Daily Bulletin

----- Sunday, November 19th, 1995 -----

Sorry, English only.

Editors:Eric Kokish Beverly Kraft

The NEC Bridge Festival kicked off on Saturday with the OUCHI CUP, a two-day qualifying Swiss Team Event with 71 teams entered. Today, the final will be played in three groups. Group A will consist of the top three teams from each section (24 teams). Group B will consist of the next three ranked teams (24 teams) and the rest of the teams will form Group C, which has also been augmented to 24 by the European Team, minus the Herbst brothers (belated welcome to Franz Terraneo-Kurt Feichtinger, Adam Zmudzinski-Wojtek Olanski, who arrived too late to play the first day but are looking forward to their warmup for the NEC CUP. Treat them gently please, Flight C teams.

Qualifiers for Today's Group A OUCHI CUP

Section A:
	1st	208	O. Kimura - K. Nishino, R. Watanabe - S. Kimura
	2nd	193	M. Ino - T. Imakura, A. Yamada - K. Ohno
	3rd	135	H. Koshi - Y. Ohsako, J. Arai- M. Kuwabara
Section B:
	1st	185	Canada (Kokish - Kraft, Silver - Habert, I & O Herbst)
	2nd	157	Y. Umetsu - M. Nakanishi, E. Naito - M. Hayashi
	3rd	127	T. Jomura - K. Ito, T. Nose - K. Tatai
Section C:
	1st	164	Chinese Taipei (Ho, Lee, Chang, Yen, Shen, Lai)
	2nd	162	H. Daimon - M. Ohsaki, S. Ishiguro - N. Iwai
	3rd	151	R. Tanaka-T Ogata, M Mizuta-H Kaku, Y Kobayashi-Y Ohtsuka
Section D:
	1st	173	Indonesia (Sacul-Bojoh, Polii-Munawar, Watulingas-Panelewen)
	2nd	151	T. Tada - A. Kikichi, Mr. & Mrs. R. Orihara
	3rd	138	M. Hirata - T. Hanayama, Y. Shimizu - T. Yoshida
Section E:
	1st	175	New Zealand I (Reid - Newell, Blackstock - Yule)
	2nd	162	Mr. & Mrs. M. Kanazawa, Mr. & Mrs. T. Sakashita
	3rd	145	M. Ando - H. Okada, H. Tsubahara - K. Araki
Section F:
	1st	200	R. Geller-S Ogihara, K Yamada-K Takahashi, DW. Chen-H. Abe
	2nd	166	Mr. & Mrs. K. Yamada, M. Sawada - A. Morozumi
	3rd	120	Y. Marutani - A. Nakamura, R. Sato - K. Komori
Section G:
	1st	197	New Zealand II (Kurokawa - Crombie, Mace - Jacob)
	2nd	179	J. Kobayashi-H Enomoto, H Morimoto-A Kwabara-K Saeki
	3rd	154	Y. Sakamoto - T. Miyashiro, K. Uwatoko - K. Aoyagi
Section H:
	1st	195	M. Nakao - E. Mizutani, S. Kumada - E. Ohoka
	2nd	171	H. Hisatomi - T. Teramoto, Y. Nakamura - K. Miyakuni
	3rd	123	Y. Tsuji - K. Izaki, T. Kamiyo - S. Inoue

DEFEND ALONG WITH NORTH

	NORTH
BOARD: 7	Q 6
DLR: E	K Q 9 4 3
VUL: E-W	K 10 4
	7 6 2
		EAST
		J 10 4 3
		10 5 2
		Q 7
		K Q 4 3

WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
1	Pass	3(1)	Pass
4	All Pass
(1) Descrived as "may be weak!"

This was Board 7 in the morning session of the OUCHI CUP qualifying round. You are North and see your opponents arrive in 4

on what is either a normal auction ... or not. You make the normal-looking lead of the

K (from either an AKx+ or KQ combination) and find a dummy that turns out to be something closer to a limit raise than a weak raise, and West, the declarer, seems to have expected something like this. On the

K, South follows with the six, playing upside down signals. Declarer wins the

A and plays ace-king of trumps, partner following seven-nine. Declarer advances the

6 towards dummy's queen. Over to you, North.

SOLUTION HERE

BOMBAY SPECIAL

	NORTH
DLR: E	Q 7 5
VUL: E-W	K J 8 6 4 3
	7
	K Q 3
WEST		EAST
9 6 4		K J 8 3 2
5 2		---
10 8 6 3 2		A K Q
J 9 5		A 10 8 7 2
	SOUTH
	A 10
	A Q 10 9 7
	J 9 5 4
	6 4

OPEN ROOM
Sacul	VdNeut	Karwur	Paulissen
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
		1	1
Pass	5	Pass	Pass
DBL	Pass	Pass	Pass


CLOSED ROOM
Raymond	Taufik	Marcovic	Munawar
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
		1	Pass
Pass	2	3	4
Pass	Pass	DBL	Pass
Pass	Pass

This deal comes to us from the recent TOLANI GRAND PRIX tournament in Bombay, which featured a strong international field, including teams from Indonesia and the Netherlands, our protagonists on this little number. In the Closed Room, Indonesia's Taufik and Munawar emerged with what seemed to be an excellent result, buying the auction at 4

X, cold for plus 790. In the Open Room, after a strong club by Franky Karwur, the resourceful Jaap van der Neut elected to bounce all the way to 5

, trying to force a difficult decision on his opponents. After Karwur's forcing pass, Denny Sacul doubled and led a diamond. Gert Jan Paulissen ruffed the second diamond in dummy, Sacul follow- ing low to deny the

A. Paulissen's next play was ... the

3. Poor Franky. He put up the ace and Gert Jan scored up plus 850 to win 2 imps. Holland won!

SOLUTION TO "DEFEND ALONG WITH NORTH
This was the full deal ...

BOARD: 7	NORTH
DEALER: E	Q 6
VUL: E-W	K Q 9 4 3
	K 10 4
	7 6 2
WEST		EAST
A K 8 5 2		J 10 4 3
A 8 7		10 5 2
J 6 5 3 2		Q 7
None		K Q 4 3
	SOUTH
	9 7
	J 6
	A 9 8
	A J 10 9 8 5

Did you play low on the diamond? If you didn't, you will discover that you can no longer defeat the contract. At the table, North went in with the king and underled the

Q to South's jack, but there was no way to reach North's

Q, the setting trick. South won the

J and could cash the

A or lead a club, neither of which would work. Declarer had time to establish diamonds and ruff a heart in dummy for ten tricks. Should North find the winning defense? On the surface, it seems that West is a big favourite to hold the

A on the bidding. After all, she did bid 4

uncontested facing what she thought was a weak hand. However, if declarer holds the

A and South the

A, putting up the

K will defeat the contract only if declarer holds something like:

(W) AKxxx Ax Axx 10xx, or
The bottom line is that declarer must have two losing clubs for the king to be essential to defeat 4

. That would leave declarer with an unlikely balanced hand for her 4

bid. The hand she actually held is far more likely.

TEST YOUR JUDGMENT AT THE 1995 CAP VOLMAC

Let's start with an opening lead problem ...

	NORTH
Bd: VII-3	Q J 9 6
Dlr: S	9
VUL: E/W	A 10 8
	A K 9 6 5

Pass from partner, 3

on your left. You double for takeout and everyone passes. Do you cash a high club to reserve your options, lead a trump to protect your high cards, or ... ???

Now, a defensive problem ...

	NORTH
Bd: VII-3	Q J 9 6
Dlr: S	9
VUL: E/W	A 10 8
	A K 9 6 5
		EAST
		A 10 4 3
		K
		K 7 5 4 2
		10 4 3

Say that you have rejected the club lead and the trump lead against 3

doubled and put your faith in the queen of spades. When dummy appears, you note that this might not be the right choice, but the first trick continues: three, seven (standard signals), king. Declarer leads the

2 to dummy's king and partner contributes the seven. Now a diamond, nine, queen, your ace. How do you continue?

Perhaps this is becoming tiresome. Here is the complete deal:

Bd: VII-3	NORTH
DLR: S	Q J 9 6
VUL: E/W	9
	A 10 8
	A K 9 6 5
WEST		EAST
K 8 5 2		A 10 4 3
Q J 10 8 5 3 2		K
Q		K 7 5 4 2
2		10 4 3
	SOUTH
	7
	A 7 6 4
	J 9 6 3
	Q J 8 7

Westra	Lasut	Leufkens	Manoppo
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
3	DBL///

You have to lead a spade, then continue spades when you gain the lead, if you want to defeat 3

doubled. The latter assignment looks considerably easier than the former, and in fact, Henky Lasut led the

A (eight from Eddy Manoppo) before switching to the

Q. Berry Westra won the king and led a trump, which Manoppo won to lead the

6. Lasut won the ace and continued with the

6, but Westra put in the ten and lost only a spade ruff for plus 730 and a 13-imp pickup.
Two other South players had to deal with the bidding problem encountered by Manoppo. Neither of them chose the penalty pass, which makes this a lively candidate for someone's bidding forum ...

Auken	Zia	Koch	Rosenberg
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
3	DBL	Pass	4///





Kirchhoff	Ofir H	Maas	Ilan H
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
3	DBL	Pass	3NT///

Michael Rosenberg's 4

worked a lot better than a takeout in the other minor might have worked; plus 130 and a 3-imp gain. But Ilan Herbst's bold 3NT worked even better. He ducked the opening heart lead and Anton Maas switched to a diamond to the queen and ace. Ilan drove out the

K and had both nine tricks and 9 imps for his efforts.

What would the Law of Total Tricks have to say about South's action after 3

-double-pass? If South credits North with four-one-four-four, there will be only sixteen total trumps. In that scenario, with no positive adjustments for long suits or double fits or extreme "purity," the worst- case scenario for N/S will be nine tricks for E/W in 3

doubled versus seven tricks for N/S in four-of-the-right minor (and 4m might not be doubled). More normal combinations feature both 3

and some N/S contract going down. A further selling point for the penalty pass is the fact that although N/S may have a plus on offense, they might well choose the wrong strain. All the propaganda seems at first blush to be pro-pass.

Against that, we have the information that West volunteered 3

at unfavourable vulnerability, and that West is not from Havoc Incorporated, the North American school of the young and the restless. There is a long suit of some quality out there. Furthermore, N/S might well have a nine- card fit and a double fit in the minors. The trick total might well be seventeen or even eighteen. Then there is the intangible in the Total Tricks equation - notrump. If West can be isolated and North has a bit in reserve for his double, it might be possible to take lots of tricks in notrump, or at least enough to avoid a disaster in defending 3

doubled. How should the Law apply to suit versus notrump vs penalty pass decisions?

Only one other West started with 3

...

Branco	Helness	Chagas	Helgemo
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
3	DBL	4	DBL///

Gabriel Chagas was the only East to raise to 4

, and that led to Marcelo Branco's declaring 4

doubled. Tor Helness led the ace of clubs, and Geir Helgemo followed with the jack, playing primary reverse attitude and secondary standard count signals. Helness switched to a low spade around to the eight. Now a trump to the king, to which Helgemo duly contributed the seven. This should have gotten the job done, I think, but when Branco called for a diamond to the queen and ace, Helness tried to cash the

K. With the entry gone for the killing spade ruff, Branco could drive out the ace of trumps in peace and claim a spectacular plus 790 and 13 imps. The rest of the Wests passed in second seat and none of them got past 2

, West overcalling, sometimes after South made a natural response in hearts. Wolff-Kaplan, Meckstroth-Rodwell, and Berkowitz-Cohen all scrambled into 3

or 4

, plus 130.

Lesniewski	Robson	Szym	Forrester
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
Pass	1	Pass	1NT
2	DBL(T/O)	Pass	2NT(minors???)
Pass	3NT///

Well, maybe our heroes knew exactly what they were doing on this one, but the alternative seems at least as likely. Plus 460.

RIDE THE RED SUITS AT THE 1995 CAP VOLMAC

Bd: IX-26		NORTH
DLR: E		A 8 2
VUL: Both		A 8 3
		K Q 4 3
		10 6 2
	WEST		EAST
	K Q J 7 6 5		10 9 3
	K Q 5 4		10
	8		9 2
	A K		Q J 9 8 5 4 3
		SOUTH
		4
		J 9 7 6 2
		A J 10 7 6 5
		7

Kirchoff	Cohen	Maas	Berkowitz
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
		Pass	Pass
1	Pass	1NT*	2(+)
DBL	4	4	Pass
Pass	5	Pass	Pass
DBL///

Larry Cohen got a spade lead, won the ace, drew trumps in two rounds, and led the

3 toward dummy, ten, jack, king. He ruffed the spade return in dummy and led the

9, low ... Ace. One down; minus 200. 9 imps to E/W. It was particularly difficult for Larry to picture Anton Maas's hand correctly after the auction he saw.

Perron	Manoppo	Chemla	Lasut
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
		Pass	Pass
2*	DBL	Pass	Pass
3	Pass	4	5
Pass	Pass	DBL///

Eddy Manoppo did well to double Michel Perron's strong artificial 2

with only a moderate diamond holding. After that, Henky Lasut sandbagged until his opponents seemed to have found their level, and then he emerged from the bushes with 5

, where he was doubled. Spade lead, ace, two trumps ending in dummy, low heart to the ten, jack, and queen, two rounds of clubs. He ruffed and ran the six of hearts for plus 750 and 11 imps.

Ilan H	Mouiel	Ofir H	Levy
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
		Pass	Pass
1	Pass	3	DBL
Pass	4	Pass	Pass
DBL///

Ofir Herbst's jump to 3

was weak, and Alain Levy was able to double to show the red suits. Perhaps Ilan Herbst should have done something about his spades here, but when he did not, Herve Mouiel decided to take a shot at the ten-trick game. Now Ilan had a new temptation on the way out and he decided to play for penalties. Mouiel refused to be driven into diamonds, and the spade lead went to the ace. Mouiel took only a moment to negotiate his precarious game. He overtook the

K with the ace and advanced the jack of trumps from dummy. It didn't matter whether or not Ilan covered this. Mouiel lost only one trump trick and a club for eleven winners; plus 990 and a 13-imp pickup.

And last, on Vugraph ...

Branco	Meckstroth	Chagas	Rodwell
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
		Pass	Pass
1	Pass	1NT*	2(+m)
4///

At this table, Jeff Meckstroth did not know that his partner held diamonds. The fact that this was so destroyed a good portion of the defensive assets he was counting on when he passed 4

and at the same time made 5

such a worthwhile contract. Jeff led a trump to protect his high cards, but Marcelo Branco won in hand and started clubs, and could not be defeated. 13 imps to E/W.

What a wild board!

LOW BLOWS AT THE 1995 CAP VOLMAC

The third deal of the 10th match is just the kind that appeals to me -
- a partscore with a few twists ...

Bd: X-3		NORTH
DLR: S		A Q J 7
VUL: E/W		10 9 8 6
		9 6
		A 9 5
	WEST		EAST
	K 10 9 6 5 4		3
	4 3 2		Q J 7
	10		A K J 8 4
	J 6 3		K 8 7 2
		SOUTH
		8 2
		A K 5
		Q 7 5 3 2
		Q 10 4

Meckstroth	Helness	Rod	Helgemo
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			1
Pass	1	2	Pass
4	DBL	4NT///

For Eric Rodwell, 2

was natural. For Jeff Meckstroth, it was a black two- suiter. I can't tell you why Tor Helness did not double 4NT. Rodwell went down six; minus 600. 8 imps to Norway.

Ilan	Berkowitz	Ofir	Cohen
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			1NT (10-12)
Pass	Pass	DBL	2
2///

Nor am I sure why Larry Cohen ran to 2

before it was proven that he was in trouble, but Ilan Herbst would have bid 2

in any case. When David Berkowitz did not double 2

(perhaps for systemic reasons), the price was 300 points. 2 imps to the Americans.

Forrester	Rosenberg	Rob	Zia
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
Pass	1	2///

Here, where Zia sensibly passed the South hand and Rosenberg sensibly opened 1

in third seat, Andy Robson elected to emphasize his diamonds rather than double for takeout. That decision deprived us of the possibility to kibitz Michael Rosenberg declaring 1

redoubled, but as it went, the 2

overcall fared quite well when Zia trapped and Rosenberg decided to give up without a struggle. Down 300, but it could have been much worse. 2 imps to Zia-Rosenberg.

Lesniewski	Koch	Szymn'ski	Auken
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			1NT (11-14)
Pass	2	Pass	2
Pass	2NT///

Jens Auken got the lead of the

10, won dummy's jack, and ducked a diamond. Marcin Lesniewski won the ten and switched to a club, ducked to the king. Marek Szymanowski advanced the

J and Auken ducked, missing his second opportunity to score the

K. Syzymanowski cashed one more diamond, then exited with a club. Auken was still in a strong position on the lie of the cards, but he lost his way and went one down, perhaps distracted by the way the play had gone in diamonds. 7 imps to Poland.

Chemla	Westra	Perron	Leufkens
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			1
Pass	1	Pass	1NT
Pass	2*	Pass	2
2	DBL///

When Chemla waited with his spades until the third round, he had his head handed to him. Down 800, 11 imps to the Dutch. Chemla alleged that he should have been informed that the (alerted) 2

checkback might have included the sort of hand that Westra actually held, and you can see his point. Normally, with a raise to 2NT, you simply raise directly, but Leufkens-Westra use 2NT as a puppet to 3

and in order to invite in notrump, Westra had to choose this route. There was no inference that he held a fifth heart. In North America, where the game is beginning to slip away from everyone, there is a concept known as the Special Alert. The idea is that if an opponent would normally expect something else from a routine alert, you must prompt them that you are alerting something they would not expect as a matter of course. Do you think that this 2

toy merits this sort of Special Alert (if we can bear to live with such a thing) because of the unusual hand type that it might deliver, or at least a more thorough explanation? Or was Chemla just being picky because his dangerous gamble led to such a bad result?

Wolff	Manoppo	Kaplan	Lasut
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
Pass	1*	Pass	2///

After a nebulous Precision 1

and an inverted raise, Eddy Manoppo finished in a contract that he might have made after the lead of the

Q, but, like Auken, he lost the first diamond to West's ten, and later misguessed clubs when Edgar Kaplan broke the suit. He lost five trumps and a club and so went one down; minus 50. 7 imps to Wolff-Kaplan

Kirchoff	Mouiel	Maas	Levy
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
Pass	1	1	DBL*
Pass	1*	Pass	1NT///

Alain Levy had no trouble in 1NT after the lead of the

10; plus 90. That was an unlucky 4-imp loss, however, given what was happening to some of the E/W pairs elsewhere.

Vriend	Chagas	Arnolds	Branco
WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
			Pass
Pass	1	1	2NT///

Marcelo Branco got the lead of the

9, won the jack, and ran the

10. He was in fine shape after this and finished with ten tricks; plus 180, for a disappointing 2-imp loss.

SLAM ON 19 HCP

by KAMIYO, Takahiro

I am honoured to be playing with ex-JCBL President, Mr INOUE Shiro, who holds the title of ACBL lifemaster along with JCBL's. In the first session of the qualifying in the OUCHI CUP, we succeeded in landing a club slam on board 12 with less than half the high card points in the deck.

BOARD: 12		NORTH
DEALER: W		2
VUL: N-S		2
		A 10 6 5
		A Q J 9 8 5 4
	WEST		EAST
	Q J 3		9 8 4
	K J 10 7 5 4 3		A Q 8 6
	4		K Q 8 7 4 2
	K 10		None
		SOUTH
		A K 10 7 6 5
		9
		J 9
		7 6 3 2

The auction was:

WEST	NORTH	EAST	SOUTH
	Kamiyo		Inoue
3	4	4	5
Pass	Pass	5	5
Pass	6	All pass

The play went:

K to North's ace, CA,

AK pitching a heart, small spade ruffed in hand, club to West's king, and that was the end of the defense; 6C making 6, North-South +1370. The most popular contract on this hand was 5

X down 2, North-South +300.

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