The Hangmen Cometh

None Vul
MPs
Dealer: West
Lead: 6

	classact 8 6 3 A 2 Q 9 5 2 A Q 8 6
petit_g K J 9 7 2 K 9 7 10 8 4 K 5		Maestro 4 10 8 5 3 A J 7 6 3 J 10 2
	a-yummy A Q 10 5 Q J 6 4 K 9 7 4 3

West Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass Pass

North 1 Pass Pass Pass Dbl

East Pass 1NT 2 3 Pass

South 1 Dbl Pass Pass Pass

 

Today we have the remarkable spectacle of a balancer being hanged by his partner and hanging him in return. And this is just the beginning.

The auction cannot be faulted through Mini-Gee’s 1S overcall. Gee’s 1NT, though brave, shows, to most, something other than a six count and a stiff in the suit of his passed-hand partner.

The double scuttles what is left of Gee’s courage, as the words “Bones Principle”* thunder through his mind like a herd of charging elephants across the Serengeti. He pulls to 2D.

Over this Mini-Gee, with three cards in both reds, finds the imaginative bid of 2H, pulling to the suit his partner didn’t bid. Your basic expert would be ecstatic to find a 4-4 heart fit to play at the two level; not Gee. He persists with 3D, off 3 doubled for 500 and a stone matchpoint zero.

What possessed Mini-Gee to bid 2H with K97 remains a mystery. Perhaps they play transfers here — an unusual treatment, considering that the opponents have already bid two suits, including hearts, but one never knows. And although to the STCP™ it looks like Mini-Gee could have a stiff or void in diamonds, Gee divines Mini’s error (table feel!) and pulls to the superior 3D contract. What looks like luck is in fact a calculated risk by an expert to improve the contract.

Three brilliant bids in sequence, poor Gee still nets a bottom. Some days it just doesn’t pay a guy to get out of bed.

*Although the Bones Principle did not come directly into play, its specter was enough to affect the hand. Hence, a logo.