Bridge with Larry Cohen

In the end of 2005, my partner, David Berkowitz seemed to pick up a lot of unusual hands (see "A More Unlikely Bid." ). This hand, from the Atlanta Regional in December was one of the best you will ever see:

--
A K Q
A 3
A K Q J 10 6 5 2

David was in 4th seat with both sides vulnerable (playing IMPs in a Swiss Team Match).

The bidding started with a Pass on his left, 2 by his partner (that would be me), and Pass on his right. Now what?

Obviously it is just a question of 6 or 7. I think the chances for 7 would have been better had partner Passed. The fact that he has 6 spades doesn't improve your hand. Had he opened a diamond preempt, that would have been more encouraging. Anyway, here you are--what should you do?

I think it might make sense to bid 2NT asking for a Feature. If partner shows a diamond Feature, bid 7 -- otherwise content yourself with 6. However, David just took a chance and jumped directly to 7 on the first round of bidding. This certainly drew some amused looks from around the table.

Here was the (disappointing) dummy:

Vul: Both Dlr: West	K J 9 7 5 2 4 J 10 9 7 9 7
	-- A K Q A 3 A K Q J 10 6 5 2

West	North	East	South
Pass	2	Pass	7
Pass	Pass	Pass

West led the K. There was not much hope. David won and played a club (LHO playing the 8). He won the 9 in dummy and tried a low spade. Nothing good happened. He floundered around (running all his winners), but it was easy for the defense to keep the setting trick in diamonds, down 1.

Vul: Both Dlr: West	K J 9 7 5 2 4 J 10 9 7 9 7
Q 10 4 J 8 7 3 K Q 8 5 2 8		A 8 6 3 10 9 6 5 2 6 4 4 3
	-- A K Q A 3 A K Q J 10 6 5 2

West	North	East	South
Pass	2	Pass	7
Pass	Pass	Pass

So, how unlucky was David to find this dummy? To make 7 he needed one of the following:

1. K in dummy.
2. Club entry and A in dummy
3. Club entry and QJ and a winning finesse (or 2 club entries and a ruffing spade finesse KQ)
4. Three clubs in dummy (then the top four red cards exhaust dummy's red cards and a diamond can be ruffed).
5. A defensive error

There are even others -- if you think you have a good one, please e-mail me and I will add it to the list!

In a span of 2 months, I twice saw David bid a grand slam on the first round of bidding. At least he made one of them.