‘Twas the night before Christmas… a truly great night for playing bridge if you happen to be Jewish.
My good Catholic wife was en route to Midnight Mass but since I had a bad cold and a runny nose, I was actually looking forward to a long winter’s nap, not a bridge game. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, having gotten them rather wet earlier while shoveling snow… When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter and the next thing I heard was a big, booming voice: “Hey there, you with the shiny red nose, we are in need of one more player.”
I looked around expecting to see Rudolph, but soon realized Santa was asking me to join in the Reindeer Games as his partner. It seems that Mrs. Claus decided she was too darn busy that night, so Santa’s team was one player shy. Prancer and Dancer, my teammates, let me know in no uncertain terms that this was a very serious competition, especially since Rudolph, who recently became an NPBL grand life master, was captain of the other quartet. At stake was the coveted Claus Cup awarded to the winning team annually. NPBL, you ask? The North Pole Bridge League, of course.
It was a close and exciting match when we reached the penultimate board #23 (above). The auctions at both tables were fairly spirited even though both sides were vulnerable. At ours, had Vixen (North) grunted at any point to show his 4-card heart support, I am sure his less-famous brother Nixen would have competed to 5♥, but they instead chose to defend after Santa’s Helper (yes, that’s me) bid 5♦. You can follow Santa’s declarer play here.
“Tricky Dick” -- as Nixen is called by the other reindeer -- began his defense by cashing the ♥A, felling Santa’s king. As his nickname would indicate, he switched to the ♣Q(!), rather than the expected king. Observing that North followed with the 10, Santa decided to duck. He had 9 top tricks and his plan was to ruff 2 clubs in dummy to make his contract. Nixen continued with the ♣J and when North played the 4, Santa took his ace, convinced his contract was cold.
Santa next played one of his top diamonds. Had everyone followed, he could draw one more round of trump and claim 11 tricks -- but unfortunately South pitched a heart. Not a problem, thought Santa, as long as North held at least one spade along with the ♣K. He would ruff a club with the ♦7 or 9, play a spade to his hand and then ruff his last club with dummy’s ace. A small trump back would allow him to finish drawing trumps and claim. His plan was ironclad -- he “knew” Vixen held the ♣K, so there was absolutely no danger of an overruff when trumping the third club low.
Of course when Santa played that way, Vixen did in fact overruff dummy and the contract went right down the chimney. Nixen’s tricky play had totally bamboozled his boss! When Santa was done glowering at his opponent, he asked to see South’s hand. Observing Nixen’s ♣KQJ96 plus the singleton spade, his eyes how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses as he exclaimed, “Ho! Ho! Ho! That will be a great board for Team Santa -- surely Prancer and Dancer will push on to the very makeable 5♥ contact! I’m certain the swing will win the match for us!”
Poor ol’ St. Nick was only partially right. Dancer was South and he did indeed bid 5♥ over 5♦ since Prancer, sitting North and playing Bergen raises, utilized a pre-emptive 3♥ call rather than pass his partner’s 1♥ opening. However, when the scores were being compared and Santa announced “minus 100” on Bd 23, Prancer replied “minus 1540”, thereby stunning our team captain. Over the 5♥ bid, Rudolph decided to take a “save” in 6♦. Dancer doubled and Rudolph wrapped the contract around my teammates’ antlers.
After the opening lead of the ♥A and the switch to the ♣K, the red-nosed declarer had no choice but to try for 5 spade tricks in addition to 6 diamonds and the ♣A. Despite the bad breaks in both diamonds and spades, it was fairly easy. Cashing the ♦KQ followed by the ♠AK, Rudolph was relieved to see that the stiff spade was in South’s hand rather than North’s. Rudolph led to the ♦A, drawing the last trump. This allowed him to ruff out the ♠Q and return to dummy with a diamond to the 9. The 3 losing clubs were pitched on the good spades, thereby making the doubled contract.
This was a most unfortunate loss of 17 IMPs for our side. Even though we gained back 10 on Board 24, we lost the match by 3 crummy points. Rudolph and his teammates would be going down in history as this year’s winners of the coveted Claus Cup. And I was certain my teammates and I had already joined Santa’s “Naughty List”.
Santa, however, was not yet finished discussing #23. He admonished Dancer for not taking the push to 6♥, since that would have been down only 100, or 200 if doubled. “And what about you?” he bellowed staring directly at me, “Why didn’t you jump to the 6♦ slam when I showed you my powerhouse by doubling first and then calling 4♦? I thought you knew how to play this game!”
Before I could reply, he sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, and away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight, “Happy Christmas To All -- and a belated Happy Hanukkah to you, Bruce, and to all your peeps… “
I was truly appreciative, of course, but I don’t think he heard me yell back: “Same to you, Santa, but had you made the gosh-darn 5♦ contract, as you should have, we would have won by a single IMP!”
Just then I heard my lovely wife return from Midnight Mass. My long winter’s nap was over.
