Bridge has bad beats, too

Poker players are notorious for complaining about bad beats. A bad beat is when a hand that is a heavy favorite loses when another player hits a miracle card. Nobody wants to hear about another player's bad beat hands, but that doesn't stop players from whining about them.

Guess what? Bad beats happen in bridge, too.

Last week, Kate and I were playing online bridge at OKbridge and bid to 6♣ on this deal (rotated):

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

If clubs split 2-1, the contract is cold, (unless there's a weird ruff on opening lead, and then you still might make). Clubs will divide 3-0 22% of the time, but you can handle three in the West hand. East will have all three clubs 11% of the time. If he does, however, you still make when the spade finesse works (slightly more than 50% because you can cash one high honor and pick up a singleton queen).

If I'm doing the math right, 6♣ is about a 94.5% contract.

Here are all four hands:

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

We lost 7.29 IMPs for minus 100 instead of picking up a big swing if the slam had made.

One pair made 6♣. I checked the hand record. When declarer led a spade to the 10, East ducked (I can only imagine it was a misclick.)

You can see all the results here.