Bridge in the Tri-Cities: 3NT Ends All Auctions

Opening Lead: Nine of clubs

Grant Baze, a professional bridge player, issued a paper in the 1980s. It became a collector’s item. Among other things, he said: “With 6/5, come alive. The five level belongs to the opponents. And 3NT ends all auctions.”

Now, here we are in 2016 and we still can’t get it right! I arrived at the table late because of problems starting the game. I picked up the west hand and could hardly believe my eyes. I had 24 points! The strangest thing you could imagine now happened. South opened the bidding!

The Bidding: I doubled showing either an opening hand with support for all unbid suits or a huge hand of some kind. Unfortunately, partner was forced to bid and bid his 7-card diamond suit at the lowest level possible. I closed out the auction with 3NT and partner’s 4D bid was a stab right in the middle of my heart. I wished at that moment that I could have used the squirt gun I talked about in an earlier article. I probably should have tried 4S, but I hoped to play it in 4NT. It was not to be!.

The Play: 5D had no chance and declarer ended down 2. Perfect defense could have set it three.

What Happened: Two pairs played in 3NT and made it exactly. Another pair bid 6NT and got a worse score than us. I would like to have watched the auction at that table!

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Bridge in the Tri-Cities: 3NT Ends All Auctions."