Piling Up the IMPs

Going into today's final session of the IMP Pairs, Tezcan Sen and Okay Gur of Turkey held a massive lead in the event – nearly 50 IMPs ahead of second place. Only a huge collapse would threaten their championship.

Here are a couple of deals where they helped themselves to large numbers of IMPs on their way to their big lead. The first one is from the second final session.

Board 13. Dealer North. All Vul.
	♠ K 10 5 ♥ – ♦ Q J 9 3 ♣ A Q 9 7 6 2
♠ Q 8 7 2 ♥ Q J ♦ 10 7 2 ♣ J 10 8 5		♠ J 6 ♥ A K 7 4 3 2 ♦ 8 5 4 ♣ K 4
	♠ A 9 4 3 ♥ 10 9 8 6 5 ♦ A K 6 ♣ 3

West	North	East	South
	Sen		Gur
	1♣	1♥	Dble
Pass	2♣	2♥	Dble
All Pass

The first double showed four spades. The second double was for blood.

Gur started with the ♦A, switching at trick two to his singleton club. Gur ruffed a club at trick three, then cashed the ♦K and played a diamond to Sen's queen. Now a low spade to the ace and a spade back to the king allowed North to play a third round of clubs – and Gur got his natural heart trick back for Plus 800 and 12 IMPs. On the following deal, from the fourth final session, a disciplined pass from Sen paid off handsomely for the Turks.

Board 15. Dealer South. N/S Vul.
	♠ 5 ♥ J 9 6 5 ♦ A J 10 9 6 ♣ K 6 2
♠ 10 8 7 ♥ K 10 7 ♦ Q 8 7 4 3 2 ♣ 10		♠ A 6 4 3 2 ♥ 4 ♦ 5 ♣ A J 9 8 7 5
	♠ K Q J 9 ♥ A Q 8 3 2 ♦ K ♣ Q 4 3

West	North	East	South
Gur		Sen
			1♥
Pass	3NT	4♣	4♥
All Pass

North's 3NT showed a hand with 7-9 high-card points and an undisclosed singleton. Sen bid his long suit once, but he went no further when South bid game. The warning had been issued (North 's singleton was almost surely in a black suit, making is more likely South had a substantial holding it that suit).

All over the room, East was playing in some number of spades, always doubled. The minus scores for East/West ranged from 300 to 1400. Sen earned 11 IMPs for his side by simply passing. Gur led his singleton club to Sen's ace. Sen returned the ♣J, and Gur ruffed the queen and heeded partner's suit-preference signal by exiting with a spade. A third club was ruffed for Plus 100.