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.

	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		ª K Q 8 © 10 8 5 ¨ J 7 5 2 § 10 7 2
	ª 10 6 2 © A K 4 ¨ A Q 10 § A 9 4 3

West	North	East	South
	Sagiv		Birman
			1NT
Pass	2§	Pass	2¨
Pass	3NT	All Pass

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.

	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		ª 9 6 4 © 5 2 ¨ 10 7 4 2 § J 10 6 3
	ª 10 8 2 © K J 10 8 3 ¨ A 6 § 8 5 2

West	North	East	South
	Sagiv		Birman
1¨	Dble	Pass	2©
Dble	Rdbl	3¨	3©
Pass	4¨	Pass	4©
Pass	4NT	Pass	5©
Pass	6©	All Pass

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
	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		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

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:

	ª - © - ¨ - § A 10
ª K © - ¨ - § K J		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
	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		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

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.

	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		ª 7 © Q 10 9 ¨ Q J 10 7 5 § A Q 10 4
	ª K Q J 4 3 © 8 2 ¨ A K 3 § 9 7 6

West	North	East	South
	Hackett		Waterlow
			1ª
Pass	2ª	Dble	3ª
4©	All Pass

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.