"Life's Little Ironies" - Misfits by Marti Ronemus

Don't you just love those little "boy bites dog" stories? Here's one for you. This week in New Orleans in 1954, there was a party at the Parrot Street Pool for all the lifeguards and personnel, celebrating 10 years of pool safety with no drownings. Yup, you guessed it. During the party a lifeguard named Ralph Peterson drowned. And that's in the presence of over 100 lifeguards and staff!!

How does this happen? What was everyone doing? (Hint: It was New Orleans, and it was a party.)

Good news, Faithful Readers. We are about to explore misfit hands, but you won't drown. We here at Vu-Bridge are sober and alert!! Let's go.

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ K 8
♥ A 2
♦ A J 9 8 7 6 5
♣ 9 8

Q: 1 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	1 No-trump	p
?

A: 2♦: A case can be made for all four answers, and we're going conservative. Here's why. Pard has a Heart stopper, maybe 1-1/2 or 2 and we've got one. We're pretty much at the top of a minimum opener. BUT! Pard does NOT have four Spades. How do we know that? He would have made a Negative Double if he did. The quality of our trump suit, Diamonds, isn't that great. While we've got lots of honorettes, if Pard has no Diamond honors, we could have problems. Not to mention the Clubs. Let's change things up a little.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ K J 8
♥ 3 2
♦ A K J 8 7 6 5
♣ 9

Q: 2 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	1 No-trump	p
?

A: 3♦: This time, we're proud to rebid our suit, and jump a level. We've got a trick-taker of a hand. Pard's got Hearts stopped and we've got Spades. Pard will know by our rebid that we want game, but there's something wrong with our shape. Our bid is forcing and leaves lots of room below 3 No-trump. We've still got a misfit and need to show it.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ K J 8
♥ 3 2
♦ A K 10 8 7 6
♣ A 9

Q: 3 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	1♥	1 No-trump	p
?

A: 3 No-trump: Now we've got it all... Pard's got Hearts covered, we've got the rest. When we have a misfit, we have to be a little cautious, as we've said before. While we still have a misfit, we've got our water wings on and can afford to jump into game.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ A K J 10 9 5
♥ 3 2
♦ 4
♣ J 8 7 2

Q: 4 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♥	p
1♠	p	2♣	p
?

A: 2♠: When faced with a misfit, even with a secondary suit fit, we need to be very careful before going off the high board. Maybe we should just show Pard our minimum support hand and our six-card Spade suit. This is an independent suit, and we don't mind playing even opposite a void. We've got a nice fit in the minor, so we'll try to invite.

We'll play this hand and see if our decision is a good one.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ A K J 10 9 5
♥ 3 2
♦ 4
♣ J 9 8 4

Q: 5 - South:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1♥	p
1♠	p	2♦	p
?

A: 2♠: We can discuss this one, but this has all the hallmarks of a major belly flop. We don't have a fit anywhere. All we've got going for us is our independent suit. Let's show Pard our sad story by a minimum-hand rebid of a six-card suit, especially with a minor misfit.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Play this Hand

Now that you've bid five hands, let's see how your play goes.

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Overall Results

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What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
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