Results of the OUCHI CUP Flight A: 1st CHINESE TAIPEI: NJ Shen, WM Chang, DM Yen, JF Lee, YM Yen, MH Wu 2nd H Hisatomi, T Teramoto, M Ino, T Imakura, T Hirata, S Shimizu 3rd POLAND-USA: S Lev, M Polowan, P Gawrys, M Lesniewski 4th T Jomura, K Shimamura, K Ito, Y Shimizu 5th K Fujimoto, H Miyauchi, T Maeda, N Hayashi 6th ICELAND: B Eysteinsson, K Sigurhjartarson, T Jonsson, S Thorbjornsson 7th GREAT BRITAIN: B Mavromichalis, J Armstrong, Paul, Justin, and Jason Hackett 8th T Nose, G Schuett, A Amano, M Sekizawa 9th YOUTH: K Furuta, M Takayama, M Kohno, T Harada, R Colker, E Kokish 10th A Yamada, K Ohno, K Yamada, K Takahashi, T Yoshida, P Newman Flight B: 1st K Izaki, T Kamiyo, H Sekiyami, Y Nenohi 2nd S Nagasaka, M Mizuta, M Ohno, Y Oosako 3rd R Bruno, J Schuett, H Weinstein, R Katz, Y Nakamura, K Miyakuni 4th K Shibata, K Arikawa, Y Okada, T Hiramori 5th E Miyaishi, Y Yoshimori, T Sumita, K Hisatomi 6th N Sano, M Gotoh, C Hamada, S Amram 7th K Ukisu, Y Satoh, K Hayashida, Y Masamura 8th S Nakagawa, E Hamaguchi, K Nakagawa, F Sakabe 9th M Ando, K Araki, T Kawaguchi, M Tsubakihara 10th Y Endo, T Inaba, H Noda, R Fukumaru Flight C: 1st R Illingworth, A Yanagisawa, Y Katano, S Yamada 2nd R Watanabe, S Kimura, K Okada, H Takeuchi 3rd K Sato, Y Toriumi, T Nishiwaki, N Ishikawa 4th M Ichihashi, Y Fukuda, A Mizuuchi, K Senga 5th O Kimura, K Nishino, T Hagiwara, A Minamino 6th T Kyoshima, N Kyoshima, M Kimura, K Takano 7th N Nishida, Quin Bei-Lin, S Yamamura, T Miyashiro 8th S Hirao, R Masumi, T Yokoyama, S Kazama 9th K Ueki, Y taka, T Hirano, T Furuoya 10th K Kodaira, M Fukushima, N Meshino, T Hatakeyama, K Makita

Dlr: East North Vul: N/S Q93 K9863 - AQJ95 West East AK64 5 AQJ72 - J965 Q10432 - K876432 South J10872 1054 AK87 10 WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Smith Davies Pass Pass 1 Pass 1NT Pass 2 Pass 5 Pass 6 Pass Pass Dbl. Pass Pass Rdbl. All Pass THE PINOCHLE DECK By Barry Rigal (From Bulletin No. 4, THE 1998 MACALLAN INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE PAIRS CHAMPIONSHIP) What is the strongest hand with which you have stayed silent, and heard your opponents redouble a slam? Nicola Smith, North on the board, heard her opponents bid: Pass - 1 , 1NT - 2, 5 - 6. When Pat Davies doubled and East redoubled, Nicola had to check the back of the cards. Nicola led the A and declarer ruffed. However, when the clubs failed to break, declarer had to concede down three, and minus 1000. (Nicola Smith and Pat Davies finished second in the event - Eds.)

JUST LIKE IN THE TEXTBOOKS Sitting in fourth seat, with neither side vulnerable, you (South) hold, 9 AJ75 K10952 Q64. The auction proceeds: WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Pass 1NT 2 3 4 Pass Pass Dbl. All Pass What do you lead, and why? (No fair peeking below.) With your ten count opposite partner's strong notrump, the opponents' save must depend on their ability to ruff losers. That's what all the textbooks say. So you lead your singleton trump and, lo and behold, the complete deal turns out to be: Bd: OUCHI-II-8 North Dlr: W KQ2 Vul: None Q8 Q7 AK9875 West East 8653 AJ1074 109432 K6 A J8643 J32 10 South 9 AJ75 K10973 Q64 On a trump lead, careful defense holds declarer to six tricks; that's plus 800 for your side, or rather Michael Polowan's side, for he sat South and his partner, Sam Lev, was North. Their teammates, Piotr Gawrys and Marcin Lesniewski, went plus 50 at the other table when they led the J against North's 3NT and declarer chose to try to develop his ninth trick in diamonds rather than hearts. That was unlucky. Plus 800 and plus 50 combined for a 13 IMP pickup for USA II on their way to wrapping up the top qualifying spot in Section A on day one of the OUCHI CUP. See. It pays to read your textbooks - and Daily Bulletins!

Congratulations to the winners of Flight B of the OUCHI CUP. Left to right: T Kamiyo, H Sekiyama, Y Nenohi, K Izaki

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? In the Saturday evening session of the OUCHI CUP the fearsome MAVROMICHALIS team (including three Hacketts and an Armstrong) was on their way to a first place qualification for yesterday's Group A finals - but then they didn't bargain for Wei Xu and Qi Gu. Bd: OUCHI-II-16 North Dlr: W KQ10 Vul: None A93 108742 K5 West East 985 J3 Q865 KJ4 3 KQ95 J8642 Q973 South A7642 1072 AJ6 A10 WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH Brigitte Gu Jason Xu 1 Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 4NT ?! Pass 5 Pass 6 All Pass Xu liked his controls so well he launched into Blackwood when his partner chirped support for his spades. Against the slam Brigitte Mavromichalis led her singleton diamond and Jason Hackett, always the technician, put up his king. Xu won the ace, drew trumps in three rounds ending in dummy, led the 4 to the five and six! - and then picked Jason up off the floor. Plus 980 measured up quite well, thank you, against Xu-Gu's opponents' plus 450 in 4 at the other table; 11 IMPs to the Xu-Gu team. At the end of the match the mighty Britishers found themselves looking around the floor under the table for a victory point to add to the total they had when they arrived. They had been smoked 30-0 for game, set, and match. Our thanks to Jason for telling us about this hand.

Congratulations to the winners of Flight C of the OUCHI CUP. Left to right: R Illingworth, A Yanagisawa, S Yamada, Y Katano