How often do you find that two (or even more!) poor bids end in a wholly unjustified good result? The following example comes from a recent teams match in qualification for the Garden Cities. Names and county withheld to protect the guilty!

We had lost the first match 40-0, and the second 35-5, so we were all feeling pretty despondent. The third match seemed to be fairly dull until this hand (with me sitting South) came along:

Partner chose to open 1 and I responded 2, hopeful that a good game, probably in No Trumps, could be reached. North now called 3, a jump shift indicating a really big hand with more spades than diamonds. The slam light came on in my little brain, so I tried 4NT, Roman Key Card Blackwood.

Partner's 5 response, indicating two of the five key cards, and denying the Q filled me with consternation and dismay. The obvious runaway of 5 was already passed, and anyway I was beginning to wonder whether partner had invented the diamond bid to force the pace. No trumps still seemed to me to be the best home, but 5NT would be asking for kings, so with a sinking heart I punted 6NT.

A small heart was tabled by West, and I was looking at this:

Stifling any comment about the bidding sequence, I set about doing the best I could. As it turned out the play was simple — the A popped up from East on the first round, rather pleasingly, and the missing diamonds were 2-2 with the King onside, so +990 was soon chalked up. I could not chastise my partner for our only good result of the day, and the icing on the cake was the -460 at our other table when 3NT had met a spade lead with the King offside. You can vote as you wish on which was the worst bid, but the result was still a nice swing!

My partner on this hand was Roger. In the club he has gained a reputation for such "unusual" bidding sequences, which are frequently punished by the cards. But he succeeds often enough for the term "getting Rogered" to be used even in such polite circles!