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Mothership Connection
After West's normal 1C opener, East, holding a balanced 18, exactly the sort of hand on which 6NT usually fails to make against a minimum opener, temporizes with 1D. Gee, carefully noting his suit quality and one cashing trick, steps in with an unusual, a very unusual, 2NT. The vulnerability is favorable, and his partner, a passed hand, can be expected to hold zero defensive tricks, making the opponents cold for slam. Remarkably enough, North actually does hold zero defensive tricks, and 6NT, although it is a distinct underdog, requiring six minor suit tricks, comes in on careful play. Silly, stubborn E/W elect to defend instead. West passes his minimum, and poor North, with no major suit preference, or so he thinks, passes 2NT and hopes for something from East besides a double. No dice of course. East, with his marginal slam hand, doubles for the certain profit, and Gee pulls to 3H. North can save 300, in theory, by taking a spade preference but in practice he has no bid. West leads a low diamond against 3HX. The D8 holds, and East plays two rounds of trump and another diamond. Gee ruffs and tries a spade. East wins, pulls trump, and knocks out the CA, which is declarer's last trick. Down 7. "Even 1400 would have been good," cries Gee. And of course he is right. Against the 30% 6NT, assuming E/W bid and make it, 1400 saves 40 points. If only, if only partner had corrected to 3S. Question to Discuss Comments
One must compliment Gee for his imagination.
It would have been unhelpful to use Michaels' misused invention, as a
2C Q would allow an easy 2D by opener, and 2D would, without earlier agreement,
be natural. Therefore Gee has invented the UUN, or Unusual Unusual NoTrump,
and moreover, he has done it in the heat of battle. His partner, no doubt
on the same wavelength as Gee since he held no preference between the
announced suits, the majors from Serling ether, passed with wisdom as
well as alacrity, in case Gee happened to be 6-5 or 5-6 and wished to
play in his longest suit. Gee's choice of hearts over spades with equal
length is nothing if not inspired, since it sidestepped the likely scenario
in 3SX of two rounds of trumps, four rounds of H's, a D cash, and a C
and a trump in the wash, for a two-logo result; that's nine defensive
tricks for -- you guessed it -- stix & wheels! And that would WIN 8 imps
against a field who bid and made the vulnerable slam.
I would have been cautious of X and sandwich NT or 2 clubs for entirely
different reasons but 2N?... It requires a certain imagination to visulaize
the reasons behind... There are couple of things that come to mind...
1. The hand our hero had when he bid 2N was not the same hand he picked
up when the cards were dealt.
2. Whatever he was smoking was really really good...
Not to nitpick, but doesn't East hold a balanced 19?
© 2002-2003 by Aaron Haspel. All rights reserved. |
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