What was the perfect excuse for trying out suit symbols in TeX?

[Hurkyl]

I've been dying for an excuse to try out the suit symbols in TeX, and I just had a fun bridge hand that is the perfect excuse!

Here's your hand:

$$\begin{array}{l l} \clubsuit: & KJxx \\ \diamondsuit: & KQxx \\ \heartsuit: & \\ \spadesuit: & AKQxx \end{array}$$

Your partner opens $2\spadesuit$ (with weak 2's, so this shows 6 spades, probably few points).

Once I saw that bid, I was like $^{100}$

I'm giddy because this is the first hand where I've bid slam when the hand really should be in slam! The bidding went:

$$\begin{array}{c c c c} West & North & East & South \\ & 2\spadesuit & P & 4NT \\ P & 5\heartsuit & P & 6\spadesuit \\ Dbl & P & P & P \end{array}$$

We were bidding Blackwood. Boy was I giddy! My only regret was not redoubling, since it was pretty obvious we were going to make it! For the record, this was the last hand of the rubber, and we were behind by a good amount. (until after this hand, of course! )

The hands were, to the best of my recollection (unremembered suits are made balanced):

(suggestions on a better way to draw this in LaTeX are welcome too! In particular, I want to embed an alignged environment in one square of an array to make sure the hands line up pretty; I'd like the name of the player to be centered above the hands too)

$$\begin{array}{l l l} & North & \\ & \clubsuit: AQ & \\ & \diamondsuit: xx & \\ & \heartsuit: Axx & \\ & \spadesuit: JTxxxx & \\ West & & East \\ \clubsuit: xxxx & & \clubsuit: xxx \\ \diamondsuit: Axx & & \diamondsuit: xxxx \\ \heartsuit: KQxxx & & \heartsuit: xxxxx \\ \spadesuit: 4 & & \spadesuit: 6 \\ & South & \\ & \clubsuit: KJxx & \\ & \diamondsuit: KQxx & \\ & \heartsuit: & \\ & \spadesuit: AKQxx &$$

Play opens with west leading $K\heartsuit$.

 

[Loren Booda]

My mother often played a foursome with her girlfriend Andree, sometimes teaming up with bridge great Freddie Sheinwold. A particular hand was dealt while Andree was out of the room. When she picked it up, she found 13 of the same suit! My mother swore that there was no collusion, although the chance of such a deal is astronomical.

 

[KLscilevothma]

$$\begin{array}{l l}\clubsuit: & KJxx \\\diamondsuit: & KQxx \\\heartsuit: & \\\spadesuit: & AKQxx\end{array}$$

I'm giddy because this is the first hand where I've bid slam when the hand really should be in slam!

Wow, coool ! You and your partner got total 29 points, and you got a void suit, perfect split!

My only regret was not redoubling, since it was pretty obvious we were going to make it!

You are always kind to others.

I remember the first time I bid slam (about 1 year ago), I was truly nervous. I clicked 4NT and waited for my partner to respond. Can you guess what was my partner's response ?

PASS

That was a misunderstanding and we couldn't make the contract. What a pity.

There was another time when opponents used blackwood convention. My partner guessed they must have lots of good cards. I was then carring a cunning smile and doubled them when their bid went to six. Well, heehee.

I used to play bridge in Yahoo and sometimes got very strange hands, like once I got 9 spades with only 5 points, my partner kept on clicking pass while I kept on bidding Spades, finally the contract was 4S and we made it.

Bridge is fun. I really love it.

 

[Cecil]

Nice hand! (especially after your partner's opening bid ) However, if you don't mind some unsolicited advice, there's one problem with bidding Blackwood immediately. What do you do if partner responds 5D instead of 5H? You can't tell which ace he has; if it's a minor suit ace you're pretty much cold for slam, but what if he has just the ace of hearts? Do you bid 5S just in case and miss your cold slam, or do you bid 6S off two cashing aces? (Another interesting point: in the actual hand, if your partner had the ace of clubs and ace of diamonds as his two aces, you'd have all 13 tricks!)

The big problem is that you have a void. Blackwood only tells us the number of aces partner has, but with a void we need some information about which suits the aces are in as well. A useful tool we can use in this situation is called Cuebidding. After a weak-two, jumping in a new suit shows the A or K of that suit (also possibly a void). Each partner shows suits in turn until someone decides to use Blackwood or just bid slam. So, an example auction on the given hands would be:

2S - 4D - 4H - 4N - 5H - 6S

This way, you know that one of partner's two aces is the ace of hearts, and so 7S is unmakeable. If partner had two minor suit aces instead, he would bid either 4S (relatively weak hand, don't want to go past game) or 5C (stronger hand, probing for slam, and showing the ace of clubs).

Yeah, so I'm a bridge nut.

Edited to add: West should NOT be doubling on that hand. Look at it from a mathematical point of view. If he doesn't double, he loses 980 if you make it and wins 50 if you don't. If he doubles, he loses 1210 if you wake it and wins 100 if you don't. So, by doubling he stands to gain 50 if he's right and lose 230 if he's wrong. Now, West has two tricks ONLY if both North and South have at least one diamond and at least two hearts. The odds on this are not anywhere near 5:1.

Doubling slams is nearly always a losing proposition.

 

[Hurkyl]

I was talking with some bridge players at work, and they think that I had no business going straight for 4nt at that point either; I'm kinda lucky my partner had a tendency to underbid his hand, since it was very likely he had no aces at all!

I'm really going to have to learn cuebidding with my regular partner; I don't think I'd have enough faith to do it with a pickup partner.