Fixes

When I first started playing bridge, I would sometimes inadvertently "fix" my opponents--I thought it was just luck when things turned out in my favor.  Now that I've been playing for awhile, I still think it's luck--good luck if my partner and I make a mistake and get a high board, bad luck if the opponents do it to us.

Yesterday evening I had some bad luck.

The Monday game started out on a good note.  Then there came a time when East opened 1NT.  Julie passed and West bid 2 Spades, a transfer to clubs.  I was North, and was sorely tempted to bid my nice hearts; after all, I had opening.  But not only were we vulnerable, we also play DONT, so I obediently passed.  East accepted the transfer and West corrected to Diamonds.  All passed, the opening lead was made, and dummy came down.

It took a moment to register what East meant when he said, "Partner, I forgot to tell you that we're playing 11-14  No Trump."  I looked at dummy more closely and realized that there were 11 high card points, not 15-17.  Julie and I looked at our opponents, baffled.

"What is he talking about?" Julie asked.

"Obviously he miscounted his cards," West replied with a good natured grin.

We proceeded to play, and at the end of the hand our opponents were down 2.  This was small consolation since we had game our way; indeed, we discovered later that this was a bottom board.

"I think we were injured," Julie calmly said.

"You can call the director if you want, but I responded as if he had a 15-17 No Trump hand," West explained.  "It could just as easily have gone the other way and we would have been the ones injured."

Like I said, bad luck.  Don't you hate getting fixed?