Amusing auctions

[cherdano]

We had this auction at the table the other day:

[hv=d=e&v=0&b=14&a=ppp1ddp1n]133|100[/hv]

What is so amusing about this auction? EW were playing mini-1NT (10-12) in both 1st and 3rd seat. I.e., the waiter could come in and double...

(We dropped a trick and only got 100.)

 

Other stories to share?

[manudude03]

[hv=d=n&v=e&b=9&a=1h2h(michaels)p2spp3dpp3spp4dpp4sppp]199|150[/hv]

 

One time when playing in the Junior Camrose (U25 home international series), I had the above auction. I was scratching my head when I saw the 4S bid wondering what was going on. My screenmate says something like "This auction is even worse than the Peggy Bayer", then turns around to the Peggy Bayer (U20s) table behind him and says, "No offense guys". Naturally it was cold.

[Cyberyeti]

Husband and wife bid unopposed 1♦-1♥-2♦-2♥-3♦-3♥-4♦-P

 

My favourite was with the hand void, Ax, x, AKJ10xxxxxx I passed to get more info, 4♠-P-P- so I came out the woodwork with 6♣. This made but we lost imps because it was doubled at the other table.

 

We also had an unopposed auction with 4 consecutive stop bids, 2♣-3♦-4♠-7N

[nige1]

A long time ago, in a Gold Cup match

Pass 1♦ 3♣ 4♠

6♥ All pass

 

Michael Rosenberg had passed as dealer with ten solid ♥s :) Anticlimax: 6♥ was one down :(

[Phil]

A long time ago, in a Gold Cup match

Pass 1♦ 3♣ 4♠

6♥ All pass

 

Michael Rosenberg had passed as dealer with ten solid ♥s :) Anticlimax: 6♥ was one down :(

 

Feels like I've posted these hands before, anyway...

 

During LA Bridge Week when Reagan was President we draw Weichsel and Lawrence after we LOSE our first match. On the 1st board partner thinks that his 4♦ Namyats opening shows hearts, and we sort things out on the 6 level, -500.

 

On the 2nd board, we are w/r and I pick up 8 solid spades, and there is no way we are having another Namyats accident so I obviously pass. Opps have a smooth auction to 7♦ as I continue to slow play. They used a treatment I had never seen before and I have never seen since - 5♥ was GSF kickback. Anyway, there is NO WAY this grand isn't stoney so I dive. Another -500 WD us. We won 4 - auction at other table was 4♠ - 5♦ - AP, +640. That was our only gain in this match.

[Phil]

I pick up a 1=3=4=5 21 count and open 1♣, 1♠ on my left, pass, pass, x and partner bids 2♥. I make the obligatory cue and play it there opposite something like JT9xxxx xxx x xx. He didn't want to defend 1♠ with this trump holding. I score up +170 - the defense only took their top trump.

 

With this same partner a few years later I pick up a big 4=4=4=1 and open 1♦, and he responds 1♥ so I splinter. He signs off in 4♥ and I can tell he is struggling in the play as he only has three hearts and we were -200. His pattern was 1=3=1=8; 4♣ is cold and 5♣ has a decent play, so he could have added to my bucket list and passed a splinter!

[shyams]

This one is from when I was a relative beginner to tournament bridge, but was playing with a regular partner with whom I had practiced our bidding sufficiently to be competent. But I was unprepared for a hand like this: ♠xx ♥AKQJ109xxx ♦-- ♣Kx.

 

• Partner opened the bidding with a Precision 1♣. I responded 1♥! (natural and GF).
  
• Partner now bid 1♠ and I was already in uncharted territory. I couldn't think of a logical way to convince my partner that I had a self-sustaining heart suit.
  
• So I took a wild & stupid leap to 4NT (RKCB), partner replied with 2 key cards so I jumped to 6♥. Partner smoothly "corrected" to 6♠ so I "re-corrected" to 6NT.
  
• It was MPs and every trick mattered. West appears worried by the bidding, so he asks for clarification.
  --- Partner confirms 4NT is key-card, not plain, Blackwood and I confirm he showed 2 keys.
  --- West asks me "RKC in which suit?" and I say "Spades, the last bid suit". That was indeed our agreement.
  
• West thinks for a while, then puts his lead face down and (before partner can face dummy) asks him "Is your understanding the same as your partner? Was spades meant to be the key suit?" Partner says "Yes".
  
• So west faces the opening lead of ♣A. It is the only lead by West that allows me to make 12 tricks in NT --- partner had a heart void!

[barmar]

Partner now bid 1♠ and I was already in uncharted territory. I couldn't think of a logical way to convince my partner that I had a self-sustaining heart suit.

I guess it would take a little more experience before you learned that if you just keep bidding hearts he'll eventually get the idea? :)

[shyams]

I guess it would take a little more experience before you learned that if you just keep bidding hearts he'll eventually get the idea? :)

I'm certain this partner and I have perpetrated an auction like the one below:

[hv=d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1hp1sp2hp3sp4hp4sdp(slams%20the%20pass%20card%20with%20some%20force!)pp]133|100[/hv]

[Finch]

Quite recently we had the uncontested auction

 

1S 2H

2S 3H

3S 4C (ruining the fun)

4S 5H

6H

 

2S, 3S and 4S were all artificial

[jogs]

I once held 21 HCP flat when partner opened 1C precision.

1♣ - 1NT

 

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

 

I was on the losing end the most amusing auction.

 

I had ♣ Jx and a flat hand. Opened 1NT.

 

1NT - (X) - XX - all pass

 

X was long suit. XX was big hand.

 

Only pard had a void in clubs. LHO lead fourth best from ♣ AQxxxxxxx.

I pitched something. RHO had ♣ Kx. They ran the first 9 clubs.

We could make slam in spades, hearts or diamonds.

[ggwhiz]

Finals of a midnight ko many years ago I opened 2♥ white on red in first chair - p - p - 2♠

 

Passed to my partner, 3♥, passed around to my lho, 3♠

 

4♥ by partner, 4♠ and then one level at a time, my partner bid 1 more heart, one of them one more spade all the way to 7♠ making. And the kibitzers went wild!!

 

Yes Mr. Ripley, it's true.

[gordontd]

We also had an unopposed auction with 4 consecutive stop bids, 2♣-3♦-4♠-7N

I once saw the Blue Club auction 2♣-3♦-7N claimed at trick one.

[Fluffy]

I pick up a 1=3=4=5 21 count and open 1♣, 1♠ on my left, pass, pass, x and partner bids 2♥. I make the obligatory cue and play it there opposite something like JT9xxxx xxx x xx. He didn't want to defend 1♠ with this trump holding. I score up +170 - the defense only took their top trump.

 

I also think all my stories have been shared before...

 

European Junior championships (U25)

 

1♦-pass-pass-X

pass-2♦-pass-3NT

 

When dummy comes down declarer congratulates dummy with "I knew you had real diamonds!"

 

+490 still lost a lot against 1400 in 1♦X at the other table.

 

 

The auction 1♣-2♣-3♣-4♣-5♣-6♣-7♣ was a real auction in an international match (U25), bid by an italian pair. Only 1♣ (strong) and 2♣ (controls) were artificial, 5♣ was explained as "to have fun".

 

 

Another auction I saw on BBO:

 

1♠-2♦

2♥-2NT

3♣-3♦

4♦

 

its one of the very few auctions where 1 player can bid the 4 suits naturally.

[ggwhiz]

I definitely posted this one before from a club game I directed.

 

A Canadian junior champ was playing a fun game with 82 year old Mort, both real characters. First chair red on white he picked up....

 

void

Jx

x

JTxxxxxxxx

 

and caught Mort with

 

KQx

AKQx

Axxx

AK

 

Everyone in the room made 13 tricks in whatever, including notrump when the clubs split and the leader had ♦QJT9 and no reason to lead anything else.

 

My guy psyched 2nt to see if he could pass stayman and ole Mort added 20 to his 25 and bid 7nt, putting the ♠A on lead.

[antonylee]

I once saw the Blue Club auction 2♣-3♦-7N claimed at trick one.

Real auction from the day I bought Bill Jacobs' Fantunes book: 1♦-7N. (Responder had 23 and knew that I certainly had my 14HCP and was not fooling around, as it was the first time we were playing this system!) Claimed approximately 16 tricks, of course.

[Jinksy]

One of my favourites of ours:

 

2N 3N

4D 4N

5N 6H

 

6H was =, and the only natural bid in the auction :)

[antonylee]

Also, a 5-imp pickup in a match we won by 2... With a just below opening 1255 opposite an opening 5521, the other table bid (unopposed) P-1S-2D-2H-3C-3H AP down 1. I opened 2N (55 minors preempt) and partner had the good idea to pass. Making!

[Kaitlyn S]

We were playing against a pair that if you didn't get 10 on a 12 top, you were losing points to the field. Partner opened 1nt, I bid 2H natural. LHO assumed I had a transfer and doubled with 20 HCP and five hearts. RHO assumed a takeout double and bid 2S with 0 HCP and six spades. We can make 2H despite the 5-0 break and their +110 in 2S was the only plus score in their direction.

[piratepete]

I once had the auction:

3♦-(4♦)-5♦-(6♦); end

 

3♦ was a pre-empt in either major, and 5♦ was a barrage.

 

The 6♦ bidder had the best diamond suit, and it was a reasonable guess, but didn't make.

[mycroft]

I have posted this before, but two months into my tournament bridge career, the (actually) LOLs against us bid, unopposed and unAlerted:

 

1♦-2♦

3♦-4♦

5♦-6♦

 

Cold, of course.

 

I'm sure I've had amusing auctions; I hope none have been this bad.

[Fluffy]

I have posted this before, but two months into my tournament bridge career, the (actually) LOLs against us bid, unopposed and unAlerted:

 

1♦-2♦

3♦-4♦

5♦-6♦

 

Cold, of course.

 

I'm sure I've had amusing auctions; I hope none have been this bad.

 

I had one similar!, I open 2♥ weak and then the bidding procceds, with us silent, and long hessitations all over the way:

 

X-2♠

4♠-6♠

7♠-pass

 

Which was makeable, and not really complciated, but they went down.

[manudude03]

Just remembered one from my school days. Both sides playing natural stuff.

 

1C-(1D)-1H-(1S)

1NT-(2C)-AP

[antonylee]

I remember something like...

 

1♣-(P)-1♦-(P)

1N-(P) and as I push the tray (that was with screens) I think, yet another MP partscore...

... -P-(2♣[T/O])

X[don't lead a club]-(P)-P-(XX)

P-(2♦[you pick])-X-(XX)

P-(2♥)-P-(P)

X-(AP)

 

down a few, I think.

[Zelandakh]

Just remembered one from my school days. Both sides playing natural stuff.

 

1C-(1D)-1H-(1S)

1NT-(2C)-AP

A perfectly normal auction in my strong club system is:

 

1♣ = 15+ bal/nat or 18+ any

... - 1♦ = any non-GF

1♥ = 18-20 any or 23+ bal

... - 1♠ = relay

1NT = 18-20 bal

... - 2♣ = Puppet Stayman

2♦ = no 5 card major

... - 2♥ = asks about spades and strength

2♠ = 4 spades

... - 2NT = nat invite

 

On early auctions, I can remember from university-time an awful lot of the type...

1♥ - (1♠) - 2♥ - (2♠); 3♥ - (3♠) - 4♥ - (4♠); 5♥ - (5♠) - X

 

And my first trip to an Aberdeen bridge club included the gem:

 

2♦ = Acol 2 in any suit or strong 3-suiter or very big balanced

... - 2♠ = any GF

2NT = strong 3-suiter

... - 3♣ = relay

3♥ = short hearts (yes the suit under is better but we were playing the simple systems version)

... - 7♦

 

After explanations, the thoroughly bewildered lady to my right led face up. Sadly she had forgotten the artificial opening so it was an OLOOT. I chose to spread my hand and the lead solved partner's only real issue for a 13th trick. Easy game! B-)