The “Really Big Hand”

A few nights ago I had a great time on BBO with my mother and two of her students.  Mum and I have often played in a private room against robots so I’m familiar with the set-up but I have to admit I was pretty nervous playing against real people for the first time.  I was introduced right away to Brian and Mary-Lou and they seemed very welcoming and I instantly felt better when Brian admitted he was a bit rusty and my mother told them both I was a beginner.  I have had more experience at this point playing hands than bidding, since I’ve been working my way through Bridge Master and reading a lot on play of the hand (not always stuff that I understand but I think some of it sinks in occasionally).  When it came to bidding, since the lessons have not taken me as far as NT bidding, I was allowed to ask questions (it was, after all, a teaching room).   However, I found that with Barbara Seagram’s Pocket Guide in hand, I was able to quickly look up my hand type and make decisions based on the book’s suggestions.  Was this the best thing to do?  Most of the questions I asked were about my partner’s bid.  I felt confident bidding my own hand, not necessarily understanding the reasons behind it.  Perhaps occasionally this led me astray, judge for yourselves.  For example, I was delighted to pick up this 22-count sitting West:

♠A K 8 ♥ A 7 ♦ A 9 2 ♣ A Q 6 3 2

Immediate excitement (I had four aces!) made me grab the book and open to the “really big hands” page.  In retrospect, perhaps this wasn’t a “really big hand” rather just a big hand, but I was too excited to open something I had never used before, Strong 2♣. Besides, my hand was balanced and met the requirements, “balanced hands too strong to open 2NT start with 2♣, then rebid notrump.”  That’s just what I did:

I was very excited at the prospect of playing out my hand.  North led the ♥3 and down went the dummy:

♠10 6 4 2 ♥ Q 10 5 4 2 ♦ Q 8 6 ♣ 4

Now I had a problem: I could only count five sure winners and with one club in dummy, I had little or no access to my longest suit.  Now my beginner-ness will start to show through (I’m sure a more experienced player would have no problems with this hand?).  I won the heart lead with my ace and was able to get back to dummy (somehow?) by playing a heart to the queen.  My plan was to finesse the ♣K, so I (probably foolishly) played the ♣4 to my ♣Q.  No such luck, South showed the 10 and North won with the king.  Now I had lost control and had no entry to clubs from dummy.  After winning two rounds of hearts, North returned a spade and I was back in the game.  But I had already lost three tricks and had three aces but not much else.  I tried the diamond finesse, again, no such luck and now South was in control.  By this point I didn’t know what had been played of the remaining suits and after winning my three aces, I led a diamond.  Bad move.  In the end I was down three tricks.  So much for my “really big hand.”  This was the full layout:

Dealer: W Vul: Both		North
		♠	Q 3
		♥	K 8 6 3
		♦	J 7 5 4
		♣	K J 7
West				East
♠	A K 8			♠	10 6 4 2
♥	A 7			♥	Q 10 5 4 2
♦	A 9 2			♦	Q 8 6
♣	A Q 6 3 2			♣	4
		South
		♠	J 9 7 5
		♥	J 9
		♦	K 10 3
		♣	10 9 8 5

Perhaps if I had know more about bidding I could have come to some other contract?  Looking at the results from other tables, it seems that everyone in 3NT was down three, sometimes four, tricks.  That makes me feel a lot better.  Even suit contracts went down, come to think of it.  No one made their contract.  Maybe it wasn’t a “really big hand.”  Maybe it was a “really bad hand!”