Posted 8:21 PM by Floyd

It's time for a little bit of bridge-blogging before my wife and I watch the first Harry Potter movie. (This is so we can watch the second Harry Potter movie, which I have on DVD and you don't.)

Eric and I played at the club today. We were fixed several times and made some poor plays, but also had a lot of good boards and many exciting boards. Here is my favorite:

I held 4 KJ T87632 QT64 at none vulnerable as dealer. I passed, LHO opened 1, Eric overcalled 1, and RHO raised to 2.

I couldn't double for penalty because double would have been takeout. So I passed. LHO passed, and Eric reopened with a double. This I could pass and did.

LHO bid 3! I guess when she saw Eric double she assumed there would be more bidding and didn't see my pass! Eric passed, managing not to smirk too much, and of course I doubled.

Eric led A (A from AK) and this dummy appeared:

QT953 864 A95 J8.

The defense was fairly easy. Eric switched to the T and it went low, king, ace. LHO played a diamond to the ace and got the bad news (Eric pitched a spade). Heart to the jack and queen, heart toward the eight; Eric played 9 and a fourth round of hearts.

I overruffed dummy's nine and played a trump. Declarer won and still lost a spade, a club, and a trump at the end. But which trump?

Among young bridge players -- that is, players under 45 -- there is the legend of the Beer Card. The Beer Card is the seven of diamonds. If you take the last trick with this card -- and don't pitch a trick to do it -- your partner owes you a beer. As the contract was doubled, winning the last trick with 7 would net me two wonderful beers.

But -- there is also the Scotch! Some friends from California play that if you take the last trick on defense with the two of trumps, your partner owes you a bottle of Scotch.

If you have a beer and a Scotch, what is that? Why, a Boilermaker of course! I first heard the term from über-bridge/gaming-geek Jeff Goldsmith, and as a Purdue graduate I couldn't be prouder to have finally quaffed my own.

(By the way, the re-raise cost declarer one matchpoint out of eight. +300 was a top for us.)