Daily Bulletin no. 6

DAILY BULLETIN 6 - i
Friday, February 13, 1998	Editors: Eric Kokish, Richard Colker Special thanks for Internet edition: Mr. N. W. Pedersen

Bd: 58	North
Dlr: East	875
Vul: Both	AK2
	Q43
	KQ62
West		East
QJ4		1093
3		J1074
AJ1098		76
AJ107		9853
	South
	AK62
	Q9865
	K52
	4

OPEN ROOM

WEST		NORTH		EAST		SOUTH
Jason H		Thor J		Justin H		Saevar T
					Pass		1
	Dbl.		4	All Pass

CLOSED ROOM

WEST		NORTH		EAST		SOUTH
Karl S		Paul H		Bjorn		John A
					Pass		1
	Dbl.		Redbl.		Pass		Pass
	1NT		Dbl.		Pass		Pass
	Redbl.		Pass		2		Pass
	Pass		Dbl.	All Pass

Board 58 was one of the more interesting deals of the tournament. In the Closed Room, Papas, playing four-card majors, was willing to take his chances on defense against the vulnerable opponents. Eysteinsson-Sigurhjartarson found their club fit and Papa lowered the boom.

Armstrong led his singleton trump to the jack and queen, and Papa switched to a spade to the nine and king. Armstrong switched to a diamond, ducked to the queen, and Papa switched back to trumps, Eysteinsson winning his nine to play a second spade. Armstrong won and played a heart and Papa decided to play ace and king, forcing dummy. Eysteinsson ruffed with the ten, played A, diamond ruff, spade to dummy, and a diamond. Papa ruffed in with the K and played a trump to bang the trumps together, and the contract was one down; minus 200.

In the Open Room, Thorbjornsson declared 4 when Jonsson opted for an uninformative bash. The opening lead was the queen of spades, which Thorbjornsson won with the ace to lead his singleton club towards dummy. Jason decided to go in with the ace, although it might well have been better to duck this time, leaving declarer with four apparent losers outside clubs. Justin had signalled with the 10, so Jason continued with the J (it was barely possible that Justin held the K). Thorbjornsson won the K, played A, Q, heart to the king, cashed clubs to throw spades, and ruffed a club with his penultimate trump. When he led a diamond, Jason was caught in the middle. If he went up with the ace, he would establish a second diamond trick for declarer, and if he ducked (as he did), declarer would win the queen and lead a spade to score his nine of trumps en passant. Plus 620 and a pat on the back from anyone watching with an appreciation of beauty. More important than the warm glow of success on a tough hand were the 9 IMPs accruing to ICELAND, who closed to within 21 at 120-141.

Bd: 62	North
Dlr: East	A62
Vul: None	J763
	93
	A963
West		East
J5		K98743
954		AQ
KQ1042		AJ65
742		10
	South
	Q10
	K1082
	87
	KQJ85

OPEN ROOM

WEST		NORTH		EAST		SOUTH
Jason H		Thor J		Justin H		Saevar T
					1		2
	Pass		2NT	All Pass

CLOSED ROOM

WEST		NORTH		EAST		SOUTH
Karl S		Paul H		Bjorn		John A
					1		2
	Pass		2		Pass		2NT
	Pass		3	All Pass

The BRITISH lead was down to 19 IMPs with three boards to play . . . Board 62 was only a partscore, but it was an interesting bidding exercise. Both Souths were willing to overcall 2

on a poor hand and both North/South pairs missed hearts. That was no hardship, since game figured to go down, but the interesting part of the deal was North's approach to advancing the bidding. Where Jonsson chose to show his spade stopper, Papa preferred to show his club fit. Curiously, I think, Papa was not content to play in notrump although he had spade help and balanced hand when Armstrong fabricated a continuation of 2NT. That was a wise decision, since spades were not the problem in notrump. Three clubs lost two diamonds, a spade, and just one heart for plus 110. Jonsson's 2NT, meanwhile, was hopeless, even after a spade lead from the king, the queen winning. Jonsson played two rounds of clubs, then a heart, but Justin took the ace and switched to a low diamond and the defense took five tricks in that suit for one down; minus 50 and 4 IMPs to GREAT BRITAIN, which pushed their lead over 20 (145-122) with two boards remaining. Looking better now.

Bd: 63	North
Dlr: South	KQJ63
Vul: N/S	AK10
	954
	Q9
West		East
A9		874
Q86542		93
K8		QJ6
J103		A7642
	South
	1052
	J7
	A10732
	K85

OPEN ROOM

WEST		NORTH		EAST		SOUTH
Jason H		Thor J		Justin H		Saevar T
							Pass
	Pass		1		Pass		2	⁽¹⁾
	2		4	All Pass

(1) Drury

CLOSED ROOM

WEST			NORTH		EAST	SOUTH
Karl S			Paul H		Bjorn	John A
							Pass
	2	⁽¹⁾		2	All Pass

Who knows whether the West hand is a weak two-bid? It was for Sigurhjartarson, and when Papa overcalled with a normal 2

, Armstrong opted for a not-so-normal pass. Words fail me, but if you look at the North/South cards, there appear to be four losers, so maybe John should bottle what he's been sniffing and sell it to savages like your editors. Cheap. Leave us not speak of 3NT, however. Papa took nine tricks, plus 140.

Apparent or otherwise, Jonsson did not lose four tricks in his ``normal'' 4 at the other table. The opening lead of the 9 was covered all around and Jonsson's K lost to the ace. He won the heart continuation, and drew trumps, and trumps, and some more trumps. Then he cashed the ten of hearts. Along the way, Justin threw three clubs, Jason two hearts and . . . a club. Jonsson emerged with the Q and took his tenth trick with dummy's eight of clubs. No matter who you were rooting for, you must have loved this, since the 10 IMPs won by ICELAND left them with a ray of hope going into the final deal, They were 13 IMPs behind now, 132-145.

The last deal was a potential game for North/South with two ugly hands in combination. Alas, it was not vulnerable, so even if an Iceman made it and a Brit failed by two tricks, the swing would be only 11 IMPs.

Bd: 64	North
Dlr: West	KJ93
Vul: E/W	72
	K95
	Q975
West		East
764		Q1052
AJ3		Q984
Q863		102
KJ2		1064
	South
	A8
	K1065
	AJ74
	A83

OPEN ROOM

WEST		NORTH			EAST		SOUTH
Jason H		Thor J			Justin H		Saevar T
	Pass		Pass			Pass		1
	Pass		1NT			Pass		2
	Pass		2	⁽¹⁾		Pass		3NT
All Pass

(1) s

CLOSED ROOM

WEST		NORTH		EAST		SOUTH
Karl S		Paul H		Bjorn		John A
	1		Pass		1		1NT
	Pass		3NT	All Pass

In the Closed Room, Armstrong got the lead of the

7 from Sigurhjartarson, three, ten, ace. He ran the

8 to the queen and the

8 came back, ten, jack, low. A third spade went to dummy and Armstrong took both high spades, discarding a club, and played club to the ace, club to the jack, and queen, and stopped to cash ace-king of diamonds before exiting with a club. Sigurhjartarson had thrown a diamond on the fourth spade, so Armstrong thought he had him now, with three-four-three-three shape. Nice idea, really, but when Sigurhjartarson produced the missing diamond and the

A, Armstrong had to go one down where he was going to make it had he simply played a third club earlier. Arrrggghhh. Minus 50.

All eyes turned to the Open Room now, to see if Jonsson could bring in 3NT from the North side. He was off to a good start when Justin led a club, ducked to the king. The J went to the ace, and Jonsson played on diamonds, losing the second round finesse to the queen. A third club went to the queen and Jonsson cashed his last club and the 9, crossed to the A, and cashed the A before leading a spade to his . . . king. Jason had pitched a spade, so Jonsson was poised to make the hand now, by playing a heart to the ten. Instead, he exited with a spade, and Justin played a heart through the king to set the contract. One down here too; minus 50, No swing.

ICELAND won the last set 35-17 and fell 13 IMPs short at the end. GREAT BRITAIN won the match 145-132, and we are all pleased that Iceland's revoke in the third quarter did not . . . quite . . . cost them the match.

It would be GREAT BRITAIN vs POLAND-USA for the 1998 NEC CUP title on Friday morning.

See it all on VUGRAPH, Room 314. Bright and early. 10 am.

HISATOMI's secret weapon: Teramoto and Ino

``Now that we've lost, maybe they won't
throw me in the fountain after all.''

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