WEIRDI

When I lived in North Carolina, the bridge crew I played with had an expression -- WEIRDI. It is an acronym we made up: WhatEver Is Right, Do It. What that means is, don't just follow rules -- do what seems right, take a chance, back your judgment.

I played online last week with Xwing and she held this hand:
♠ A K Q 6 4 2 ♥8 5 4 3 2 ♦A 8 ♣ ---.

She opened 1♠, left-hand opponent bid 2♣, her partner (MOJO) made a negative double and RHO raised to 3♣. Xwing jumped to 4♥, but the fireworks were just beginning. I cuebid 5♣ and her RHO raised my cuebid to 6♣.

What now? Xwing must have reasoned that I didn't have values in clubs or spades, so must have pretty good red suits. Holding ♥K Q J x and ♦K Q x x x would only be 11 high-card points, yet I was trying for slam. She reasoned, therefore, I must have pretty good hearts and something else, so she bid 6♥, ending the auction.

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

West led the ♣A. Xwing ruffed and took stock. She could see there was nothing to spare in the dummy. Yet, slam is a reaonable contract. There is a sure diamond loser, however, so Xwing saw she needed to bring in the trump suit, and then be able to set up the spades or diamonds.

Trumps: What's the bridge adage? Eight ever, nine never? On a deal such as this one, that old chestnut is for non-thinking players. When in doubt, WEIRDI!

Xwing lead the ♥3 to the ace. She then led a spade to the ace and cashed the king, trying to get more information. On the second spade, West played the ♠J. Xwing was at the crossroads.

Xwing led a heart and applied the WEIRDI principle by playing the ♥10 as East showed out! It was easy now to draw the last trump and set up spades for 12 tricks.

Here are all four hands:

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

What do you think of East's 3♣ bid? Perhaps he was afraid of pushing us into game by bidding 4♣ (or 5♣ for that matter).

Making the slam was worth 12.46 IMPs. Eight pairs bid 6♥ and made it, two of them doubled. You can see all the results if you click here.

Here is the deal repeated with BBO's Handviewer. It looks nice, but the big advantage on many deals is that you can click on "next" to see the play on a trick-by-trick basis:



Do you like the classic view or the Handviewer presentation? Leave a comment if you prefer one over the other