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Two good deeds deserve a write-up
Last night Marcin Lesniewski came into the bulletin office, and told us about the two good deeds his opponents had produced on consecutive deals from the qualifying.
Marcin was East, Jean-Michel Voldoire was West.
The Good Samaritan sitting North was Jaacov Mintz, and South was Doran Limor.
| Board 27. Dealer South. None Vul. |
| | ♠ 7 3 2
♥ 10 9 6 2
♦ K 9 4 3 2
♣ 4 | ♠ K
♥ A K 8 7
♦ A Q J 10 7
♣ A 8 7 |
 | ♠ A J 9 4
♥ J 5 4 3
♦ 8
♣ 9 6 5 2 |
| | ♠ Q 10 8 6 5
♥ Q
♦ 6 5
♣ K Q J 10 3 |
| West | North | East | South
|
| Voldoire | | Lesniewski
|
| | | | 2♥*
|
| 2♠ | Pass | 3♠ | Pass
|
| 4♠ | Pass | Pass< | 5♥ |
| Pass |
6♥ |
All Pass |
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* Spades and a second suit
< See below
The board came up in the semi-finals of the B Open Pairs. Marcin was not paying full attention so that when his screen mate, North, alerted him vigorously to the artificial nature of the Two Heart opening, he did not ask, but assumed it to be hearts and a minor.
He therefore raised what he imagined to be a natural Two Spade bid to Three. His partner, with the World’s fair, repeated the cue-bid, and now Lesniewski thought they had arrived at the final resting-place. So when North passed, he reached for the green card. North saw this, and asked ‘Are you sure?’. When Lesniewski indicated his intention to pass again, North asked again ‘Are you REALLY sure?’
Now Lesniewski got the message. He looked at the card, and realized he had to dig himself out of the pit somehow, so he bid Five Hearts and was raised to slam. Lesniewski had to play it of course, and with all the discussions he was already under time pressure when dummy appeared. He won the lead of the club king and cashed one top heart, played the diamond ace and ruffed a diamond, cashed the heart jack then crossed to the spade king and passed the diamond queen successfully. When that passed off peacefully, he ruffed out the diamond king, played the spade ace and ruffed a spade, and cashed the diamond jack as North followed suit impotently. The heart king was trick 12 and both defenders took trick 13; contract made.
At this point there was one minute left on the clock and North and South could have avoided playing the second board altogether, but they said they were happy to try and fit the board in. so they rushed to take out their cards. This was the deal:
| Board 28. Dealer West. N/S Vul. |
| | ♠ K 7 6 4 3
♥ 7 3
♦ K 5 4 2
♣ 8 5 | ♠ J 10 9 2
♥ A K 8 2
♦ 8 6
♣ 8 6 5 2 |
| ♠ A Q 8 5
♥ Q 4
♦ A Q 9
♣ 8 6 5 2 |
| | ♠ –
♥ J 10 9 6 5
♦ J 10 7 3
♣ 9 4 3 2 |
| West | North | East | South
|
| 1♣ | Pass | 1♠ | Pass
|
| 2♠ | Pass | 4NT | Pass
|
| 5♥ | Pass | 6NT | All Pass |
The auction took very little time, with Lesniewski taking the inspired decision to play no-trump not spades. On the lead of the heart jack he won in hand and crossed to the club ace to pass the spade jack. After running all his spade and club winners he crossed to dummy in the four-card ending, took the top hearts and had to guess whether to take the diamond finesse or whether he had squeezed South. (Yes after the first spade play it might have been wiser to take the diamond finesse at once!)
As it was he guessed what to do and racked up 13-tricks.
For their kindness North-South got a 17% round; but you could argue that in the end justice was done, since they find themselves in the ‘A’ semi-finals, while their more fortunate opponents are situated in the ‘B’ semi-finals!
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