Israeli Inspiration
Though West broke his partnership agreement on opening lead, his
discards were a little too revealing on this deal from the Power
Rosenblum Qualifying, and Israeli star David Birman took full advantage
to land his game.
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ª A 4
© 9 7 3 2
¨ 8 6 4
§ K Q J 5 |
ª J 9 7 5 3
© Q J 6
¨ K 9 3
§ 8 6 |
![Bridge deal](../../../Graphics/Hand/board3.gif) |
ª K Q 8
© 10 8 5
¨ J 7 5 2
§ 10 7 2 |
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ª 10 6 2
© A K 4
¨ A Q 10
§ A 9 4 3 |
West |
North |
East |
South |
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Sagiv |
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Birman |
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1NT |
Pass |
2§ |
Pass |
2¨ |
Pass |
3NT |
All Pass |
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West led the three of spades, not playing third and fifth, and
that went to East's queen. Back came the king of spades, an indication
that perhaps the suit was splitting five-three. Birman started to
cash the clubs and on the third round West pitched an encouraging
nine of diamonds. The fourth club saw a diamond discard from East
and the ©6 from
West.
Birman simply cashed the top hearts and exited with the ten of
spades. After taking his spade winners, West had to lead into the
diamond tenace at trick twelve; nine tricks. Had spades been four-four
all along, the endplay would still have been successful if West
was 4-4-3-2 and held the ª9
as well as the jack.
Good Table Presence
Yehuda Sagiv of Israel is having a pretty good year. He is an Israeli
champions in 2002, came second in the European Seniors Championship,
and recently won the Men's pairs in the prestigious Deauville tournament.
His Power Rosenblum team has not started all that well here in Montreal
but there is still time to recover and this deal from their Wednesday
morning match did no harm to the cause.
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ª K J 7 5
© A Q 9 7 6 4
¨ 8
§ A Q |
ª A Q 3
© -
¨ K Q J 9 5 3
§ K 9 7 4 |
![Bridge deal](../../../Graphics/Hand/board3.gif) |
ª 9 6 4
© 5 2
¨ 10 7 4 2
§ J 10 6 3 |
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ª 10 8 2
© K J 10 8 3
¨ A 6
§ 8 5 2 |
West |
North |
East |
South |
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Sagiv |
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Birman |
1¨ |
Dble |
Pass |
2© |
Dble |
Rdbl |
3¨ |
3© |
Pass |
4¨ |
Pass |
4© |
Pass |
4NT |
Pass |
5© |
Pass |
6© |
All Pass |
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David Birman was not willing to cooperate in Sagiv's slam hunt,
having shown all his values with the initial response of 2©. However,
Sagiv showed good judgement and table presence in appreciating that
all his cards were well-placed over West's strong hand and went
on anyway. When he discovered that he was facing two key cards he
bid the slam. Looking at only the North/South hands, slam is pretty
horrible, but the auction has changed the odds substantially in
favour of North/South and, as the cards lay, there was no problem
for Birman to come to twelve tricks.
Hamman Sets the Trap
Sam Leckie
In the seventh round of the Power Rosenblum I watched one of the
favourites, Nickell, playing against Zen Wei Pen. The final score
was 72-24 in favour of the Americans and yet things may have been
different.
Dealer West. None Vul
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ª 8 6
© A 4 2
¨ K Q J 8
§ A 10 8 5 |
ª K Q 10 5 4 2
© 6
¨ 10 9
§ K J 3 |
![Bridge deal](../../../Graphics/Hand/board3.gif) |
ª 9 7 3
© 10 5 3
¨ 7 6 5 4 3
§ 7 2 |
|
ª A J
© K Q J 9 8 7
¨ A 2
§ Q 6 4 |
West |
North |
East |
South |
Hamman |
Chiv |
Soloway |
Lu |
2ª |
Dble |
Pass |
4NT* |
Pass |
5©* |
Pass |
5NT* |
Pass |
6¨* |
Pass |
6© |
All Pass |
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Lu took a long time before deciding not to bid seven and who could
blame him? On a spade lead declarer claimed twelve tricks but in
seven would have played out the hand and found that a squeeze materializes.
This will be the ending, with West still to find a discard:
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ª -
© -
¨ -
§ A 10 |
ª K
© -
¨ -
§ K J |
![Bridge deal](../../../Graphics/Hand/board3.gif) |
ª 9
© -
¨ 3
§ - |
|
ª J
© -
¨ -
§ Q |
That was flat board and the next one shows just how difficult the
top players can make life.
Dealer East. N/S Vul
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ª A 9 8
© 9
¨ A 7 6 5 2
§ 9 7 4 3 |
ª 2
© 10 8 6 3
¨ J 10 9 4 3
§ A K J |
![Bridge deal](../../../Graphics/Hand/board3.gif) |
ª J 6 4 3
© K Q J 5 4 2
¨ 8
§ 5 2 |
|
ª K Q 10 7 5
© A 7
¨ K Q
§ Q 10 8 6 |
West |
North |
East |
South |
Hamman |
Chiv |
Soloway |
Lu |
|
|
2© |
2ª |
5© |
5ª |
Pass |
6ª |
All Pass |
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Hamman's bid of Five Hearts did the trick by luring his opponent's
(well, one of them at any rate. Editors) into over evaluating their
hands for fear of missing a vulnerable slam.
Two top clubs and a ruff started proceedings and eventually another
trick was lost because of East's singleton diamond. That was three
down, a small pick up because Four Spades was one down at the other
table.
How Many Trump Tricks?
The Hackett family is always a rich source of material for the
Bulletin. This time it was father, Paul's turn to provide an interesting
play hand from his team's Power Rosenblum match against the Chinese
REN team.
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ª 9 6 2
© A 7
¨ 9 6 2
§ K 8 5 3 2 |
ª A 10 8 5
© K J 6 5 4 3
¨ 8 4
§ J |
![Bridge deal](../../../Graphics/Hand/board3.gif) |
ª 7
© Q 10 9
¨ Q J 10 7 5
§ A Q 10 4 |
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ª K Q J 4 3
© 8 2
¨ A K 3
§ 9 7 6 |
West |
North |
East |
South |
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Hackett |
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Waterlow |
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1ª |
Pass |
2ª |
Dble |
3ª |
4© |
All Pass |
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Hackett led a spade to the jack and ace and the Chinese declarer
started by ruffing a spade in dummy. Next came the ace of clubs
followed by the queen. When Tony Waterlow followed with a small
card, declarer thought for some time before finally ruffing. A spade
ruff was followed by a second club ruff then a third spade ruff.
When the last club was led off the dummy, Waterlow ruffed in with
the eight of hearts. This would have promoted a trick for Hackett's
seven, but declarer chose not to over-ruff, preferring to throw
a diamond loser. But this did not help. Waterlow cashed the king
of diamonds then continued with a spade and this effected the same
trump promotion so that the defence came to two more heart tricks,
and three in all to go with one diamond; down one.
At the other table, Brian Callaghan also played 4©
on the lead of a spade to the ace. He decided to try to use dummy's
diamond suit so led one at trick two. South won the first diamond
and led a spade to tap the dummy. Callaghan led a diamond off the
dummy and South won to play the two of hearts. North did well now
by ducking, but Callaghan just settled for trusting North's length
signal in diamonds. He won the heart and took a spade pitch on the
¨10 then crossruffed
his way to ten tricks.
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