The Director Came Over with the Scores

By Matthew Granovetter

Our quaint hotel in Verona is located nicely a few blocks walk from the convention site. The hotel is doing well, since all three American pairs that won medals in the Mixed Pairs are here. The games finish in the early evening, so Pamela and I have a chance to chat about the hands afterwards with our friends. Tuesday night we went to a local sandwich bar with Lew and Joanna Stansby and they told us some cute stories. Here's one of them (hands rotated).

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

West	North	East	South
Lew		JoAnna
	1♣	Pass	3♠
Dble	Rdbl	Pass	3NT
All Pass

Opening lead: ♠Q.

This board was the last board of the Mixed Pairs for them. At this point, the top three pairs, the Stansbys, the Levins, and McCallum and I, were within a percentage point of each other, but we were all playing different boards at different tables. At this table North/South were a Polish pair, and the 3♠ response to 1♣ was a transfer to 3NT! Lew doubled for the spade lead, but North redoubled and now South became declarer!

That was bad news for Lew, but what could he do about it? If he had not doubled, his wife would have led a diamond. (Chip Martel suggested later that next time they play against this system, they use pass of 3♠ to ask for a spade lead and double to say don't lead a spade!)

Lew led the ♠Q and switched to the ♥K, which held. Next he tried the ♥Q. Declarer won and drove out the jack. JoAnna returned a spade now through the jack. Declarer had nine tricks, but could score 10 if he guessed to finesse East for the ♣J. Declarer cashed the 13th heart, two diamonds, ending in dummy, and then the ♣A.

Then he called for the ♣10, East playing low.

At this point, the director came over and gave everyone their score sheets through round 12. Lew saw he was in third place. But he was more concerned with South. "What if South was in a high position and now decided he needed a top score, and floated the ten of clubs?!" said Lew. Luckily for Lew and JoAnna, declarer rose with the ♣K and took only nine tricks, so the Stansbys held on to third place and a bronze medal.

Bridge Today Digest Daily is edited by Pamela and Matthew Granovetter. Subscriptions or comments by return email to infobridgetoday.com