February is probably the most exciting and glamorous month in the bridge calendar. A couple of weeks ago, über-sponsor Pierre Zimmermann held his Cavendish Monaco Teams and Auction Pairs tournament, which attracts the best players in the world, all vying for a chance to pick up the big player’s pot or score in the auction. I played the Pairs with my regular victim Artur Malinowski — known by all as Bidonemoreski!
Mind you, it’s very tempting to overbid playing with Artur; his declarer play is so brilliant and he seems to conjure up tricks from thin air. Occasionally, when my dummy goes down, his ‘Thank you, partner’ has the ring of a cat being strangled, but heigh-ho, he usually brings home the bacon. Today’s hand (from the Cav pairs) shows the creativity of his play:
West led the ♠7 and Artur put in the Queen from dummy hoping that opener had both top honours, but East won his King and they cashed the first four spade tricks.
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