Like an Open Book
Round No.7 saw Turkey (Tinaz) meeting Australia (Marston) in Group M.
Turkey scored 25 VPs and helped the author out of his "no hand, no
story"-agony with this interesting single dummy problem:
K 10 9 5 4
K 7 2
8 5 4 3
5
-
Q 6 5
A K Q 10 7
2
10 7 4 2
WEST NORTH EAST
SOUTH
1D
1S
2D Dbl 4D !
All Pass
Ozdil (S) had to face the lead of C3 (3rd/5th), which went to 5, K and 2. East
returned a trump and West showed out, discarding a small club. How do play the
hand? Ozdil had no problem -- he could read West's distribution like an open
book. His analysis was, that West could not hold four hearts -- otherwise he
would have bid over 4D. A six-card spade suit was unlikely for the same reason.
Taking the lead into account additionally, the declarer worked out that West's
shape should be 5-3-0-5. The rest was a piece of cake, at least for someone
whose last name is Ozdil. He ruffed a club, ruffed a spade and ruffed a second
club. As there's only one layout that leads to success now, Ozdil simply played
East for not holding either Q or J of
spades and West for the HA. Therefore, he ran the S10 and discarded his
club loser. Now, poor East was on lead and had a very unpleasant choice --
which of the three pains would feel least bad. Here are all four hands:
K 10 9 5 4
K 7 2
8 5 4 3
5
Q
J 6 3 2 A 8 7
A 9 3 J 10 8 4
- J 9 8
Q J 8 6 3 A K 9
-
Q 6 5
A K Q 10 7
2
10 7 4 2
Pain a: a spade return gives South a free finesse,
Pain b: a heart return gives South two heart tricks, and
Pain c: a club return gives South a
heart discard in dummy.
Whatever East tried, South was going to score ten tricks, losing just a club, a spade and a heart!
My Dear Watson
It was back in 1939 when L.H.Watson wrote his classic about card play technique,
called The Play of the Hand at Bridge. I still remember, when I started reading
this book, how fascinating it was, to see how well everything is explained and
what a good teaching manual it still is
after 50 years of bridge development.
Chapter 1 starts with the explanation of
The Power of the Honors and teaches the reader how carefully one should
handle these cards, how they can be promoted and how they can support each
other.
Anyhow, since yesterday I feel a little like Sherlock Holmes, who turns to his
friend Watson and tells him about a few details he might have overlooked. This
story was reported to me from the Seniors' qualifying session:
Dealer E, E-W vul.
S K Q 8 7 2
H 10 9 7 5 2
D -
C K 9
2
S A
9 5 4 S 10 6
H 8 6 4 3 H
A
D J 5 2 D
A K 4 3
C Q J C A 8 7 5 4 3
S J 3
H K Q J
D Q 10 9 8 7 6
C 10 6
After the opening bid of 1C, South decided to weak jump to 2D and was rewarded
for this by a passed-out negative double by East. West started with the CQ to
king, ace and small. East switched to
the HA and then reverted to clubs to partner's jack. West gave his partner a
heart ruff which was followed by a club
overruff and another heart ruff. East now switched to a spade taken by West's
SA. When West tried a fourth round of hearts East ruffed high and what could
South do? He discarded his SJ and scored four trump tricks in the end for a
score of -800.
"These are the facts, but what is much more remarkable, my dear Watson,
is, that South didn't score a trick with dummy's CK, he didn't score a trick
with HKQJ and he didn't score a trick with SKQJ. So my friend, what do you
think about the power of these high cards? Where was the synergetic effect
here? Shouldn't we always consider the "power of the outstanding
trumps" as they killed all these honors? I think you'll have to add a new
chapter to your famous masterpiece!
But now tell me Watson, who was the murderer on this board? South, who
pretended to be weak? North, who didn't protect his partner with some
trumps? East-West who crossruffed South
to death? Wrong, my friend, wrong!
The murderers were South's partners at the other table, who beat 2D even five
times, but:... forgot to double it!"
A Touch of Inspiration
Finally
it's pairs time again! It means more action for the audience, more food for the
journalists and more excitement on the small path between immortality and
insanity for the players!
This deal from the Open qualification, part II,
saw EBL Juniors Pazur-Miechowicz from Poland
sitting East-West, trying to improve their score in a rather unconventional
way, with expectations and hopes changing from bid to bid:
All Vul,
Dlr West
S A Q J 10 8
H J 9 6
D A 2
C K J 4
S 7 5
S
K 6
H Q 8 3 H A K 10 7 5 4 2
D K 8 7 4 D Q 3
C Q 10 8 2 C 9 5
S 9 4 3
2
H
-
D J
10 9 6 5
C A 7
6 3
West North East
South
Pazur
Miechowicz
Pass
1S 2H 2S
3H 3S 3NT Pass
Pass Dbl Pass 4S
Pass Pass 4NT Pass
Pass Dbl All
pass
Pawel Miechowicz picked up this real nice East hand and heard
his RHO open the bidding with 1S. "I need more information," he
thought and started quietly with a 2H overcall. After South's 2S, partner
raised him surprisingly to 3H but nevertheless the raise was very welcome. Now
all of sudden an idea came to East and an inner voice said:" Pawel, go for
nine tricks on a spade lead in 3 NT!" Not to let this touch of inspiration
pass by, Miechowicz duly bid game.
Unfortunately, the confused opponents
found their way to 4S and once again Pawel's inner voice spoke up: "Pawel,
go for eight tricks in 4NT!" Though
he was wondering, if he finally would end up in 7NT and go for five tricks,
Pawel decided to take his chances and defended with 4NT against 4S.
How
right he was! He received a spade lead and cashed eight tricks for -500 and a huge
score as many N/S-pairs were allowed to
score ten or eleven tricks in 4S. Thank God, it's pairs time again! Or have I
already mentioned this?
To lose a winner, to win a loser
It's time to put the spotlight on the Seniors' event. The following deal was
played by Wilhelm Gromoeller (Germany) , sitting South after a fairly natural
Precision auction.
NORTH
S K Q J 3
H A 5 4
D K Q 8 2
C Q 4
WEST EAST
S
8 S 9 7 6 5 4 2
H
K 9 6 2 H Q J 10
D
A 6 4 3 D J 5
C
10 8 5 3 C K7
SOUTH
S A 10
H 8 7 3
D 10 9 7
C A J 9 6 2
WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH
Humburg Gromoeller (Germany)
Pass 1C (1) Pass 1NT
Pass 2C (2) Pass 2H
Pass 3NT All Pass
(1) Precision
(2) Stayman.
When Gromoeller got the lead of the H2, he ducked twice and won the third with
the ace. Next came the CQ to K, A and 3, followed by a small diamond to the
queen. Back in hand with the SA, Gromoeller continued with the D10, and when
West ducked the DK won the trick. Three more rounds of spades (South discarding
the D9) revealed West's 1-4-4-4 distribution, West's disappointment in not
beating the contract and West's serious problem in attempting to avoid
conceding more overtricks than necessary!
On dummy's last spade, West still held HK, DA and C 10 8. He visualized that
giving up the DA would not be the right move to please a partner, so he had to
chose between the HK, a 99.9% winner, or the C8, a card usually in a much worse
position and therefore a potential loser.
Finally the C8 left West's hand and immediately Gromoeller tabled his cards to
inform the opponents that now all good cards had been converted to the status
of a bunch of losers. To lose the HK winner would at least have saved the day
for the DA loser!
And Gromoeller-Humburg are still claiming injustice. Why wasn't this for
overtricks in a pair event, not the vital IMP in a knockout match!
Keeping up the good tradition
For those who haven't found out yet, there was one team among the last 64 that is
the exception to the rule -- the European Juniors Team. They were the only accepted
transnational team in the field. The team consists of : Boguslaw "Bogie" Pazur &
Pawel "It was impossible to win" Miechowicz from POLAND, Vadim
"No visa for the transit zone" Holomeev & Youri "49
hours without sleep" Khiouppenen from RUSSIA, and Martin
"Unbelievable" de Knijff
& Tomas "This board felt
good" Borgesson from SWEDEN.
One morning Martin discovered Dr.George Rosenkranz in the crowd and asked his uninformed
captain -- me -- if I knew, what this man had invented. "The Rosenkranz Double
and Redouble, of course," was my rather ignorant answer, "Nooo!"
said Martin.
"...and the ROMEX trial bids," I continued innocently. Martin shook
his head in disbelief and told me that our VIP. had invented the birth control
pill. "Oh," replied his partner Tomas," but that is not as
important as the ROMEX trials...!"
By coincidence, Poland, Russia and Sweden all have a very good tradition in
high jumping. Sweden's Patrick Sjoberg is known all over the world. In the
match against Team Truscott, Borgesson
kept up the good Swedish tradition.
Sitting South he
held this hand:
S A
H K Q 8
D A K J 9 8 7 5 4 3
C -
Tomas heard his partner open 1NT (14-16), doubled by his RHO to show a
four-card major and a five-card minor. After some consideration, he produced
the STOP-card and bid: 7D! "Is that a jump?" he asked the opponents
with a chuckle.
This was the complete deal:
S K 4 2
H A 6 4 3
D Q 10
C K J 10 3
S J 10 9 7 3 S Q 8 6 5
H J 9 7 5 2
H 10
D -
D 6 2
C 8 5 2
C A Q 9 7 6 4
S A
H K Q 8
D A K J 9
8 7 5 4 3
C -
The contract was cold as ice, so the EBL Juniors scored +2140. Unfortunately a
more scientific auction led to the same result in the other room, with again no
7S save by East-West. So the board was a push, but at least saw a new world
record in the high jump.
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