In a recent county-league match between some of our promising youngsters, I kibitzed the following spectacular poor bridge. To protect the guilty I will not mention names, but the four players are two bronze-medallists from the last European University Championships, one player who represented Norway in the last World Junior Championships in Sydney and one national mixed-pairs champion. Since Norway won both the mixed-pairs and the mixed-teams in the last European Championships that should count for something.

Up to a point the bidding looks very impressive, North/South playing relay-precision:

South's 1 was natural, while 2 and 2 were relays. North showed a 14-15 NT, and then exact 3=2=5=3 distribution with his 3 bid. This was doubled by East, to make sure he remembered which suit to lead. 3 was natural and 4 and 4 cue-bids (Italian style, showing first or second round control). 5NT was the first masterbid, intended as "Pick a slam". South however took this as another hypermodern (?) gadget they also use, namely the Culbertson 4/5 NT (showing two keycards, as North, who may have had a backup plan, actually has).

The true masterbid however was 6, intended as a cuebid investigating 7 (North only needs to hold the Q and the K to make it almost laydown). North's pass can hardly be described as a masterbid, but at least they ended in a better fit than after most Exclusion/Voidwood sequences (another modern gadget, seemingly invented to give players a chance to impress with their declaring skills in high-level 3-0 or 4-0 trump-fits).

Before the lead East asked some questions. Unfortunately, while North/South's bidding cards remained, East/West's bidding cards were already removed. The explanations East got must have been so confusing that he forgot which suit he had doubled to remember leading it (a club lead and continuation results in three down since declarer's trumps will be exhausted before hearts are established). He chose instead the Q (since 1 was natural this was contraindicated somewhat by the bidding), and the contract, only needing a miracle in the trump-suit (and hearts 3-2), duly made. At other tables 6 was a normal contract playing natural methods, going off (it can be made double-dummy by playing on diamonds instead of spades). The junior internationals at the other table in this match, who probably also had some very advanced gadgets at their disposal, ended instead in 7. Although better than the 5-0 fit in diamonds at the outset, this also needed a small miracle (needs to solve trumps and ruff a heart low), but since this was not forthcoming North/South won the board and the match.