Sometimes the Fates enjoy a joke at your expense. The perverse distribution of the cards makes it impossible to land your bid. Even if the opponents throw their cards against the wall they will land favorably for them. Then comes the surprise. When you see the results, you find that other pairs succeeded at the same bid. In fact, they even took overtricks! How could they possibly do it?

K842 J874 8 5432 76 AK10532 954 QJ QJ3 Q6 AKJ1073 A6 A1095 9 Q62 K10987 North East South West 2 4 3 2 East led the A

A round of normal bidding yielded an 11-trick total. Alas, even with North/South trying their best to fumble the ball, East and West had no chance at their 6-bid. East led the A, partner dropping the Q, and continued clubs. South ducked this trick, allowing West to win the J. West tried the A-K but South trumped. Now South led the 10, ducked by North, as players will do. East took his Q and cashed a top diamond, but that was the fifth and final trick for his side. The next diamond was trumped. When North/South played two rounds of spades, removing all trump from the table, South's hand was high.

So how did two other East/West pairs bring in their doomed 6-bid? The bidding was identical to that at our first table, and even the play to the first three tricks was the same. But the Fates whispered to the North/South pairs at these tables to play the bagging game. They cleverly passed up a few chances to win tricks lest it cost them bags. Avoid bags they did, and they paid for their choice when the scores were posted. But this was no consolation to the North/South pair who went set. They received a bottom score through no fault of their own.