| 8th World Youth Bridge Team Championship, Mangaratiba, Brazil | Wednesday, 15 August 2001 |
|
Israel vs USA 1 1st Segment After a convincing performance by both teams in their semifinal
match, Israel and USA 1 met for the first of six sets of sixteen
boards on the way to determine the new World Junior Team Champions. Declarer's restricted choice
In the Open Room USA 1 settled for 6ª after the following auction:
It only took South less than ten seconds to win the ¨Q lead with
the king, play club to the ace and ruff a club. He then cashed three
rounds of trumps and conceded one club trick to West, to come up
with twelve tricks - USA 1 +980.
(I) both majors, 5-10 HCP The play in 7ª revolves around the club suit. If trumps are 2-2
then only a dreadful club distribution will defeat you, so declarer's
first move should be to cash the ªA in case spades are 4-0 in East.
If everyone follows you can afford to draw a second round with the
king. Now declarer should start on the clubs, cashing the ace and
king. If an honour appears on declarer's left as on the actual deal,
the theory of restricted choice suggests that declarer should draw
the last trump and then rely on the ruffing finesse. If it is West
who produces an honour declarer can still get home if the clubs
are 3-3 or 2-4 as he can ruff two clubs in his hand. Finally, if
no honour appears then declarer must decide if clubs are 3-3 or
4-2. The curse of the red sixes The next board saw USA 1 in action at both tables:
In the Closed Room East opened the bidding, and as a result East/West reached game with a combined 17 HCP.
Declarer lost five tricks and quietly went two down - Israel +100. At the other table South opened the bidding and therefore North/South
reached game in the other direction:
Here South hoped that if there were nine tricks to take, there might even be a tenth. It is easy to see that 3NT is cold, but when East led ªQ, everybody expected a swing in Israel's direction. In his Mammoth Book of Bridge, Mark Horton suggested that the most
important asset for a player is the ability to concentrate. Terence
Reese maintained that a player who could count was one in a thousand,
but Mark opined that one who could count and concentrate was one
in ten thousand. Apparently East had not read Mark's book, as the
curse of his two red sixes struck him hard. Double trouble On the next deal South was put to the test to take the right view of his hand:
In the Closed Room East/West ended up in a doubled contract:
South, confident that he had already told his story, passed his
partner's penalty double. From North's point of view doubling
4ª must have been the right thing to do, because he knew that five
of his eight points were of no use for partner in the alternative
club game. East lost one trick in each suit and emerged with one
down only - Israel +200.
South's optimistic view proved to be the right decision. He ducked West's ©K and had an even easier time to score his game, when his opponent now laid down the ¨A - USA 1 +550, another 8 IMPs and an impressive 39-0 lead after only three boards of play. Double double trouble Both East/West pairs must have felt great about their result on the next hand, only to find out that it was just good enough for a push:
(1) both majors A very peaceful layout in the majors led to an easy eight tricks - USA 1 +670. But of course it helped East/West in the Open Room as well:
(1) both majors Although South started with ª2 to his partner's jack, who immediately returned another trump to declarer's ace, nothing could be done to prevent one heart ruff, which was good enough to set up the heart suit - Israel +670 and no swing. Two wrongs don't make a right A disputable (to say the least) third-hand opening bid scored on
the next board, but who would ever dare to argue with success:
The Closed Room auction looked perfectly normal:
After a heart lead to the ten, declarer let the ¨9 run, which held
the trick. The ¨J then went to South's queen, who returned
a heart to king, which held as well. And another ducking play was
yet to come, when West played a spade to the nine. A third round
of diamonds now set up declarer's seventh winner. In the end
declarer even scored an overtrick - USA 1 +120. In the Open Room South found a "lead-directing" 1¨ diamond
opening, that worked well, when Esst's response to a doubtful
double from West proved to be too high to score a plus:
South led a heart to the king and ace, and North switched to ¨7 to the queen. Back came a club to the queen and king and §J to West's ace. Declarer now discarded a club on the ©Q, played a spade to the ace and let the ª9 run. When South ducked he continued with another spade. This time South hopped up and led a heart, which declarer had to ruff. After a diamond to the ace, South cashed ª8 to collect the defenders' sixth trick for one down - USA 1 +100 and 6 more IMPs, USA 1 meanwhile ahead 48-1. The fatal ruff Once again declarer is put to the test on the next deal, if the
defenders make his life difficult:
In the Open Room the declarer piled up a huge amount of tricks after the following bidding:
The defence started with the ©K, which declarer ducked, and another
heart. North then played a spade to the ten, jack and king. Back
came another trump to the nine. Declarer cashed the ¨K, crossed
to dummy with the ªQ and played the ¨J to the queen and ace. He
then drew the outstanding trump and cashed his diamond tricks -
USA 1 +200.
Again East was allowed to score the ©K, but now East switched to
the a club to the king and ace. West continued with the §Q and another
club, so North was forced to ruff. The playing record says that
now declarer played a spade to the queen and cashed the ©A. If he
then went back to his hand with a diamond to fatally ruff a heart,
he will go down, as now East discards a diamond, wins the spade
return with the king and leads a fourth round of clubs to promote
another trump winner for his side. While you were sleeping The first set lived to see a great finale for USA 1 when they scored a double-digit number of IMPs in spectacular fashion once again:
First of all, the American East/West pair in the Closed Room completed their flawless set reaching another unbeatable game:
When South trusted his opponents' bidding and sacrificed in 5ª doubled, USA did not score their maximum plus for 5¨ making but collected five tricks to put declarer three down - USA 1 +500. In the Open Room East in a moment of absence missed his cue:
After North's hyper-weak jump overcall East did not find the obvious negative double, so to everybody's surprise South became declarer in a new kind of gambling 3NT. The rest of the story is told very quickly. West led a diamond, South won and cashed seven more winners for one down - Israel +50, but once again 10 IMPs to USA 1 who went into the next session with a 68-2 lead. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Page 2 |
