Hall of Shame #1

Most sports have their Hall of Fame. Bridge is so complicated (thus so easy to screw up), that I'm proposing a Hall of Shame. Not just any bad bid, however, can make the Hall. You have to really mess up even to be considered. After all, we have to have some standards, don't we?

This deal is from the Sunday night (5:30 p.m. Pacific) ACBL mini-tournament on OKbridge. The following shows how my opponents bid against me (hands rotated):

                 ♠ K 5 4
                 ♥ A K 4 3
                 ♦ A J
                 ♣ Q 10 6 5
♠ 9 8 2                        ♠ Q 3
♥ Q J 8 7 5                    ♥ 10 9 6 2
♦ 9 6 3 2                      ♦ 10 8 7 5
♣ 8                            ♣ K 3 2
                ♠ A J 10 7 6
                ♥ ---
                ♦ K Q 4
                ♣ A J 9 7 4

       North      South
                  1♠
       2♣        3♣
       3♠        4NT
       5♦        5NT
       6♦        6♠
       Pass

I turned up my nose at the auction. Normally, you shouldn't bid 4NT with a void, but at least this North-South pair were in the ballpark. Conclusion: Not a Hall of Shame nomination.

Result: Declarer won the heart lead, played the ♠ K and another, drew the last trump and returned to dummy and finessed in clubs -- making seven was plus 1.14 IMPs.

Two pairs conducted the following auction. Is it worthy of Hall of Shame consideration? You be the judge.

        North        South
                     1♠
        2♣          6♣
        7NT          Pass

Drugs make you do crazy things like bid 6♣. Let's assume, therefore, both who found that bid were high on crack (that's giving them the benefit of the doubt). The two Norths must take some blame too. They surely should have taken into account that their partner was either high or had lost his mind. Pass is the righteous bid here -- you can't lose the postmortem.

Result: Justice was served when declarer (at both tables) guessed spades wrong and went set one for minus 15.89 IMPs.

Here's another auction for Hall of Shame consideration:

        North        South
                     1♣
        3NT          Pass

The Hideous Hog is alive and well as North. Why not bid your major? What's the rush to grab the control as declarer in 3NT?

Result: Declarer missguessed spades and made six. He also was minus 10.81 IMPs. The field was in slam.

One more auction:

        North        South
                     1♠
        2♥          3♣
        3NT          4♣
        4♠          Pass

Now this one is my nomination for induction. Not raising your partner is the cardinal sin. North is probably a meth addict had support for both of South's suits, but couldn't be bothered to show it. When he finally bid 4♠, it sounded like a preference and poor South had little chance to know he could safely bid on.

Result: 4♠ made seven and this was minus 10.73 IMPs.

You can look and see if there are other auctions that you think are worthy of Hall of Shame consideration by clicking here.