Double Endplay

By Barry Rigal

As we have seen before, England's Hackett twins are dangerous adversaries, partly due to their aggressive approach in the auction. This deal was a case in point.

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

West	North	East	South
	Jason		Justin
		Pass	1©
Pass	1ª	Pass	2©
Pass	3©	Pass	4©
All Pass

When you bid them up you have to play them up. Jason's 3© bid might look a little forward but 4© was a fair spot. On the lead of the ten of clubs Justin ducked in dummy and East contributed a standard-count eight.

A spade to the queen scored as East started an echo, and a trump was led to the king and ace. Justin took this and played a second spade up and East won his ace and exited with a third spade, allowing Justin to pitch his losing diamond. Justin crossed to the ace of diamonds then led the ©9 from hand. West won and was endplayed for the first time, obliged to lead his remaining diamond as either a heart or a club would give a trick immediately. Justin ruffed the diamond and played queen and another heart and West was endplayed for the second time. Having used up his only safe exit card after the previous endplay, he was now obliged to lead away from the king of clubs and Justin had held his losers to three. Nicely done, though West could have defeated the contract had he switched to a diamond when in with the ace of spades.

Missed chances

The team captained by Roy Welland has made its mark in recent major ACBL tournament, including a victory last fall in the tough Reisinger Board-a-Match Teams.

The squad - Welland, Bjorn Fallenius, Fred Gitelman, Brad Moss, Howard Weinstein and Steve Garner - started well, chalking up 49 Victory Points in their first two matches of the round robin.

The team fell on hard times after that, however, and could look back on two losses - to Poddar of India and Abram of the Netherlands - as the killers. When all was said and done in the round robin, Welland was in fifth place, one Victory Point out of the qualifying fourth spot. Just ahead of them were Poddar at 149 and Abram at 152.5.

Despite their difficulties in the middle matches of the round robin, Welland had a chance with one round to go. They had scored 23 and 24 VPs in the seventh and eighth matches to lie fourth, half a VP ahead of Abram.

The Welland team had their work cut out for them, however, as their final match was against the Polish team captained by Wojtek Olanski, who were leading the group by a healthy margin.

Welland won the match 48-44, but it was not enough as Abram beat Poddar by 30 IMPs to surge into third place. Welland needed 6 more IMPs against Olanski to continue playing in the Power Rosenblum.

This deal was especially annoying for Gitelman and Moss, who faced Boguslaw Gierulski and Jerzy Skrzpczak in the first half.

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

West	North	East	South
Gitelman	Skrzpczak	Moss	Gierulski
			1©
Pass	1ª	2ª	3©
3ª	4©	4ª	Pass
Pass	5©	All Pass

Had Gitelman or Moss doubled, they would have collected plus 500, a 4-IMP loss instead of the 10 they lost (East-West collected plus 650 at the other table in their spade game). If North's 1ª bid was genuine, however, it was likely that South was void in the suit, so doubling 5© was not clear cut.

Perhaps spurred by the poor result on that board, Gitelman and Moss got it back on the next deal.

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

West	North	East	South
Gitelman	Skrzpczak	Moss	Gierulski
Pass	Pass	1ª	Pass
1NT	Pass	3©	Pass
4¨	Pass	4©	Pass
5©	Pass	6©	All Pass

North's failure to double the 4¨ cuebid is curious - and he certainly had reason to regret the decision when his partner started the defense against the slam with the §A. Moss ruffed and could claim as soon as both opponents followed to the first round of trumps. Moss had 12 tricks via five trumps in hand, five spades, the ¨A and a diamond ruff.

Nicely Bid

The COPE team representing South Africa just missed out on qualification for the K.O. stages of the Power Rosenblum, finishing fifth in their group. However, the relatively inexperienced pairing at this level of Alan Apteker and Bernard Donde had a nice auction to slam on this deal against ROUSSEL of France.

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

West	North	East	South
Donde		Apteker
Pass	2©	4¨	4©
4ª	Pass	5§	Pass
5¨	Pass	5©	Dble
Pass	Pass	Rdbl	Pass
6§	Pass	6ª	All Pass

Two Hearts was weak and 4¨ showed diamonds and spades. The latter bid could have been made on quite a bit less than Apteker actually held so when Donde bid 4ª freely he felt justified in making a try for slam. There was no problem in the play, of course, and the South Africans were soon chalking up +980.

At the other table the French East player overcalled 4ª and it went 5© - 5ª - All Pass, so COPE picked up 11 IMPs.