Having taken up bridge a few years ago, I am working hard on trying to improve my game. When I'm not playing bridge or reading or writing about it, I'm working on Bridge Winners.
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Polly Siegel chronicles her adventures as she works to become a better bridge player.
For the past year I've been working on learning squeezes. I have to say that for some reason this really seems to be something I have struggled with. But the pennies are slowly starting to drop.
I was playing in the NAP Flight A final recently with a relatively new partner, Paul Cornelius, very pleased to have made it to the final day in what was one of the strongest fields outside of NABC+ events I've ever played in. District 21 sports a number of very fine pairs, and is arguably one of the strongest districts in the country. (Go on, argue!) We had two solid sessions on the first day, to qualify in 8th place for the final day session (with 20 pairs advancing). Our first session was slightly below average, but we still had high hopes for the evening.
In third seat vulnerable, I picked up:
Partner opened 1♠ and I gave him a 2-over-1 2♥ response. He now bid 2♠, promising at least six spades. Having a singleton spade and extra values, I chose to bid 3♦. Partner now bid 4♣. I didn't expect that.
Now what?
I figured he was probably 6-4, but where were we going? He seemed worried about hearts. I bid 4NT, hoping it might offer a place to play. He now bid 5♦.
Was he patterning out and offering another place to play? We had never discussed this auction! Now what?
I wrinkled my brow and thought for what seemed like an eternity. What was partner trying to tell me? I reasoned through keycard responses, knowing full well that partner would have never taken my 4NT for keycard. Something had to make sense.
Eventually, I gave up and bid 6NT. I figured since the auction suggested strongly that he had extras, we were probably okay in 6. It was just one board after all.
On the lead of the ♣7, dummy came down:
