The Patient Died

Recently I was declarer in a particularly tricky contract.  I strategized, I finessed, I thought about where the king was (and was right), I counted cards, I set up a suit...I did it all.  At the end, I was down one.  I looked at what was left of the dummy and what the opponents held.

"Are those two spades good?" I asked my partner, horrified.

"Yes," Julie replied.

"I lost track," I apologized, hanging my head.

"But you played it brilliantly!" the opponent kindly said.

"How good could it be if I didn't make the contract?" I countered.

"Well, that happens.  But it was masterful the way you played it.  Really, it was perfect!"

I appreciated the comments, but it made me think of the old saying "The operation was a success but the patient died."  Later, Julie had a recommendation for me.

"If I'm not sure if something is good or not, and that's the only way to make the contract, I just play it," she suggested.

"That was the problem," I explained.  "I WAS sure that the spades were NOT good."

"Oh."  She laughed, I didn't.

Although this is not a perfect example of doing everything right and getting a bad board, since obviously I didn't do everything right, you get the picture.  Then there's the other side of the coin, when you do everything wrong and somehow it works.

I was recently in a 4 spade contract with a new partner.  When dummy came down I could see right away that it was going to be difficult.  I had a singleton ace of diamonds in my hand with several diamonds on the board but missing the king.  The opening lead took one entry out, leaving just the ace of trump as a way back to all of those beautiful diamonds.  Hmm, what to do?  I led the queen of diamonds towards my hand, my opponent covered with the king.  I played my ace and -- ta dah!--the diamonds were all set up.  I made the contract.

What's the problem, you ask?  Well, during a sit-out we watched John and Joanne bid and play the same board.  They reached the same contract after a wildly different bidding sequence, and made the contract without ever playing the diamonds. I commented on this, and Joanne had a little talk with me.

"Do you see why you should never cover the queen in this type of situation?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied.  (I would have said "yes" even if I had meant "no".)

"If your opponent had held up, you would not have made it."

"I can see that now."

I won't even go into how we stumbled into the right contract (mostly because I don't remember), but bridge is definitely a game where you can do everything right and get a bad board, and do a lot wrong and come out on top.  Sometimes.