The House of Horrors by Pietro Campanile
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The House ♠ 9532 ♥ 7653 of Horrors ♦ 5 By Pietro Campanile ♣ Q952 t is a dark, moonless night. You are ♠ AJ8 ♠ Q1074 hurriedly walking along in a deserted ♥A108 ♥KJ9 parking lot while the heavy rain beats ♦ AQ109 ♦ J8 down on the street like the rhythm of ♣K106 ♣A843 Ia crazy tip-tap dancer. You hear a noise behind you…you turn and you see some- ♠ K6 one running towards you. Where are the ♥ Q42 car keys? Too late! He quickly gets by you ♦ K76432 and shouts: “I don’t believe what you did ! I ♣ J7 just don’t believe it!” He leaves you there, I think it is time to bring some of these West North East South alone with your nightmare crowding your guys back down to earth with the rest of Forquet Becker Siniscalco Crawford mind again and again : the cards start us, don’t you? a macabre dance in front of your eyes, We move to the delightful surroundings 1♣(1) Pass 1♠(2) 3♦ it is that hand , yes the one you knew of the Italian Lake District in Como where Dbl(3) Pass Pass Pass you should have made and yet..pain… the 1958 final of the Bermuda Bowl is (1) Strong, artificial, 17+ HCP misery…one off! Your partner getting up taking place between Italy and the USA. (2) 3 controls to move for the next round, the look of dis- It is an epic struggle between two great (3) Are you that keen to go back to New York ? appointment and incredulity in his face… teams but also between two very different Forquet leads a small club to the ace and a look which had turned into bitter resent- systemic worlds: the traditional American 5 Siniscalco switches to a spade. After cash- ment by the time he had spoken to you card major, supported by a variety of gad- ing two top spades and the ♣K, Forquet just now: a $300 first prize gone because gets but essentially still 99% natural, and plays a third round of spades. Crawford of your inept play. the new strong club systems pioneered by ruffs and plays a small diamond, Sinis- If only I hadn’t..if I had…how much would the likes of Forquet and Belladonna. calco winning the jack to play the ♠10, you give to go back: to stamp those cards Let us sit with Crawford and Becker (two which holds the trick as both Crawford firmly on the table, to faultlessly execute of the all-time stars of American bridge) and Forquet discard. Siniscalco returns a the dazzling play you thought about only playing versus Pietro Forquet and his trump so Crawford has to lose three more after you despondently wrote the -100 on partner, Guglielmo Siniscalco. trumps and two top hearts. the scoresheet, to bask in the light of the Here are Crawford’s cards: Let’s add it up: declarer makes a spade ruff admiring kibitzers when you explain to and the ♦K . that’s it, just two tricks. 3♦ ♠ K6 them in a condescending way your bril- doubled, down seven!! 1300 points to Italy liant line of play… how much indeed? ♥ Q42 (with the old penalty schedule in place). “It all comes down to ability”- you say to ♦ K76432 ♣ J7 The best part was yet to come: Crawford yourself- “and concentration, of course, had to go and explain to his team mates yes.. concentration. I bet Hamman would NV vs VUL where that strange -1300 score came have made the hand in a minute flat! You hear Forquet open 1♣ (strong from in a hand where at the other table Hmmm..these things only happen to =17+HCP) to your left and Siniscalco they must have put away the 3NT+1 result people like me, Gold Master indeed… reply with 1♠ (showing 3 controls: an Ace as another flat board ! and a King or 3 Kings). more likely Cardboard Master after the Does this nice little tale help making you way I butchered that hand!” Now you did not come here to let these forget the 800s you gave away with those pesky Italian systems walk all over you so Yet such mishaps do not occur only to “creative” jump overcalls on Qxxxxx? how about making it more difficult for them the average club player: many , many to find the right contract? champions have had their nightmare come true in hands which your average Anyone for a weak jump 3♦ bid? Well Joe would have bid and made without Crawford certainly was not known for his a problem. Of course these hands never shyness at the bridge table and he duly make the newspaper columns... oh no! bid 3♦ which was quickly doubled and There we only see the inspired plays, the passed out. Let us see what happens razor-sharp defenses, the amazing leads. next, having a look at the whole hand: 43 42 Van der Pas cannot do much else apart from doubling. Over to Sabine. From her point of view it is The House all cut and dry: her partner has long clubs and hopefully good ones given the vulner- ability. She has enough defensive values in the other suits to make any 4 level contract by the opponents a tough propo- of Horrors sition, therefore, to take away a possible 3♠ and make life difficult for the Dutch, she decides to “anticipate” her partner’s bid with an a-systemic 4♣. By Pietro Campanile After all, what could possibly go wrong with that? The other Dutch girl, Elly Schippers, is et us go on looking at some more the diamonds. under pressure, she can bid 4♠ but that mishaps suffered by the high It is true that N/S can make 5♥, or save may well overstate her rather slim values, and mighty of bridge, champions in 6♥, but the adverse vulnerability clearly so she opts for the wait and see approach whose names we associate with put the brakes on their willingness to and follows Sabine’s 4♣ with a double. Lexotic squeezes and ingenious bidding compete. Back to Daniela. Well we can all guess decisions and yet, as we will see, also Will the same happen in the open room? her thought process here: partner bids 4♣ have their nightmarish misunderstandings Noooo, I hear you say, otherwise why on over the double of 3♥, while the normal and end up paying huge penalties just earth would we be reading about it? action would be pass. This must be show- like… well…just like us really. Ok, you got me there. Maybe I gave too ing a very good club suit and that, oppo- Let us fly together to sunny Perth, on the much away. site her spade void, is looking very yummy western coast of Australia. Still let us go back and see what happens (what is 4♣X making vulnerable?). The No, we are not here to do some scuba- when the top German pair of Sabine fateful green card is slowly placed on diving but to kibitz the deal which will be Zenkel and Daniela von Arnim have to the bidding tray, followed by two more the turning point of the 1989 Ladies World tackle this very distributional deal. to close the auction at the rather tricky Cup Semifinal between Germany and But first a little digression, Sabine and spot of 4♣X, to the surprise and delight of Holland. Daniela are well known in the bridge Marjike van der Pas whose holding in the There are 15 boards to go and Germany world for having one of the most complete opponents trump suit is only KQ9xxx! is leading by 25 IMPs and then comes and thorough system files, with a very board 114: aggressive bidding style full of hostile Let us have a recap of the bidding : Dealer East, North-South Vulnerable two-way pre-emptive bids (meaning that West North East South ♠J643 they either promise the suit bid or another van der Pas Zenkel Schippers von Arnim specified one). ♥AK93 Pass 3♥ Of course we all agree that conventions Dbl 4♣ Dbl Pass ♦Q542 are very sexy things and every bridge Pass Pass ♣J player above club master will happily fill ♠AQ107 ♠K9852 his card with a lot of these beauties just Now we must say this for declarer, she ♥J ♥6 because…. he can! did not jump up and scream at the sight of However, we must truthfully admit that dummy and she managed to collect four KJ 983 ♦ ♦ from time to time we have all been guilty tricks after the friendly spade lead thanks ♣KQ9754 ♣A862 of forgetting that we agreed to the odd to two spade ruffs and the two red aces ♠- late addition to the convention card and (a club lead would have curtailed the ruffs ♥Q1087542 let partner unhappily stew in a 3♣ in a 3-2 leaving her with a -2300 score). ♦A1076 fit . Her achievement of limiting the loss at Do you really think that such disasters are -1700 was not exactly cheered on by her 103 ♣ the sole domain of us non-experts? team-mates who ended up losing 15 IMPs In the closed room the bidding proceeds Well…...think again! In the open room on the hand. rather unimaginatively: after two initial Daniela von Arnim in South decides Germany did not get through to the final passes the German pair reaches almost proudly to show off her special gadget and that year. unopposed the normal contract of 4♠, opens 3♥ with her hand, a bid promising making eleven tricks after West guessed either long hearts or…long clubs! 45 44 You can guess what happened next ….