriously changed.

[peachy]

My most memorable hands are two were I got a compliment from a "real bridgegod", once for making a difficult 3H by careful counting and play, and once for stopping an overtrick in opponents' 6NT again by counting and correct discarding. Can't remember the hands, but I remember the place, the partners, the opponents, the lighting, the room, what I was wearing, and all irrelevant stuff... The "gods" were Hugh Ross/Grant Baze in the 3H and Meckwell in 6NT.

[Bbradley62]

Playing in Open Pairs at the 1985 Montreal NABC, my partner, the proud holder of 4 master points, had just been lectured about explaining what alertable bids mean rather than simply naming the convention. We arrived at the table of the top-seeded pair (which I do not explain to him). During the second auction, RHO asks pard what my alerted 2NT bid was and pard says "that's Bergen 2NT; it shows" but RHO interrupts with "that's okay, I know what it shows". We happily bid and made our 21HCP game, making use of our then-new tool. I dawdled so that pard could leave the table first, then turned to RHO and said "Your column is the first thing we read every month in The Bulletin , and we incorporate everything we can into our system. Thank you for writing it."

[Phil]

I have so many....but I'll focus on a few psyches I've made over the years. I know I've written about many over the years, and I'm sorry if these are repeats:

 

Reno, '85 (Holiday regional). Playing in the finals of the Flight C KO's (before bracketed), I pick up in 3rd seat xxx AQx xxx xxxx and open 1♥. Opponents get to 4♠ which we beat with a heart ruff through dummy's KJxx. 3N is also cold. I made my LM in this event. My partner in that event Dudley Hemphill died 14 months later of stomach cancer at age 40. :)

 

-------------------

 

Irvine '05 (or so). I'm playing on Gene Simpson's team in a KO and our first draw (a very famous pro from Las Vegas). I pick up a non-descript 3343 6 count and pass as dealer. Pass by The Pro, 2♥ by pard (Peter Benjamin I think), double on right. So I try 2♠. DOUBLE by the Pro, pass, pass, 3♥, FOUR SPADES slap. He hooks pard out of the ♠Qx for an overtrick and chortles to his partner, "He must think he's playing with children".

 

So at halftime we are up by about 25 and The Pro decides he's going to sit in MY chair against Gene at the other table. In the 2nd half, Gene makes the identical psyche but this time they get screwed out of their fit. LOL.

 

------------------

 

Palm Springs last December. Muddling our way through a Stratified pairs at around 50%, my partner - a very sweet gal formerly from Louisiana opens 2♦ w/w, double on my right. I've got a crappy xxxxx♦332 with ♥Kx (and 500 looms in 5♦) so I try 2♥.

 

My LHO (who I simply loathe) turns to my partner and grunts, "whats that". She smiles and says "Its NATCH-OO-ROLL". So he puts down the 4♠ card and they make 5. Just as dummy is tabling five hearts, he turns to me and asked "Was the explanation correct, and I just smile and say 'yes'"

 

The field is in 4♥ which is an easy 480.

[jdonn]

Favorite online hand (recently discussed on forums) I picked up xx JT9xxxxx x xx and out of boredom opened a precision 2♦, 10-15 3 suited short diamonds. We managed this auction:

2♦ - 2NT (asking)

3♣ (10-12) - 3♦ (asking)

3♠ (3415) - 4♥ (keycard for clubs)

yay!

 

Favorite live bridge hand (years ago discussed on forums, I think) I picked up - AKxxxxx AKT98x - in some national pairs in Philly, playing precision. I opened 1♥, it went X 1♠ P back to me. 3♦ shows a maximum hand but is non-forcing so I tried to keep the auction open with 2♦. It went 3♣ P 3♠ back to me. Having got my suits in I cuebid 4♣ and it went P 5♦ P back to me. I bid 7♦, doubled for good measure. Partner Kevin Bathurst had Jxxxx x Jxxx QTx and I give him all the credit in the world for jumping to 5♦ on his awful hand, something few bridge players in the world would have had the awareness to do. Not to toot my own horn but I loved how I bid the hand too, to give partner a chance to actually evaluate his hand.

 

Favorite psych (well other than the first hand), I guess it wasn't much of one but I loved the teamwork. I was playing with Justin online, I can't remember all the details but I made a totally random double of an artificial 3♦ bid with a singleton. LHO ended in 4♥ and Justin led the queen of diamonds from KQJxxx having never bid the suit. Declarer made a normal looking duck with Axxx in dummy and xx in his hand to cut communications, and got his ace ruffed out on the next round to go down.