Boxcars by Foxymoron

 In many dice games, but especially craps, rolling two sixes, "boxcars," is an automatic loss. Instant bad luck. I don’t know why double six is related to covered railroad cars, perhaps a fully-loaded boxcar on a train track is somehow equivalent to a six on a die which is as fully loaded as a side gets.

One meaning for "boxcars" is as an adjective: "Long, high, as in 'long odds,' 'high odds.' (Mainly racetrack use; from the high numbers frequently seen on the sides of railroad freight cars.)" Another meaning for "boxcars" as a plural noun: "In craps, a throw of double-6 . . . the highest number in craps, a 12." The chance of a 6-6-1-0 hand in bridge, "boxcars with an engine", is a paltry 0.00072, so the dealing god smiled on me today and did give me a hand of long odds. We would have had a top for bidding and making Six Hearts on the following hand, 83% for bidding and making Six Diamonds and we should have had a bottom for our actual auction to 6NT. Meanwhile, 6S doubled would be a good sacrifice for NS, costing only 800. 

We might have bid better. I should have opened 1H, rather than 2C. If North had overcalled 4S, I would have been poorly placed, and would have been forced to guess the final contract. Partner’s Redouble was undiscussed. I think Redouble should be 0-4 and Pass 5+, with bids still being positives, showing a good five-card suit with two honours, hut we had no agreement. I had a chance to bid my suits with 3H and 4D, and partner’s jump to 6NT was completely barking.

"It's just six of one and half a dozen of the other.", is a line from The Pirate by Frederick Marryat (1836) "Were I to allot each their shares of illiberality, I should say, there are six of the one and half-a-dozen of the other;", a line from "Romance and Reality" by Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1831). It would have been six of one and half a dozen of the other if partner had chosen the normal 6D over 4D, as I would have corrected to 6H, and secured a top without risk. Instead my partner "diced with death" with the ridiculous bid of 6NT. Poor South just had time to lead a spade, when East could claim. So “All’s Well that Ends Well” as the bard, and no doubt the second person to get the covid vaccine, William Shakespeare of Warwick, would also have said.