Minus 1,000 -- no problem!

By: Larry Cohen

Minus 1,000 -- no problem!

On this deal from the 2015 NABC Senior Knockout Teams (in Denver), Bart Bramley had a chance to make 4XX:

Vul: West
Dlr: N-S
 Q10986
 8
 AQ
 Q10953
 
 3
 --
 J10987653
 A642
  AK7542
 K752
 --
 K87
  J
 AQJ109643
 K42
 J
 

West opened 4, passed around to South (Bramley). He bid 4 and when this came to East, he doubled for penalty. North redoubled (not clear how he meant it), but there they rested. A diamond was lead and East ruffed. He laid down a high spade, all following. East now (reasonably) played a low spade. He didn't realize his partner had no trumps. Had Bramley discarded his club, he would have made 4hearts iconXX for a whopping 1080! However, he didn't know the strange position. He trumped with the Q, played the A and a high heart to East's king. Now a club to the ace enabled another defensive diamond ruff for down 2, -1000. Big swing? Yes, but not how you would expect.

This was the auction at the other table:

WestNorthEastSouth
Rodwell Meckstroth 
5PassPass5
PassPassDoublePass
Pass5!DoubleAll Pass

Yes, Meckstroth got to defend against 5spades iconX. The play was bloody and ended up with a penalty of 1700 (down 6). So, Bramley won 12 imps for going down 1,000!