Professional Documents
Culture Documents
page 1
June 2005
♠
♥
♦
♣
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Opening lead: ♦3
North Solution
♠543
♥A6 Nobody wants to guess clubs. The red
♦ J 10 9 8 herring is the ♥Q-10-5.
♣ A 10 9 8
West East If you play ♥A and a heart at tricks two
♠J9 ♠ Q 10 6 and three, unsuccessfully, LHO plays a
♥KJ98 ♥7432 third heart, forcing you to ruff in dummy
♦Q763 ♦542 and now you must (eventually) guess clubs.
♣??? ♣???
South The correct play is duck a round of
♠AK872 hearts at trick two, then win any return
♥ Q 10 5 (assuming not a club return, which makes it
♦AK easy), clear the ♥A and ♦A-K, after draw-
♣Q63 ing two rounds of trump, ruff a heart and
pass a diamond, pitching a club.
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Later this month the bridge circus will be has affected the development of the island,
setting up its tents in Tenerife for the sec- which has become like two different coun-
ond edition of the European Open Cham- tries: for sun, sea, pub and club, go to the
pionship, a two-week bridge bonanza open South; for green, scene, Spain and rain, go
to everyone, European or not, and including to the North. Unfortunately, we were lo-
a wide selection of events: Mixed Teams, cated in the South and the mix of purpose-
Mixed pairs, Open and Ladies Teams and built beaches, purpose-built apartments,
Open and Ladies Pairs. The venue is the purpose-built hotels, the purpose being to
Mare Nostrum complex, a huge resort at spend sunshine hours on the beach and
the Southwestern edge of the island, which nightlight hours getting drunk and wild in
was also the venue for the 2001 European the clubs, might be your average twenty-
Championships, when I came to Tenerife something’s dream, but it most surely is not
for the first time. my cup of tea.
Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Luckily I had a lot to keep me busy: The
Islands, and according to an ancient legend schedule of a European championship and
mentioned in Plato’s Dialogues, the archi- its seemingly endless round-robin matches
pelago is all that remains of the mythical is a grueling one and there was not a lot of
continent of Atlantis, brought down by an time left to regret the crimes perpetrated by
enormous cataclysm. Known in classical mass tourism to what must have been once
times with several exotic names like “Gar- a paradise of an island.
den of the Hesperides,” “Elysian Fields” and
“Island of Fortune,” the Canary islands were The Ladies competition was won by Eng-
only colonized by Spanish settlers during land (Dhondy, Smith, Goldenfield, Brunner,
the Renaissance. Courtney, Brock) with 393 VPs, 15 in front
of second place Netherlands, with Israel
Tenerife itself is a place of sharp con- finishing in seventh place just outside of the
trasts: the weather for a start is dramati- last qualifying place for the Venice Cup.
cally different in the Northeast from the
Southwest due to the dominant 10,000ft of The Open teams saw another Italian vic-
Mount Teide, grandmother of all volcanoes tory, the fourth in a row and a record for
in this neck of the woods, which stops rain the event (little did I know at the time that
and clouds from getting to the southern Italy would win the next two as well!). The
coast. That means that it generally remains Italian domination is all the more startling
hot and sunny in the south while passing because, unlike what was happening in
clouds may hunch around the mountain the sixties when their first Blue Team was
to the north. Such a difference in climate defeating everyone in sight, international
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May 8, 2005 — Las Vegas — The Cavendish Pairs has traditionally been
such a strong field that if you can average one imp a board over the course of
the event, you would expect to come close to winning the event. This year was
no exception. To test yourself against the field, I am going to give you a quiz
with four different elements: bidding, opening leads, defense and declarer play.
There will be no prizes for doing well, but as usual, since these are difficult
hands, you can rest assured that you will probably do a great deal better than
the majority of the players here. The scoring is cross-imps (each result is scored
against each table in play) – consider it to be the equivalent of teams scoring.
Bidding
Plan your auction on this round and the You do not have to like it (I can’t say I
next; you can confidently expect to hear do), but I’m going to force that redouble on
more spades coming from your left. What you as a sort of tactical maneuver. LHO
do you plan to do if the auction comes back bids one spade, and the auction is passed
to you at the four-level? back to you.
Opening Leads
Defense
cashes the ♦K and ♦A, partner following,
6. South dealer North then leads a heart to the king and ace.
Both vul ♠J983
♥K62 Back comes the ♣K. Declarer wins the
♦72 ace and plays back the ♣J. Partner takes
♣ 10 7 5 2 the trick with the queen and returns a low
West (you) spade. Declarer produces the king. What do
♠ A 10 5 4 you do from this point?
N
♥987 W E
S
♦J65 North
♣863 ♠J983
♥6
South West North East ♦—
2 NT pass 3♣ pass ♣ 10 7
3♥ pass 3 NT (all pass) West (you)
♠ A 10 5 4 N
You guess to lead a diamond. You only ♥98 W
S
E
just have time to mentally congratulate ♦—
yourself for not leading a club when de- ♣8
clarer takes partner’s ♦10 with the queen,
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Play
9. In second seat with nobody vulner- 10. Playing sound weak twos your part-
able you elect to open a strong notrump as ner propels you into a dubious game
South. The bidding takes an unusual turn
– not that this should surprise you if you South dealer North
make bids like this! None vul ♠864
♥Q74
North ♦AJ2
♠932 ♣ A J 10 4
♥ A 10 ♦K
♦K84 South (you)
♣Q9432 ♠AJ5
♥ K 10 9 5 3 2
South (you) ♦93
♠AK ♣32
♥K86
♦J97653 South West North East
♣ K 10 2♥ double redouble pass
pass 2♠ 3♠ pass
West North East South 3 NT (all pass)
— — pass 1 NT
2♠ 2 NT* double (all pass) West leads a top diamond, and you duck.
You also duck the ♠K, and West shifts to
*lebensohl the ♣9. Play on.
2. David Birman is known to possess a 3. Here is the full story. After a simple
streak of low cunning, with a fine tactical raise to 3♦, many Norths weakly passed
awareness, and it was never better exempli- their partner’s 3NT rebid.
fied than here.
East dealer North
North dealer North E-W vul ♠98542
E-W vul ♠K86 ♥A
♥KJ9 ♦KQ753
♦ A J 10 8 5 ♣87
♣63 West East
West East ♠ K Q 10 3 ♠J76
♠ 10 5 4 2 ♠AQ97 ♥9872 ♥ Q J 10 6 4
♥ 10 8 5 4 ♥AQ63 ♦84 ♦ J 10 2
♦— ♦4 ♣Q43 ♣J2
♣ J 10 9 8 2 ♣AQ54 South
South (Birman) ♠A
♠J3 ♥K53
♥72 ♦A96
♦KQ97632 ♣ A K 10 9 6 5
♣K7
West North East South
West North East South pass pass pass 1♣
— 1♦ double redouble pass 1♠ pass 2♦
1♠ pass pass* 3 NT pass 3♦ pass 3 NT
(all pass)
A fair percentage of the field reached a
His partner was marked with a balanced minor-suit slam after bidding on over 3NT,
hand, and the opponents’ bidding suggested but no one seemed exactly confident. By
that neither opponent had a five-card suit. contrast, Franck Multon, South, and Jean-
So David boldly jumped to 3NT at his sec- Christophe Quantin, North, bid and played
ond turn! I admire his choice, and think he this one to perfection:
was a little hard done by, when this turned
out to be the full hand. West North East South
pass pass pass 1♣
Not only did partner not have a side-ace, pass 1♠ pass 2♦
but LHO turned up with an unexpected pass 4♦ pass 4 NT
five-card suit. So 3NT went down a trick, pass 5♠ pass 7♦
painlessly enough. This was still a pick-up,
because many pairs played 5♦ doubled Easy to bid, once North can show five-
down 300. card diamond support, but maybe not so
easy to play on a top spade lead? Not so,
Losing 50 was worth 64 imps. Down as Franck demonstrated. He won the ♠A,
300 would have lost 60 imps. unblocked the ♥A, cashed the ♦K-Q, came
to the ♣A, then pitched the second club on
*Looks a bit conservativve to me. — Editor the ♥K. This was the key play; it allowed
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East dealer ♠98542 him to ruff a club in dummy, draw the last
E-W vul ♥A trump and claim. He pitched four spades on
♦KQ753 four club tricks. (Half of the field stopped
♣87 in game, so you may well ask whether the
♠ K Q 10 3 ♠J76 French journey was really necessary. As
♥9872 N ♥ Q J 10 6 4
W E against that, 6♦ will probably go down if
♦84 S ♦ J 10 2 either minor does not split. Perhaps the best
♣Q43 ♣J2 spot is 6♣, because of the club spots.)
♠A
♥K53
Plus 1440 was worth 270. Surprisingly,
♦A96
+920 would have gained 119.
♣ A K 10 9 6 5
4. West’s opening lead to 4♠ would tax a But even on a minor-suit opening lead,
Master Solvers’ Panel. game is not cold. On the ♣6 lead, which
looked rather like shortage, I watched Bart
South dealer ♠Q9643 Bramley win and play four rounds of clubs.
N-S vul ♥ 10 6 4 That brought home 10 tricks easily enough
♦A98 when East could only ruff in with a trump
♣ 10 4 trick. By contrast, quite a few declarers led
♠J2 ♠ A 10 5 a spade to the queen at trick two, and now
♥KJ83 ♥A972 went down.
♦ 10 6 4 ♦753
♣6532 ♣987 Bobby Levin found a superior play, may-
♠K87 be both technically and practically. He won
♥Q5 the opening club lead, crossed to the ♦A
♦KQJ2 and led a spade to the king. If it had lost, a
♣AKQJ heart back was unlikely since the heart lead
had not been found initially. As it was, he
South West North East could now revert to clubs with much better
2 NT pass 3♥ pass chances.
3♠ pass 3 NT pass
4♠ (all pass) At another table, Barry Goren found the
devastating ♠J lead. Jacek Pszczola “knew”
My belief is that a heart lead is called for, this had to be from the ♠J-10, so he ran
because even if declarer has the ♥A-Q, de- it to his hand and played a spade back…
clarer will surely be able to pitch dummy’s whoops! Down two when the defense drew
slow heart losers on one of the minors. The trumps and cashed out the hearts.
best chance to set the hand is to find part-
ner with the ♥A and take it from there. At another table, a low trump lead to the
Very few people agreed with me here (not first trick was considerably less successful.
unusual when it comes to opening leads). Since on this auction a spade lead figures to
cost a trick whenever partner has a trump
Beating 4♠ would have been worth
honor, I think the second choice is a dia-
214. Conceding 620 was a loss of 48.
mond.
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5. With South virtually marked with 6-5 6. Here is the full story:
minor-suit pattern,* and East likely to hold
no more than one significant card, maybe South dealer North
I’m being harsh, but I think the majority Both vul ♠J983
choice the ♥K lead was nothing short of ♥K62
pathetic. ♦72
♣ 10 7 5 2
South dealer North West East
E-W vul ♠ Q 10 5 3 ♠ A 10 5 4 ♠Q76
♥AJ64 ♥987 ♥AJ5
♦7 ♦J65 ♦ 10 8 3
♣Q932 ♣863 ♣KQ94
West East South
♠A6 ♠KJ742 ♠K2
♥KQ732 ♥ 10 9 8 5 ♥ Q 10 4 3
♦KQ6 ♦ J 10 8 ♦AKQ94
♣ J 10 6 ♣4 ♣AJ
South
♠98 South West North East
♥— 2 NT pass 3♣ pass
♦A95432 3♥ pass 3 NT (all pass)
♣AK875
Opening lead: ♦5
South West North East
1♦ 1♥ double 3♥ The play in 3NT started with three
5♣ (all pass) rounds of diamonds, then a heart to the
king and ace. East returns the ♣K. De-
Opening lead: ♥K clarer wins the ace and plays back the ♣J.
East wins the queen and leads a low spade.
As you can see this lets through 12 tricks, South plays the king.
whereas the ♠A and two more rounds of
spades promote the ♣J for down one. Is this What did you play after winning the
a collective blind spot, or am I simply biased ♠A?
by the result on this specific deal?
The answer is that whatever you do
*South could be 5-5, but even then a heart lead you cannot set the hand if declarer guesses
would be right only if South is an unlikely 1-2-5-5. spades correctly. Your best chance to set the
— editor hand may be to duck the ♠K. If declarer
cashes two more rounds of diamonds East
must pitch a spade and club, reducing to
Going +50 would have been worth this ending, known as a winkle:
200 imps (nobody beat 5♣ though
one pair beat 6♣ two tricks). Con-
ceding 400 would be –8 cross imps.
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7. The defenders have three tricks. his ♠A, he played the ♣A and another, and
managed to defeat the contract – but only
♠Q3 because East produced the ♥10. Better de-
♥— fense would have been to lead the ♣J to let
♦94 East overtake with the ♣Q and play a dia-
♣54 mond through, promoting the ♥9 by force
♠J ♠9 even if declarer had the ♥10. Why would
♥A96 N ♥ 10 you defend like that? Because East played
W E
♦— S ♦6 back the ♠6, not the 9, to your ace – his
♣AJ ♣Q76 only opportunity for suit preference for the
♠— lower suit on the hand thus far. That was
♥KJ854 how Billy Pollack and David Berkowitz de-
♦— fended the hand – I think they were a little
♣9 unlucky not to generate more of a swing in
their favor here.
This was the ending in 2♥, with West on
lead, and declarer having started life with a
2-6-2-3 shape, with the ♥K-J and the ♦K. No cross imps at stake since either
At the table I was watching when West took defense beats 2♥.
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10. Here is the full deal, where we left The Hard Way in Las Vegas
Geoff Hampson in 3NT on a top diamond
ducked, a top spade ducked, and the ♣9 On VuGraph, Massimo Lanzarotti, who
shift. won the event with Andrea Buratti, de-
North clared 4♥ on the lead of the ♥A and a top
♠864 spade switch. He won in hand and led a
♥Q74 club to the king and ace, then ran all but
♦AJ2 one of his trumps, reducing to a six-card
♣ A J 10 4 ending:
West East
♠KQ73 ♠ 10 9 2 ♠86
♥A ♥J86 ♥—
♦ K Q 10 5 ♦7643 ♦A
♣KQ97 ♣865 ♣ J 10 4
South ♠Q7 ♠ 10 9 2
♠AJ5 ♥— N ♥J86
W E
♥ K 10 9 5 3 2 ♦K S ♦7643
♦93 ♣Q97 ♣865
♣32 ♠J5
♥5
South West North East ♦93
2♥ double redouble pass ♣3
pass 2♠ 3♠ pass
3 NT (all pass) Weinstein as West kept one top diamond,
three clubs and two spades, and declarer
Hampson quite reasonably decided to kept dummy with exactly the same pattern.
play West for a 4-2-5-2 shape with ♣Q-9 Lanzarotti led a club to the jack, ruffed a
or ♣K-9. Since he could not afford to let club, crossed to the ♦A and exited with a
East in for a spade continuation, he flew club to West, who had to lead the ♠Q and
with the ♣A and knocked out the ♥A, let- ♠7 at the end. Yes, keeping the ♦J would
ting West cash out his five top winners for have been easier. That ♠6 in dummy was
down one. Even if you believe you would not needed!
not have fallen for this, you have to admire
David Berkowitz for his imagination in the
West seat.
The winners:
Andrea Buratti and Massimo Lanzarotti
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Chris Compton of the Deutsch team was PS. East could have saved the day by
South. He won the lead, cashed the ♦A, leading a club before the ♠Q.
and led a heart to the king, stripping his
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Joel Wooldridge was South (partnered by not against declarer trying to ruff a club in
John Hurd). dummy, so he returned a heart rather than
a trump. Wooldridge figured that Weinstein
South dealer North (Hurd) is not trying to make bad plays, and if a
All vul ♠QJ854 trump had been the right return, he would
♥A974 have returned one. So Wooldridge drew the
♦Q2 trumps himself. Then he played the rest of
♣K2 the trumps, arriving in this position:
West (Garner) East (Weinstein)
♠ 10 7 6 3 2 ♠K9 ♠Q
♥ 10 8 6 2 ♥J53 ♥A9
♦97 ♦ A 10 6 ♦—
♣43 ♣QJ975 ♣K2
South (Wooldridge) ♠ 10 ♠K
♠A ♥ 10 8 N ♥3
W E
♥KQ ♦— S ♦—
♦KJ8543 ♣43 ♣QJ97
♣ A 10 8 6 ♠—
♥—
South West North East ♦3
1♦ pass 1♠ pass ♣ A 10 8 6
2♣ pass 2♥ pass
3♦ pass 3 NT pass When Wooldridge played the last trump,
4 NT pass 6♦ (all pass) the ♦3, Steve Garner (West) threw the
♠10. Reading from the leads and carding
Opening lead: ♥6 (third best) in hearts that Garner had two hearts left,
Wooldridge threw the ♥9 from dummy,
Wooldridge won the ♥K, cashed the ♠A crossed to the ♣K and cashed the ♥A,
and played a diamond to the queen. How- squeezing Weinstein in spades and clubs.
ard Weinstein (East) won the trick and was After that one made, the boys tried another:
Joel Wooldridge
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South dealer North (Mahaffey) “When Alan passed the double, Barnet
E-W vul ♠ K Q 10 5 Shenkin jumped into the auction with a
♥63 4♠ bid. Peter doubled and that became the
♦ A 10 9 3 contract. Unfortunately, Peter ignored me
♣864 again! If only he had put me on the table.
West (Peter) East (Alan) Barnet would have had no choice but to go
♠A72 ♠43 after hearts. Peter could lead the ♦7 next
♥ Q 10 2 ♥AK7 and receive a diamond ruff on the third
♦J7 ♦865 round to set the contract. But he wasn’t
♣ A J 10 9 2 ♣KQ753 really worried that much about setting the
South (Barnet) contract, I think. After all, he and his part-
♠J986 ner had most of the deck, didn’t they?
♥J9854
♦KQ42 “Well, Peter led a heart instead. Alan
♣— won and shifted to a club. Barnet ruffed
and led another heart. Sontag won and
South West North East now tried a diamond shift — I was played
pass 1 ♦* pass 2♣ finally, but too late. Barnet ruffed a second
pass 3♣ pass 3♥ club in hand, went to the ♦10 and ruffed
pass 3♠ double pass his last club in hand. Then he led the ♠J
4♠ double (all pass) overtaking in dummy and continued with
the ♠K to knock-out the ♠A. He ruffed
*Precision Club system, could be short the club return, drew the last trump and
cashed two more diamonds for +590.
Opening lead: ♥2
“Even if Peter had led a low trump on
“There I was in the West hand, ignored opening lead it would not have helped. And
for the most part. My holder, Peter Weich- I know many players would have. Declarer
sel, was too enamored with the ♥10 and can win the trump lead and play a heart.
♣10-9 to notice me. As you can see from If the defenders continue trumps, declarer
the auction, he opened 1♦, which could leads a second heart and has the timing to
be short (and was). He and Alan Sontag ruff out hearts, so that’s no good. If the de-
play Super Precision, where 1NT open- fenders switch to clubs at trick three, declar-
ings show 15-17 points and 1♦ followed er leads a second heart. Now another club
by 1NT shows 12-14. Well, Peter was plan- is led and declarer ruffs in hand and leads a
ning to raise a major-suit response to two, diamond toward dummy, finessing through
but his partner bid 2♣ instead. That was me! He can ruff a third club and get back
nice. Peter raised to 3♣ and Alan bid 3♥, to the ♦A to lead trumps and make it that
looking for 3NT and denying a diamond way. No, I had to be led at trick one (OK,
stopper. I didn’t qualify for that, so Peter my friend the ♦7 could have been led as
bid 3♠, since he hated to give up on 3NT. well).”
He was sort of hoping his partner would
bid 3NT with a half stopper in diamonds. At the other table, Mahaffey’s teammates
Then North, Mahaffey, spoiled everything played 5♣ down one, for a 9-imp gain. Here
by doubling. are the final scores of the round of 16:
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Tuesday, May 17
(1) Schwartz
Bye The quarterfinals are underway and
every match from here on in is a long 2-day
(9) Simson 177 120 board affair. The match-ups are (with
(8) Lynch 152 half-time scores at the end of the day):
The only really close match is Cayne ver- when you table these cards in 2♣ doubled.
sus Ekeblad, 94 to 85. If you want to know Cayne, an old rubber bridge player, passed.
how tough it is at this level of competition, But this was imps and suddenly things took
look at this hand, where Jimmy Cayne and a strange turn: LHO bid 4♠ and partner bid
Michael Seamon had to sweat and strain 5♣! A new problem occurred:
just to get a push board. Try it from Cayne’s
viewpoint: West North East South
1♠ pass 4♠ 5♣
♠A8 pass ?
♥ A 10 4 2
♦K984 It’s now your side’s hand, and you must
♣654 decide whether to carry on to slam or give
up in 5♣ and table this fine hand after
All vul, you’re North, in second seat. having never made a bid.
Your RHO opens 1♠. Your call.
Cayne thought for quite awhile and
Would you double? I think I might if passed, which turned out to be the winning
the ♠A were the ♣A, but in this case if it call. The full hand:
goes redouble, you might soon lose a partner
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(2) Welland 317 You are East. Partner leads the ♦4, won
with the jack. The ♣A is cashed, then
a trump led to the king and 3. A club is
This leaves semifinal matches of Schwartz ruffed (partner shows an even number),
vs. Ekeblad, Robinson vs. Welland. then the ♦A led. What do you pitch?
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South dealer North heart. Fallenius did the same, then took the
None vul ♠K63 heart finesse. West returned the ♠J. Falleni-
♥752 us won the king, led a heart to the ace and
♦AQJ975 cashed the ♣K, throwing a spade. He was
♣A hoping clubs would break 4-3, but when
West East West discarded, he ruffed a club and led the
♠QJ84 ♠972 last trump:
♥ K J 10 6 ♥983 ♠6
♦643 ♦ 10 8 ♥7
♣76 ♣ Q J 10 9 5 ♦9
South ♣—
♠ A 10 5 ♠Q8 ♠97
N
♥AQ4 ♥J W E ♥—
S
♦K2 ♦— ♦—
♣K8432 ♣— ♣Q
♠ A 10
South West North East ♥—
1 NT pass 2 NT pass ♦—
3♦ pass 3♠ pass ♣8
3 NT pass 4 NT pass
6♦ (all pass) On the ♦9, East threw a spade and Falle-
nius threw the ♣8. West was squeezed in
Bjorn Fallenius, of the Welland team, the majors. East was sorry he had pitched a
declared 6♦ against a trump lead. He won heart from the 9-8-3!
the ♦J, cashed the ♣A, led to the ♦K and
ruffed a club, then drew the last trump. PS. The slam can always be made if
declarer comes down to ♠A-10 and ♥A-Q,
East cannot throw a club, so it’s between with West holding ♠Q-J and ♥K-J. But
spades and hearts. He threw an innocent declarer can’t possibly know this.
David Berkowitz found the killing de- David was East. His 5♦ lead-director got
fense on this deal, by picturing declarer’s partner off to the ♦3 lead. David won the
distribution. ace and realized no more diamonds were
cashing. Declarer’s bidding sounded like 5-5
South dealer North or 6-5 in the blacks and partner was marked
None vul ♠KQ7 with at least two trumps. That gave part-
♥Q9 ner 2-7-3-1 shape. So David knew the best
♦7654 defense. He switched to a club, grabbed the
♣ 10 9 3 2 ♠A and led another club. Down one.
West East
♠J4 ♠A95 Yes, it would have been easier for West
♥KJ87543 ♥ 10 6 2 to lead his singleton, but David might hold
♦K93 ♦ A Q J 10 2 three diamonds for his bid and no ♠A,
♣6 ♣Q7 where a cash-out of three diamond tricks
South would be necessary.
♠ 10 8 6 3 2
♥A At the end of the day the semifinal scores
♦8 looked like this:
♣AKJ854
Friday, May 20
After 118 boards, the Robinson team had Bramley cashed two club tricks and led a
a 4-imp lead against the Welland team. In trump to the king. Zia led a low spade and
the other semifinal, Schwartz vs. Ekeblad, it Bramley guessed right by going up with the
was a dead tie at this point! king. When he led another spade, Rosen-
berg (East) rose with the queen, cashed the
Board 119 - rotated ♥A and exited with a spade. This left de-
North dealer North clarer with the task of taking three diamond
Both vul ♠K53 tricks, and when Bramley played the suit in
♥9432 the normal fashion, he was down one. That
♦KJ93 meant 7 imps to the Welland team, who
♣ K 10 had taken the lead by 3.
West East
♠A8764 ♠ Q 10 2 In the Schwartz-Ekeblad match, Larry
♥K ♥A7 Cohen declared 4♥ and received the ♠A
♦ 10 ♦Q8765 opening lead. This lead didn’t hurt declarer.
♣875432 ♣QJ9 He won the next spade lead with the king
South and stripped all the black cards before
♠J9 leading trumps. West, in with the ♥K, was
♥ Q J 10 8 6 5 stuck and had to lead his ♦10, so Cohen
♦A42 scored up 620.
♣A6
At the other table, Jim Krekorian (East
In the Robinson-Welland match, Roy for the Schwartz team) opened the bidding
Welland opened 2♥ in third chair and 1♦, so when Drew Casen (West) found him-
was raised to 3♥. That’s where he played self on lead against 4♥ he decided the best
it, making an overtrick. At the other table, lead would be the ♦10. Well, there went
Bart Bramley opened 1♥ in third seat, the diamonds, but not only that. When
heard Drury and jumped to game. Zia declarer led a trump from dummy, East
(West) led the ♣7. went up with the ace to give his partner a
diamond ruff. Oops. Making an overtrick
was worth 650 and one imp to the Ekeblad
team. So going into the last board, Welland
led by 3 and Ekblad by one.
Bart Bramley
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Deal 120 - rotated the slam. Now Feldman was in the hot seat.
North dealer North A club lead defeats the slam, a spade or
None vul ♠K982 trump lead forces declarer to guess the ♥Q.
♥AJ2 And a heart lead gives the slam. Feldman
♦974 led a heart, hoping to catch partner with
♣986 the ♥K and an outside ace. So the Welland
West East team won 12 imps and the match.
♠ Q 10 6 ♠J7543
♥Q987 ♥643 In the Schwartz-Ekeblad match, where
♦52 ♦6 Ekeblad was leading by one imp, at the first
♣ J 10 7 4 ♣AK53 table:
South
♠A West North East South
♥ K 10 5 Berkowitz Moss Cohen Gitelman
♦ A K Q J 10 8 3 — pass pass 1♦
♣Q2 pass 1♠ pass 3 NT
(all pass)
In the Robinson-Welland match, Robin-
son-Boyd played in 3NT, scoring 490 after a Berkowitz figured Gitelman for short
heart lead. At the other table: spades and led the dramatic ♠Q. Nice try.
Gitelman won, went to dummy in dia-
West North East South monds, cashed the ♠K, discarding a club,
Feldman Rosenberg Bramley Zia and ran diamonds. Berkowitz kept one
— pass pass 1♦ spade and three hearts; Cohen kept one
pass 1♠ pass 3 ♥* spade, one heart and the ♣A-K. Gitelman
pass 5♦ pass 6♦ led a heart to the ace and a heart back, and
(all pass) when Cohen showed out, he had to settle
for 11 tricks, +460.
*artificial, showing a strong one-suited hand with
diamonds At the other table:
Had Zia known he was ahead by 3 imps West North East South
at this point, he might have settled for Hampson Krekorian Greco Casen
5♦. Then if he made an overtrick, his side — pass pass 3 NT
would lose 2 imps and win the match by (all pass)
one. But he didn’t know the score and bid
Hampson led a heart. So that was one
precious imp to the Schwartz team and a tie
score. There would be an 8-board playoff!
The Playoff
Mark Feldman The first five boards of the playoff were
pushes. The score was still tied, with three
boards to go....
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Table 2
West North East South At Table 2, Gitelman also opened that
Krekorian Moss Casen Gitelman “drek” but didn’t find the spade fit, because
— — pass 1♣ Krekorian bid the suit first. After 2♠ by
1♠ 2 ♠* pass 2 NT Moss, North-South did well to stop in 2NT,
(all pass) down one. The swing was 90 points, 3 imps
to the Ekeblad team, with two boards left.
*limit raise or better in clubs
Fred Gitelman
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Table 1
West North East South
Hampson Cohen Greco Berkowitz
1♦ 1♠ double 3♦
3♥ 3♠ 4♥ (all pass)
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But Krekorian and Casen play 3♠ as a This was one of the most exciting finals
splinter bid in any suit, and there was no in history, in which the Ekeblad team came
reason to suspect that Casen did not hold from behind to wallop the Welland team
a good hand for his 1♥ opening. After all, in the last two sets. Read the July issue of
he could have been dealt one. So Krekorian Bridge Today for all the wonderful hands!
made the disciplined 3♠ response to leave
slam options open.