USA 2 vs Israel

In the penultimate round no.16 the bulletin tried to cover the matches of Norway and Israel as they were tied for third place, just "in" so to speak. As the report of the Norway - Canada match covers boards 1 to 10, the focus in USA v Israel lay on the second set of boards, 11-20. As these ten deals were the much quieter collection, only four boards are of general interest.

The standing in the featured match was 23-23 at halftime, when an Israeli preemptive bid met an very optimistic American view on the following deal:

Board 11. Dealer South. None Vul.   ª A J 8 6 3 © Q 3 2 ¨ 10 § K Q 5 4 ª K 7 5 © 7 6 4 ¨ 9 8 4 2 § 10 7 2 ª 10 © A J 10 5 ¨ A K Q J 5 § A J 3   ª Q 9 4 2 © K 9 8 ¨ 7 6 3 § 9 8 6

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Bethe	Roll	Feldman	Schneider
			Pass
Pass	1ª	Dble	3ª
4¨	Pass	5¨	All Pass

North led the §K. Declarer ordered the ace, cashed three rounds of trumps and played a club to the ten. North gratefully took the queen and got off lead in clubs again. Stuck in dummy, declarer let the ª10 run, but North won with the jack and laid down ªA. In dummy again West gave up, cashed ©A and went two down - Israel +100. Had declarer cashed his three top trumps and continued §J, North has no good answer. If he wins, §10 is an entry to declarer's hand. If North ducks instead, declarer plays a third round of clubs to endplay North in a way, who either has to take the first heart finesse for declarer or cashes ªA and continues spades, which declarer lets run to the king to get an additional hand entry to go only one down. The remarkable thing about winning 4¨ is, that declarer should not win the third diamond in his hand to take the first heart finesse, because then South can switch to ªQ and whatever declarer tries later on, he will always be put back to dummy again to concede another heart trick..

Todd Wolford, USA

In the Open Room East/West managed to stop in 3¨ with a little help from a) Lebensohl and b) their opponents who did not believe in the law of total tricks and bid up to 2ª only:

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Amit	Bathurst	Vax	Greenberg
Pass	1ª	Dble	2ª
Pass	Pass	Dble	Pass
2NT	Pass	3¨	All Pass

Here East was declarer, so South started with the ª4 to North's jack. Back came ¨10, which declarer took to play two more rounds of trumps ending in dummy. He then played a heart to the ace and another heart, set up a heart for a club discard and finished losing two hearts, a spade and a club - Israel +110 and 5 IMPs.

USA 2 scored two overtrick-IMPs on the next board, but then Israel widened the gap a little bit:

Board 14. Dealer East. None Vul.   ª K 5 © 8 6 5 4 2 ¨ Q 6 § J 10 7 5 ª 9 4 3 © A J 7 ¨ A 9 8 7 5 4 § 8 ª Q J 8 7 6 © 10 9 ¨ K J 10 § A 9 6   ª A 10 2 © K Q 3 ¨ 3 2 § K Q 4 3 2

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Bethe	Roll	Feldman	Schneider
		1NT	Dble
2¨	2©	Pass	3©
All Pass

Yossi Roll, Israel

When the opening bid buried East/West's spade fit and South raise didn't leave any room for West to show his strength and length, the bidding ended with North playing 3©. East got things going with the ¨J to West's ace, who decided to return a spade to the king. After a heart to the king and ace and another spade to the ace, declarer drew one round of trumps and tried a club to the jack and ace. East cashed ¨K and North claimed for one down losing one more trump trick to West - USA 2 +50. In the Open Room East did not ignore his spades, which was already good enough to shut North/South out of the bidding completely:

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Amit	Bathurst	Vax	Greenberg
		1ª	Pass
1NT	Pass	2§	Pass
3ª	All Pass

The defence started with three rounds of trumps after which - surprise, surprise! - declarer simply took the rest - Israel +200 and 4 more IMPs.

Two boards later another small swing came in for Israel, when a strong "six-card minor"notrump silenced the opponents again at one of the two tables..

Board 16. Dealer West. E/W Vul.   ª 10 9 6 5 2 © Q 9 ¨ Q 10 9 8 § Q J ª Q 8 7 4 © 10 8 6 ¨ J 7 6 § 8 7 3 ª K 3 © K 4 2 ¨ K 3 § A K 10 9 6 4   ª A J © A J 7 5 3 ¨ A 5 4 2 § 5 2

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Bethe	Roll	Feldman	Schneider
Pass	Pass	1§	1©
Pass	1ª	2§	2¨
All Pass

Against 2¨ East took the first two tricks in clubs and shifted to the ªK. Declarer rose with the ace and - giving the matter considerable thought - continued with the ¨A and a diamond to the nine and king. East played another spade to his partner's queen. Back came a heart to the king and ace, and a few seconds later declarer claimed nine tricks - Israel +110.

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Amit	Bathurst	Vax	Greenberg
Pass	Pass	1NT	All Pass

When South did not feel like going down doubled for a number, as both his suits were quite aenemic, East had no problem to win the heart lead and rattled of six club tricks for 1NT just making - Israel +90 and 5 IMPs.

USA 2 made up for these three one-digit losses with one big board to tie the match again:

Board 19. Dealer South. E/W Vul.   ª Q J 10 9 © 10 9 7 2 ¨ 6 § Q 10 8 6 ª 6 5 4 © A Q J 8 ¨ J 10 8 5 § A 4 ª K 8 2 © 6 5 ¨ A K Q 9 4 § J 5 3   ª A 7 3 © K 4 3 ¨ 7 3 2 § K 9 7 2

In the Closed Room a four-card major transfer sequence after a mini no-trump gave East a chance to become the "king of balancing" in this match. When his partner also cooperated nicely East/West reached the unbeatable game:

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Bethe	Roll	Feldman	Schneider
			1NT
Pass	2©	Pass	2ª
Pass	Pass	3¨	Pass
3©	Pass	3NT	All Pass

South selected the ª3, which went to the nine and king. Declarer took an immediate heart finesse, then turned to diamonds and claimed for nine tricks refusing a second heart finesse just in case.
Funnily enough USA 2 also had the 10-12 notrump available, but it was the natural 2ª escape that made all the difference:

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Amit	Bathurst	Vax	Greenberg
			1NT
Pass	2ª	All Pass

Like his opponent at the other table East did not feel like coming in with a constructive 3¨ immediately, so all the pressure was on West. When he decided that he did not want to hear 3§ as an answer to an off-shape double, 2ª was passed and quietly went down three - Israel +150 but 10 IMPs to USA 2.

The second half ended 14-14, so the final result was a dead tie 37-37, or 15-15 in VPs respectivly.