Aunt Agony speaks
Now I was on the bus yesterday listening to my handphone with limited songs, when this particular line of this chinese song struck me. It said, "You said love can't be founded by only one person's efforts" and my mind jumped its associations to: THE BRIDGE GAME I WAS PLAYING BEFORE I WENT OUT.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one to think of this association okay.
What happened in that bridge game was I had 15 points and 6 hearts (lol hearts!!!) so I was pretty excited, since 15 points is enough for a 1nt opening bid on a balanced hand! So I opened 1 heart to indicate at least 12 points and 5 card hearts. My opponent overcalled 1spade. I waited in anticipation for my partner to give me that affirmative nod.
TO MY DISAPPOINTMENT, MY PARTNER PASSED.
So I thought, okay, my partner has sad points and no heart support. Maybe if I rebid hearts my partner will realize I have wonderful six carder hearts and so tell me that he has a doubleton! Which is what I did. I rebid 2h. The next opponent passed, ...and my partner passed yet again, but hey, 2h should be an okayish contract. Except the other opponent who had been passing suddenly decided to bid something totally random.
Of course I should have let it be and tried to down it.
But no, after all this excitement over a 6-carder heart hand and good enough points after a long barren streak of passing, how could I let it go?!? So my itchy fingers went to bid 3h, which was doubled (grr) and passed over.
When dummy's hand was unveiled, I fmled.
Void in hearts.
Means my opponents had more hearts than me and I was missing K and J to them.
Well needless to say it was downed by one. None of the 3h 4h contracts made, 2h was the right contract for my side.
ANYWAY THE POINT IS, IMAGINE A RELATIONSHIP AS A BRIDGE GAME.
In the above scenario, this fit the song lyrics perfectly! I HAD SIX HEARTS AND MY PARTNER HAD NONE. I was holding the fort for the whole trump suit! I was like the selflessly giving partner trying to maintain the screwed up relationship! Which went down anyway despite not being at game level (aka 4h)!
Remember little kids, if you end up in such a relationship you are likely to go down. As the chinese song lyric tells you and as my bridge game tells you.
HOWEVER, in special circumstances you might not go down! Say your partner has a wonderful side suit (actually he did, he had lots of clubs but I couldn't run them because the opponents were having a field day at the start with my losers) and adequate support for the other suits so that your opponents don't get to run their honours. Okay for this analogy to work the opponents of a relationship shall be fate, friends, commitments, lifestyles, etc. In such a case, even though your partner might have void hearts, you're still able to make your contract because both of you are great enough!
To draw a parallel to this greatness let us take you and your partner as souls which are independently wonderful enough as individuals, and so together you merge forces and rule the world!
Of course, a 4h contract isn't the best thing you can get in a bridge game, which probably means both of you weren't so awesome that you could rule the world.
Let us now separate the types of relationships into suited and non-suited.
Trying to find a good match would be like trying to find a fit during bidding. If during the bidding you find out you have some brilliant 9 card fit your relationship is in all probability going to be superb! This is because both of you think so similarly that conflicts are minimal. So this is the likes attract kind of relationship. However, how great your relationship can get (a world of difference between 4h and grand slam in hearts) depends on how much of a fit you find and how many points you share. Maybe both of you suck in points but hey, you all have void every other suit and a great 11 card fit! This would be the SO SIMILAR THAT NOTHING CAN GO WRONG relationship. Ok, unless you suck as a declarer. Which is me at times. Or maybe you all only have a 8 card fit but great honours everywhere! This would be the SOME SIMILARITIES, BUT BOTH INDEPENDENT ENOUGH TO SUSTAIN BY ONESELF kind of relationship. Which works too!
And of course, there is the non-suited contract, aka no trump!
No trump can be divided into slams and games, ie 6nt vs 3nt (we leave 7nt out of the discussion since I have never done 7nt before). Contrary to popular belief, 3nt can be harder than 6nt! This is because if you bid up to 6nt, chances are you probably have almost every existing honour already. Both of you are awesome all-rounders and lack at most, hopefully, one honour. This makes winning tricks a breeze because if honours aren't going to take the tricks, what is? However, if you land into a 3nt contract, it means you have SOME points, but not enough to go up, and who knows, maybe you ended there because you couldn't find a fit in any other suit and decided that nt was a good idea.
No it wasn't.
Ok yes it was, I am told, as opposed to a 5-minor suit game. Since you get about the same points for both but you need to win two more tricks for the minor suit game.
Too bad, I hate 3nt anyway.
Why? Let me paint you a real scenario. I was the happy defender in this game.
My opponents had bid up to 3nt, as you probably guessed. Except they probably bid up to 3nt without finding out that they were sad in spades. Now this defender over here had 5-carder spades, and was itching to down their contract by running spades. The problem is, this defender lacked the ace in spades. So she led a small spade out. And hoped.
And the goddess of hope answered with an ace by my partner.
My partner, being a smart creature, led another spade out. For some reason the queen of spades of the declarer dropped (I don't know if he had doubleton spades, or he was daydreaming) and obviously I won it with my king. Now that the queen was gone, the field was clear. J next, and the other two spades, and HAH TOO BAD FOR THEIR 3NT CONTRACT. To top things off my partner had an ace in another suit which I found.
See, picture yourself as the 3nt declarers.
This is the case where you two probably think you are awesome in some ways, and are trying to find stoppers in the suits that you aren't so awesome in. If you are lucky and you are a great declarer, your 3nt will go through because you both just happen to match like jigsaw pieces. However, in other cases like my bridge game which I have just demonstrated, you end up fmling and going down. Because no, you do not have all the stoppers (uh you all weren't opposite enough to make it a great opposites attract and stay together relationship?) and you weren't independently wonderful enough.
That concludes my insights on THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN BRIDGE AND RELATIONSHIPS. Signing off, the greatest and most helpful aunt agony in the world. Hope the bridge analogies helped your love life.
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far and wee
you and i together mysteriously and always floating
Sunday, April 18
6:15 PM
