Frank Morgan

My mom and I just had a great time on the first ACBL Regional at Sea, an Alaskan cruise with the inimical Billy Miller. My mom won enough gold points to become a Life Master. In that fateful session Thursday afternoon, July 18, 2013, as West she played one hand at 3N which should only make 2N and she somehow made 5N:

Below is a hand we played at Swiss teams. As North, my mom opened 1D with 19 points. I responded 3N, and she raised to 6N. West led the C2, presumably from four, and it looked like we needed the Diamond finesse, a Diamond break, and the Spade or Heart finesse. At the other table, they reached 6D, which only requires the Diamond break and one finesse, because they can ruff a Club or Heart. They started with Diamonds, misguessed which way to finesse, logically tried another finesse in the same direction, and went down.

North
AJx
AJ
KTxx
AQ64

West                      East
xxx                         Qxxx
xxxx                       Qxxx
xx                           Q98
J932                      T8

South
KTx
KTx
AJxx
K75

In Notrump, I could afford to delay the crucial Diamonds and guarantee the other finesse by winning the first Club and ducking the second to East. She seemed so pained that I realized she must have all three queens. She finally led a Heart, which I won with the J. Then when I played two more Clubs, she painfully discarded the S2 and the D8. When I played the DK, she dropped the T, and when I led a second Diamond her Q appeared and the contract came home.

I played one session with Billy Miller. He told stories of leading out his 6-card Club suit in a 3N contract and then leading out five more from his played tricks, including the A for the third time, and of passing a card to Declarer under the table. Here are the main lessons I learned from him:

1. In a 2/1 game-force auction, forget fast arrival and bid out your hand. In our case 3N would have been better than our 5-3 Heart fit.

2. On defense, save your winners.

3. Don’t automatically raise partner’s 1H or 1S to 3 with no points and four pieces in competition, certainly not 4-3-3-3 at unfavorable vulnerability.

4. Third best initial leads (5th from five) are much better than fourth best against a suit contract.

5. Lead the unbid suit.

6. A jump cue shows 7-9 points and four-card support.

7. The Rule of 2-3-4. Depending on vulnerability, preempt should be 2, 3, or 4 more tricks than you can win in your hand.

8. Elwell Double. 1N-P-3N-Double calls for a Heart lead.

9. Use some variety in calling cards from dummy, not just, “Play, play, play.” This Billy illustrated by drawing on the whiteboard a cartoon of a bridgeplayer wearing a dunce cap saying, “Play.”

10. Hold your cards vertically, two longest suits on the outside, smallest cards on the outside.