Shades of the Rueful Rabbit

The national tournament returns to my home town of Washington, DC for the first time in about eight years. Playing in a stratified pair game, vulnerable against not, I deal myself:

975 / AJ / A5 / Q87543

and I open 1. LHO inserts a weak jump overcall of 2 and partner bids 3. Unlike most pairs, we play that as a slam suggestion, showing good support for clubs and a diamond control. With the A in my own hand, partner must have a singleton or void. I don't have much, but I cooperate with the slam search by bidding 3 to show my A. Partner bids a regular Blackwood 4NT and I respond 5, showing my two Aces.

Now partner bids 6! Oh, no. He obviously mistook my 3 cue bid as a real suit. In my view, once cue-bidding starts (as it did with partner's 3), the 3 bid can't be a real suit anymore. But probably I'm wrong.

But what now? 6 is obviously a disaster, so I think the priority has to be holding down the losses. After a long pause for thought I bid 7 and all pass. LHO leads the K and I tremble as partner puts down:

	A K 4 3 K 8 4 3 J A J 9 2
	9 7 5 A J A 5 Q 8 7 5 4 3

W	N	E	S
			1
2	3	P	3
P	4NT	P	5
P	6	P	7
P	P	P

I win the A. The trump combination appears in Bill Root's How to Play a Bridge Hand, so I know to lead the Q, just in case West has the K106. In fact, West covers the Queen with the King, so I win the trick with dummy's Ace and East follows. Now I draw the last trump with dummy's Jack. I have only one loser, and a finesse of the J (even though I have no heart losers) brings home the contract!

Moral: When you get overboard, don't panic. Sometimes these things work out fine. +2140 was worth 12 out of 12 matchpoints.

The full hand was:

	A K 4 3 K 8 4 3 J A J 9 2
J 8 6 2 9 2 K Q 9 7 3 2 K		Q 10 Q 10 7 6 5 10 8 6 4 10 6
	9 7 5 A J A 5 Q 8 7 5 4 3

[Washington NABC, Summer 2002. This hand appeared in the Daily Bulletin.]

P.S.: The "Rueful Rabbit," for those who don't know, is a character in bridge books by Victor Mollo. The Rabbit is constantly making the most ludicrous errors in bidding and play, but a protective Guardian Angel makes sure that, as the cards lie, whatever the Rabbit does turns out for the best.