Your name is Bond; James Bond. On a special assignment under Her Majesty’s Secret Service you find yourself in Las Vegas, invited to a bridge game for very high stakes ($100 a point). On the most crucial deal, as South you pick up:
What is your opening bid?
You have a strong hand, but it is quite short of a 2 bid, so just start with one of your longest suit. Your opponents pass throughout, but you can tell they are just itching to set whatever you bid. Partner responds 1 .
What is your rebid?
It is unnecessary to crowd the bidding with a jump. This is a reverse bid and forces partner to bid again. Surprisingly, partner next jumps to 4 !
What do you bid now?
Partner’s jump makes a slam very likely, so with every suit controlled you should use Blackwood. Partner answers 5 .
What next?
You might as well ask for kings (which also guarantees all the aces) as partner’s hand is unlimited and there could be a grand slam. Partner answers 6 .
Now what?
Stop the presses! Partner next bids 7 ! (You will later discover you actually have three opponents and they intend to split the money you lose.) So there you are, needing all the tricks for a cool $144,000.
West leads the 10, and partner puts down nothing to justify such a brash bid.
East plays the Q and you win the ace (good play).
How many top tricks do you count?
How many extra tricks can you gain by ruffing spades?
If you ruff three spades, you will not gain three tricks since the first ruff comes in the hand with longer trumps. Each subsequent ruff will gain a trick, which brings you up to 12 tricks.
Which suit do you hope will provide the 13th?
Which card do you lead first?
It would be wrong to draw trumps first because you need that suit for entries.
After taking the A, which suit will you lead next?
Which diam. do you ruff with?
All your trumps are equal, but it is important to ruff with an honor to save low trumps to reach dummy. You lead the 6 to dummy’s eight and East shows out, tossing a club.
Which suit next?
Of course! West’s trump length does not affect your plan since you can draw them all later.
Which diamond do you ruff with?
Instant replay! You next lead a heart to the ace, and this is what you see with dummy to lead:
Which suit do you lead?
And which card do you play from your hand?
Terrific! You can smell those big bucks already.
Which card do you lead next?
This puts you in dummy.
Which suit do you lead next?
And which suit next?
As you draw West’s last trump, East begins to squirm. He cannot keep both his heart stopper and the K, so you win them all. Wow!
The only thing that bothers you is wondering how you will get out of this game alive. But of course you will; otherwise they couldn’t make any more James Bond movies.
The enemy hands:
© 1998 Richard Pavlicek