Round 6: The Second Half Begins

Bd: 1 Dlr: North Vul: None J8 982 A9852 J98 A532 AKJ104 104 75 K10764 76 K7 AK62 Q9 Q53 QJ63 Q1043

This is not much of a slam (it needs more than trumps coming in; either the A onside or four heart winners, and perhaps a bit more). We were not expecting many pairs to bid it and in this we were correct. OKAY's Akihiko Yamada-Kyoko Ohno and HANAGUMI's Kimi Makita-Keiko Matsuzaki brought in 11 imps for their teams, who both won their matches. If West bids hearts and shows any interest in slam, East is sure to cooperate, holding excellent controls and reasonable spades (the ten). An interesting question for players using strong club systems is whether West should bid his hand out or instead raise 1 to 4, giving up on slam in the interest of giving nothing away in the bidding while shutting out a potential sacrifice.

With eight top tricks and some hopes for a ninth, you wouldn't mind being in 3NT with the N/S cards on their combined 23-count. Eleven pairs reached this game and all but two of them made it, usually on the lead of a high diamond or a low one from West. In only one match was game bid at both tables. Jurek Czyzowicz of CANADA LITVACK found one of the winning options for the defense by leading a spade as West. The other declarer to fail in 3NT played it from the North side and got the challenging lead of the J. If declarer ducks in dummy, East can switch to diamonds, but even on a heart continuation, a spade switch is equally effective. And if declarer covers the heart (the wrong play) the defense cashes out immediately. In that match the deal was passed out at the other table! If you're going to reach 3NT and make it you might as well find a sequence of bids that will surely irritate your opponents in the process. Although we do not consider ourselves masters of this art, the auction perpetrated by a certain Canadian pair would be an early candidate for the Bulletin's "All Ugly" award:

Bd: 2 Dlr: East Vul: N/S K10 943 J92 AK954 8432 A2 KQ876 J8 QJ65 KJ1076 543 6 A97 Q85 A10 Q10732 West North East South Borewicz Mittlmn Otvosi Kokish   Pass 1 1 2() 2 3 Pass Pass 3 DBL* Pass 3 Pass 3NT All Pass

South's 3 showed a hand that would pass a limit raise, usually with a fifth club. As you might well open the North hand, it's not clear that you should deem it to be worth no more than a limit raise. But George Mittelman's evaluation was reasonably accurate on this layout. When Ervin Otvosi reopened with 3 he had no inkling that his opponents would think twice about their previous decision. South doubled to suggest a "maximum minimum" with defense and now North decided to look for 3NT on the way to 4 (3 doubled would have gone only one down). His 3 bid was supposed to show something in hearts (3 would be the way to look for a full heart stopper) but here all roads were leading to 3NT. Marek Borewicz made the sensible lead of the K but that gave declarer an easy ride. In the other room, N/S sold out to 3 and beat it a trick.

Bd: 3 Dlr: South Vul: E/W A105 A9 10 KQ98652 Q8 654 KJ8732 J10 962 QJ832 96 A43 KJ743 K107 AQ54 7

Most N/S pairs played these cards in 4 or 5, but there were four notable exceptions. CHINA's Yu Zhang-Wenfei Wang and BRIDGE FORUM's Natsuhiko Nagumo-Haruko Sugawara both reached 6, but Wenfei made it while Haruko did not. DREAM's Youko Saito-Shudi Zhang and JAPAN OLYMPIAD's Yoshoyuki Nakamura-Shunsuke Morimura both reached 6, which is much worse, but with the clubs guessable (East must duck the ace to force declarer to decide whether to play for jack-ten doubleton or ace-[jack/ten] doubleton) a shrewd view in spades will get the job done. Yoshoyuki got everything right; Youko did not.

Bd: 5 Dlr: North Vul: N/S A98643 864 Q95 10 105 109 AK872 9752 QJ KQ5 J1064 KJ63 K72 AJ732 3 AQ84

It is clear that N/S must reach game, particularly if South's first bid is an overcall in hearts and E/W get to the three-level quickly. But in practice game was bid about two-thirds of the time. At single-dummy it might appear that E/W can save profitably at 5 but at double-dummy we can see that the defense can get two clubs, two club ruffs, and three major-suit tricks for five down; minus 1100. That was the sad fate suffered by LITVACK's Czyzowicz-Wolpert.

Although a few N/S pairs did not reach game, this was a relatively dull board for the most part. The main point of interest was the club suit, in which the technical play for five tricks is to cash the ace first. It appears from the result sheets that there were many declarers who did not get this combination right.

Bd: 8 Dlr: West Vul: None 62 103 A832 KQ1097 93 Q865 Q7 J8432 10854 AJ974 KJ94 -- AKQJ7 K2 1065 A65

Bd: 9 Dlr: North Vul: E/W A109752 KQ43 QJ 6 QJ 1062 K10642 532 6 J987 A9753 KJ4 K843 A5 8 AQ10987

Nine of the 30 N/S pairs missed 6 on this combination. We can't help but wonder how many of the successful South players knew of North's singleton club and sixth spade, but perhaps everyone was on firm ground all along.

This was a potential trouble deal for E/W if East started with a weak notrump, and there were several penalties incurred at those tables. Many N/S pairs attempted 3NT but only seven of them made it, usually with some inspired dummy play. In CANADA OLYMPIAD versus POLAND, the Canadian East player, Robert Lebi, found the excellent lead of the 10 against Piotr Gawrys' 3NT. Nader Hanna did not overtake, but Gawrys did not duck. He had too much work to do and the defenders were in full control and set the contract two tricks. In the other room, Otvosi opened the East hand with 1, which led to: West North East South Borewicz Mittlmn Otvosi Kokish   1 Pass Pass DBL Pass Pass 1NT DBL All Pass

Bd: 10 Dlr: East Vul: Both 6 AJ54 K743 KQ53 92 9873 QJ96 J97 AJ53 K62 A108 1042 KQ10874 Q10 52 A86

Mittelman led his singleton spade, giving his partner a good read on the distribution. Kokish won the 10 at trick one and returned the Q to dummy's ace. Borewicz, who was desperate to piece together five tricks, called for dummy's 10, effectively duplicating Lebi's play from a rather different perspective. Here, however, the ten was overtaken. Mittelman made a very good play by withholding his king (South could have held a singleton) but now Borewicz led the Q, adding new definition to the term "two-way finesse. When the Q held, he led a heart towards the king and so took five tricks for minus 500, a 12-imp loss for his efforts.

Bd: 13 Dlr: North Vul: Both A1075 K103 732 A95 QJ62 A5 AKJ9 K43 K983 974 Q865 J8 4 QJ862 104 Q10762

About half the field reached 4 with the E/W cards and went at least one down. Other contracts covered a wide spectrum, from 1NT (E/W) to club and heart partials (N/S). Among the least likely contracts was the 3NT declared by Marek Borewicz against CANADA OLYMPIAD after some interference by N/S. He was treated to a spade lead from North and so had eight tricks early on. When North won the A, South discarded the 2, with a clue from the auction that North had honor-third in both hearts and clubs. That was an attempt to suggest slightly better hearts than clubs to get North to switch to his king-suit rather than his ace-suit. South was by now known to hold a heart-club two-suiter for his intervention after 1(strong)-Pass-1(negative). Although the partnership plays reverse signals, the idea was that South would not discard from his better suit. Alas, North switched to a club and Borewicz chalked up an incredible plus 600 to gain 13 imps.