Good, Bad and ...

By Barry Rigal

It is sometimes tough to tell your good results from you bad ones. Consider the following deal from the Rosenblum encounter between the Schwartz and Rogoff teams.

Board 3. Dealer South. E/W Vul.
	♠ Q 10 8 6 ♥ 8 2 ♦ Q 4 ♣ K Q J 9 8
♠ K 7 4 ♥ J 7 6 4 ♦ A 9 8 6 3 ♣ 5		♠ J 9 ♥ A K Q 10 9 5 3 ♦ 7 ♣ 10 6 3
	♠ A 5 3 2 ♥ - ♦ K J 10 5 2 ♣ A 7 4 2

At the table where Rogoff was North this was the auction:

West	North	East	South
			1♦
Pass	1♠	3♥	4♥
5♦	Pass	5♥	Pass
Pass	5♠	All Pass

Note the subtle 5♦ by Jim Krekorian. Drew Casen, East, led his singleton diamond for a ruff a trick two. The ♠K meant one down. Nicely bid, but in the other room this was the auction:

West	North	East	South
			1♦
Pass	1♠	3♥	3♠
4♥	Pass	Pass	4♠
5♥	Dbl	All Pass

Very nicely bid by John Carroll, West, to take the vulnerable save, which turned out to be the best kind of sacrifice - a making one for plus 850.

If you thought that was hard to predict, how about this one?

Board 6. Dealer East. E/W Vul.
	♠ A 8 7 5 2 ♥ 8 7 ♦ Q 9 ♣ 9 8 3 2
♠ - ♥ A K Q 6 5 ♦ A K 2 ♣ K J 10 6 5		♠ Q 3 ♥ 10 4 3 2 ♦ 10 7 5 4 ♣ A 7 4
	♠ K J 10 9 6 4 ♥ J 9 ♦ J 8 6 3 ♣ Q

West	North	East	South
		Pass	3♠
Dbl	4♠	Pass	Pass
Dbl	All Pass

4♠ went down two. Plus 300 did not look to be a great return. At the other table, the auction was hardly unreasonable but even less successful.

West	North	East	South
		Pass	3♠
Dbl	5♠	Dbl	Pass
5NT	Pass	6♦	All Pass

The diamond slam was not a happy spot, but did anyone do anything stupid? 6♦ went down 200 for an 11-IMP swing to Schwartz. The final swing for Bruce Rogoff came when Carroll found a nicely deceptive line in 4♥.

Board 12. Dealer West. N/S Vul.
	♠ 9 8 4 2 ♥ 5 ♦ J 10 4 3 ♣ A 8 5 3
♠ Q J 7 6 ♥ K Q 9 7 6 ♦ K 9 8 ♣ 7		♠ A 10 5 3 ♥ 8 3 2 ♦ A Q 6 ♣ K 10 2
	♠ K ♥ A J 10 4 ♦ 7 5 2 ♣ Q J 9 6 4

At the other table, East-West had declared 3NT down two, eschewing both their eight-card fits.

West	North	East	South
1♥	Pass	2♦	Pass
2♥	Pass	3♥	Pass
4♥	All Pass

East's 2♦ was a heart raise of at least game-invitational strength.

On a diamond lead, Carroll won with the queen in dummy to lead a heart to his king. Another diamond to dummy and another heart to the 10 and queen revealed the two heart losers. Now came a club from the West hand. By delaying the club play, Caroll had convinced North that there was no need to rush in with the ♣A – wrong! That was 11 IMPs to the Rogoff team on the way to a 25-5 victory.