You Be The Judge

Many years ago, The Bridge World ran a column called "You Be The Judge". TBW would present a famous disaster and ask a panel to assess blame. The East-West hands were shown and an august panel would answer two questions:

(a) What was West's percentage of the blame for the final result?

(b) What was the single worst call [or play] of the hand?

I liked this column a lot. It was discontinued about a decade ago, so I don't feel awful about 'borrowing' the format.

By the way, if I haven't said this before, TBW is the one tool that every bridge player needs. Looking back on my bridge life, the thing that primed my brain for high-level competition and brought my game from middling-intermediate to expert is reading my Bridge World every month cover to cover and reading any back issue I could get my hands on. I was thrilled a few months ago to be able to buy over 100 back issues from the 1950s to the 1980s. Hopefully in a few decades my collection will be filled in. Hardly a night goes by that I don't read at least one back issue in bed before falling asleep. If you don't currently have a subscription, get one. If you already have one, get one for your favorite partner.

So let's get judgmental!

Dealer: West Vul: Both Scoring: IMPs

♠ J ♥ KJ84 ♦ A98432 ♣ K3 ♠ A65 ♥ Q72 ♦ KJT5 ♣ AQ7

1♦ - 2♦;
3♦ - 3NT;
Pass

Playing a strong notrump based system, West opened a natural diamond. East made an invitational or better raise with 2♦. When West rebid 3♦, East bid 3NT and West let it sit.

3NT made 4 on a spade lead. Obviously, 6♦ is laydown unless an opponent has Axxxx of hearts, and would have made at the table, giving E-W some very nice neckwear. As it was, they 'settled' (happily, may I add) for 6th overall in the World IMP Pairs in Verona, Italy, in the summer of 2006.

So-- the two questions for you, loyal readers:

(a) What is West's percentage of the blame?
(b) What was the single worst call?

Master Solvers' Club

The Bridge World is the premier magazine for serious bridge players. I would recommend a subscription to anyone with a keen interest in the game.

TBW's mainstay feature is the Master Solvers' Club. This feature has been copied by almost every other bridge magazine on the planet. There are seven bidding problems and one opening lead problem given to a panel of a few dozen of the world's top experts. Bridge World subscribers enter their choices online every month, and the very few who get a perfect score on all eight problems in a month get invited on the panel for an upcoming month. This can be a lot of fun as an email discussion between a group of friends. I used to have a lot of fun as a member of the S.O.Bs (Southern Oregon Bidders). Since moving to the East Coast, I haven't had the opportunity to be in a group like that, so I'd like to start one. If there are any other subscribers out there who would like to join me in this, please email me at McKenzie (at) DoubleSqueeze (dot) com.