Desert Island hands

DESERT ISLAND HANDS: STUART McPHEE

Stuart McPhee is the Managing Director of a Technical Writing company, although he usually tries to impress people at parties by telling them that he is a writer. Having spent several years enhancing his pocket money by beating his parents at Whist, Newmarket and Brag, Stuart learned to play Bridge at school, thinking that he could win more at a game his mum and dad didn’t know!

At the local Bridge Club in Eastbourne, an expert took Stuart under his wing. This included giving him a pile of Bridge bidding system books saying "right, we will play together for the next ten weeks and we will play a different system each week." Although he cannot remember much about the Vienna Club or New South Wales bidding systems, this harsh introduction taught Stuart a great deal about bidding theory.

Stuart welcomes many of the innovations of the modern game but regrets that the introduction of bidding boxes reduces the chances of using his favourite quote. "Can I have a review of the bidding please, including all the voice inflexions!"

Stuart presents a couple of hands for us:

"There is a famous quote where a moderate lady player failed to double an international player when on lead against a grand slam, despite holding the ace of trumps. When asked why not she replied "but he plays the hands so well!". You might dream of being in that position, but I still have nightmares about this hand.

	ª x © x x ¨ A x § A K Q 10 x x x x
ª - © A Q 10 ¨ K Q J 10 x x x x § x x		ª Q J x x x x x © x x x ¨ x x x § -
	ª A K 10 x x © K J 9 x x ¨ - §J 9 x

I was south on the above hand, which obviously took place before bidding fear was invented. This was the auction.

WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
4D	5C	6D	7C
7D	Double	All pass

Some players with the north hand might have led the ace of trumps to look at dummy, but my partner tried the ace of clubs. To cut a long story short, north subsequently revoked so declarer made a grand slam missing the ace of trumps. It was not a good board but I never tire of talking about it!

This hand really sticks in my memory. It won us a congress teams but I made the right play for completely the wrong reason

	ª K 6 © 5 ¨ A 9 5 3 2 § J 10 9 6 2
ª 9 7 4 © Q J 9 8 3 ¨ K 6 4 § A 5		ª J 8 5 3 © 4 2 ¨ Q J 10 8 § Q 7 3
	ª A Q 10 2 © A K 10 7 6 ¨ 7 § K 8 4

As west, you lead the queen of hearts against 3NT. South wins with the king (partner discouraging) and plays the King of clubs. What do you play?

Presumably worried by the sight of dummy’s clubs, I won this and switched to the king of diamonds to knock out dummy’s entry. This is a legitimate defence if declarer has KQ doubleton in clubs. However, I was dumbstruck when partner subsequently won the queen of clubs and cashed three more diamond winners."