Justin Lall

A Lightner Double August 29, 2011

After 75 of 120 boards in the round of 8 of the team trials, our team was up by 45 imps. This may sound like a lot, until you realize that we were playing against the Nickell team. The team that has not missed a Bermuda bowl in an incredible 16 years, since before I even played bridge. Not just that, they have become known for being down significant margins early on, playing perfectly, and winning. They always bring it at this point, and it was our job to stop them.

My partner Joe and I were playing against Meckstroth and Rodwell, my vote for the best pair in the world (and I am not alone). After the first five boards of the fifteen board set, my scorecard read:

-140
-140
-140
-790
-420

I don’t have to tell you the hands for you to know that this is not good. They were not pushing to game when it wouldn’t make, and they had made two games, one doubled. One might have heard thoughts like, “Am I going to be another victim of an inevitable Meckwell comeback? Another statistic…” creeping slowly into my head as I was dealt:

Q95432
KJ52
J
64

Meckstroth on my left opened 1, which could be as short as 2. My partner overcalled 1 and Rodwell bid 2 showing a game force with clubs. I was white/white and just bid 4 based on my shape, maybe we can make and surely it’s a good preempt. This was passed around to Rodwell who leapt to 6. We passed the tray, and Joe doubled it!

This is a lightner double and tells me to make an unusual lead. There were 2 options, my partner had AK or AQ of diamonds (the first bid suit), or he had a spade void and wanted a ruff. Which was it?

This lead felt very important. Not only would it likely swing 20+ imps, it would change the momentum a lot. Meckwell had a solid set against us, and if they got this one in they would be pretty much crushing us. That is tough psychologically. That…

Wake up! Let’s think about the right lead and not the psychology or the importance of the moment. I talk a lot about how I want the rock, how clutch I am, etc, time to put my money where my mouth is, right now.

The key here is that we need two tricks. If partner can ruff a spade, we need another trick. If partner has the ace of diamonds or the ace of clubs, that will set them, but in that case so would leading my stiff diamond! If partner has the heart ace, it is likely to be getting ruffed anyways. Some might argue partner wouldn’t even double with the heart ace and a spade void.

Leading a spade will be necessary if we have a slow diamond trick and a ruff coming, this is possible, but it’s got to be much less likely than partner having the AK or AQ of diamonds and trying to get a diamond lead, or partner having a minor suit ace and a spade void and a diamond lead beating it anyways.

No, leading a spade would be a clear error. A superficial lead that had no thought behind it.

I led a spade.

Partner had the AQx of diamonds, so instead of +300, I got to add -1090 to my scoresheet (declarer had a spade void and pitched 2 diamonds on the AK of spades in dummy).

I did not know the exact score, but in reality it was 0-35 for the set at this point, we were ahead only 10. We had to play Nickell for 2 and a half more long sets, and we were up only 10. And they had the momentum.

It is easy at this point to want to curl up and die. It is easy to be embarrassed that you just made this error in front of thousands of virtual kibitzers. It was easy for me to feel angry at myself, because I did the one thing I say is a complete no-no in bridge, never make a mistake and then know immediately after why it was a mistake. If you do this, it means you should have thought for a little bit longer, checked your work. If you miss something, fine, but if you don’t bother to take five extra seconds in the biggest board of the biggest match of your life when you are the fastest player in the event which effectively gives you limited time…. !@*&$&*$!

It is easy to feel defeated.

These are the kinds of thoughts you need to eliminate from your mind when you’re playing. Maybe they’ll pop up, but you have to forgive yourself for making a mistake, and bear down even harder. Don’t try to make it up, try to grind it out and not give them anything more. Believe in yourself that you can do this, you’ve done it many times before, it is irrelevant that the stakes are now higher. If you want to justify your cocky attitude, prove to the world that you can fight from this point and control your emotions and play your best game.

Joe and I went for a smoke 1 or 2 board later (as was custom for the 4 of us halfway through the set). Joe told me we’re going to finish the set in a solid fashion, not give them anything, and we were goign to stop their huge momentum. I completely agreed. We were in this together.

For the second half of that set, Meckwell continued to play brilliantly and not give us anything, but we didn’t give them anything either. It was a hard fought battle of flattish boards from there, and we went on a 14-0 run. Nothing spectacular, but that’s what we were shooting for.

In my mind, this was a key moment in the match mentally for both Joe and myself. We knew Meckwell were coming for us. We knew they were going to play great. But we also knew that even if there was adversity, we were going to be tough and see what happened. Going through something like the first half of that set (and that board in particular), and not steaming or giving them anything else was really important for our partnership confidence.

We were fortunate enough to be able to go on to win that match. Our teammates played great, and we had the best of the luck. We weren’t another statistic, we were there to fight for the right to represent USA in the Bermuda Bowl, and we now all believed we could actually win it.

I wrote many years ago about defining moments, who would have thought that one of my positive ones would be making a horrible error in a crucial point of a crucial match?