Endplayed
In the third session we got to see a beautiful
endplay by Bengt-Erik Efraimsson on the following deal:
Session 3. Board 17. Dealer
North. None Vul
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|
ª 8 7 4
© J 10 7
¨ Q 8 2
§ 10 4 3 2 |
ª K 9 6 5 3 2
© Q 9
¨ K J 10 7
§ K |
|
ª A Q
© A 8 3 2
¨ 9 3
§ A J 8 7 6 |
|
ª J 10
© K 6 5 4
¨ A 6 5 4
§ Q 9 5 |
West |
North |
East |
South |
Borin |
|
Efraimsson |
|
|
Pass |
2§ |
Pass |
2ª |
Pass |
2NT |
Pass |
3NT |
All Pass |
|
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Not much to say about the bidding except it
was a rather typical Precision Two Club opening, West forced with
5-6 spades, and the opener showed a maximum hand with 0-2 spades.
South led the four of hearts and declarer made
his first right choice by putting up the queen. Next followed a
spade to the ace. Declarer continued by playing the queen of spades
and when the jack appeared declarer simply overtook the queen with
the king. On the run of the spades North started discarding hearts
putting South on guard in that suit. Having taken all his spade
winners and the king of clubs declarer arrived in the following
position:
|
ª
-
© -
¨ Q 8
§ 10 4 3 |
ª
-
© 9
¨ K J 10 7
§ - |
|
ª
-
© A 8
¨ 9
§ A J |
|
ª
-
© K 6
¨ A
§ Q 9 |
Declarer who had a good picture of the lay-out
from the discarding and the opening lead simply crossed to his ace
of hearts and exited with a heart to South's king. South now cashed
his diamond ace but had to lead away from his queen-nine of clubs
into declarers ace-jack for 11 tricks to East-West. The reward for
this play was 246 out of 286.
Nice
bidding, partner
On the following deal, the Swedish pair Bengt-Erik
Efraimsson - Kenneth Borin showed how a highly developed strong
club system might be preferable to a natural one. Many such systems
would crash-land in 3NT without any further aims and not that much
control.
Session 4. Board 19. Dealer
South. E-W Vul
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|
ª A 6 5 3
© A 4
¨ K Q J 7 6
§ A K |
ª K J 10 9
© J 7 3
¨ 9 5
§ 9 5 3 2 |
|
ª Q 7 2
© Q 9 6 5
¨ 10 8
§ J 8 7 4 |
|
ª 8 4
© K 10 8 2
¨ A 4 3 2
§ Q 10 6 |
West |
North |
East |
South |
|
Efraimsson |
|
Borin |
|
|
|
Pass |
Pass |
1§ |
Pass |
1© |
Pass |
1ª |
Pass |
1NT |
Pass |
2§ |
Pass |
2© |
Pass |
2ª |
Pass |
2NT |
Pass |
3¨ |
Pass |
4¨ |
Pass |
4© |
Pass |
5¨ |
Pass |
6¨! |
All Pass |
|
Almost all bids in this sequence more or less
had an artificial meaning!
North showed a strong hand, 16+, by opening One Club. North's next
three bids were all relays and South gave North the following information:
" I have some kind of balanced hand with 8-10 points, exactly
four hearts and only two spades.
Efraimsson
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|
Three Diamonds was natural and now South
could choose what to respond with or without support and the
thing that he showed with his raise to Four Diamonds was a
"good" raise with some honour in diamonds and four-card
diamond support. So North now knew that South was exactly
2-4-4-3 and that he also had the diamond ace within his 8-10
HCP.
As he had a good raise he needed something more. Opener made
a cue bid in hearts and discovered his partner did not have
a black ace or king. He knew that he was almost certain to
have a king and a queen somewhere. So it was clear for North
that South had the king of hearts and a well placed black
queen.
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In almost perfect control Efraimsson could
raise to Six Diamonds to score the slam. At about 100 tables they
played in 3NT, loosing to the ones in slam which happened at around
35 tables. The Swedes were rewarded with 248.19 of the 286 points
that were available.
Spades
Come Up Trumps
From Maureen Dennison
In the first qualifying session of the Senior
Pairs my partner, Morris Leighton, decided that the order of the
day was spades. For instance on Board 3, against a freely bid 3NT
he led the four from ªQ104
which induced declarer to duck twice in case the club finesse failed.
That extra trick earned us 66/74 match points. On Board 18 after
the opposition bid 1¨-1©-1ª-1NT,
Morris decided to lead dummy's second suit and led from ªKQ5
finding me with ªA973
over dummy. This held declarer to eight tricks for another 64 MPs.
However, this was his sweetest spade play.
Board 9. Dealer North. East-West
Vul.
|
|
ª Q 6 2
© K 2
¨ K J 7 4
§ K 10 8 6 |
ª 3
© A 9 6 5
¨ A 10 8 3
§ A J 7 4 |
|
ª A K J 9 7
© 10 7 3
¨ 6 2
§ Q 9 3 |
|
ª 10 8 5 4
© Q J 8 4
¨ Q 9 5
§ 5 2 |
Morris opened the North hand with a Presion
style 1¨, East overcalled
1ª and West closed
procedings with a firm 3NT. Morris had recently read Barry Rigal's
book on deceptive plays in which he made a point that we do not
false card often enough, usually playing the card we are known to
hold. This time partner was ready. He led a club which declarer
took in hand. West now took the spade finesse and cashed the ace.
Morris smoothly followed with the queen. Declarer sat back, abandoned
the spade suit and quietly drifted one down! Another 66 MPs.
Provided the defenders are careful, declarer cannot make the contract
even if he plays on spades. However, as North might have started
with ªQ102, it must be right totry for that.. Editors.
That wasn't the end of the spade story. On
Board 6 he judged to put me to 5ª,
doubled by East, over their vulnerable 5¨
game. The bidding indicated that West held three clubs so I took
the deep finesse to reach table to pick up the trumps and that was
an outright top.
However, my favourite spade play was Board
15.
Board 15. Dealer South.
North/South Vul
|
|
ª 9 8
© 9 6 2
¨ Q J 10 9 7 5
§ 10 3 |
ª K J
© 8 7 5 4
¨ K 4
§ Q 8 7 6 4 |
|
ª A 10 4 3
© K 10
¨ A 8 6 3
§ J 9 5 |
|
ª Q 7 6 5 2
© A Q J 3
¨ 2
§ A K 2 |
Having opened a strong club I got to play the
contract in 1ª.
West led a club so I played AK and another, ruffing on table. I
led a heart and East went in with the king. I took my ace and played
a trump. West won with the jack and continued with another club.
East didn't feel like discarding the ©10
- note the valuable nine in dummy! - and made the fatal mistake
of discarding a diamond, so I threw a diamond and ruffed. I cashed
©Q and followed
with the jack. A low heart to the nine is the way to ensure eight
tricks. Editors.
East ruffed this and started on diamonds. I
trumped the second and was up to seven tricks and my last three
cards were ªQ7 and
a losing heart. With three trumps outstanding I played my trump
forcing West to win. His club exit now allowed me to make my ªQ
en passant. +110 earned us 72 MPs.
But West could have cashed the eight of hearts
in the two card ending!
Struggling
to Avoid a Bottom
When Russians Ossauolenko and Shudnev met Stretz
and Potier from France the latter had to fight hard to avoid a zero
on Board 24 of the first session of the semifinals.
Board 24. Dealer West. None
Vul
|
|
ª 9 8 2
© Q 7 6 3
¨ A K 10 9 2
§ 9 |
ª A Q J 7 5
© K J
¨ 4
§ K Q 10 5 2 |
|
ª 10 6 4
© 9 8 4
¨ Q 8 6 5
§ 7 4 3 |
|
ª K 3
© A 10 5 2
¨ J 7 3
§ A J 8 6 |
West |
North |
East |
South |
Ossauolenko |
Potier |
Shudnev |
Stretz |
1ª |
2¨ |
Pass |
3NT |
Dbl |
All Pass |
|
|
Jacques
Potier |
|
The Two Diamond bid is not exactly text
book and prevented the French pair from reaching the better
contract of Four Hearts.
The lead was the king of clubs, which
was ducked. West then played the queen of spades. South took
his king and then finessed in diamonds to prevent West from
giving a signal. The finesse lost but the manoeuvre partly
succeeded when East played back a club to declarer's ace.
When declarer cashed four rounds of diamonds West had to keep
the queen of clubs, two hearts to the king and so only two
spades. Brilliancy would have been to keep the ace and seven
of spades, maintaining an entry to partner's ten but West,
with the ace and jack of spades in hand preferred to be sure.
François Stretz did not miss his chance to limit his
loss to just 100 by endplaying West in spades, forcing him
to lead away from the king of hearts.
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Grab
the second chance
Board 14. Dealer East. None
Vul
|
|
ª K 10 5 4
© J 8
¨ 8 6 5 2
§ Q J 10 |
ª J 9 7
© A Q 10 2
¨ A 3
§ K 7 5 2 |
|
ª Q 8 3
© K 9 6 4
¨ J 9
§ A 8 6 4 |
|
ª A 6 2
© 7 5 3
¨ K Q 10 7 4
§ 9 3 |
East, who is looking at a hand not exactly
to write home about - after all, how much more average can you get?
An ace in one suit, a king in another, a queen in the third and
a jack in the fourth, and the most common of all distributions -,
sees his partner open a 12-14 no-trump. Holding only one major and
one point short, by his methods, of a non-forcing Stayman response,
he passes, only to see his left-hand (passed) opponent bid Two Clubs
(alerted as any one-suiter). Rightie bids Two Diamonds (what's your
suit?), and East has a second chance to achieve a good result with
10 points opposite 12-14.
Would you, like East, have hit on Two Hearts?
This is obviously a four-card suit, as he would
have otherwise bid immediately over 1NT. The reasoning is that the
1NT opener, if he holds only two hearts, will bid one of his suits.
Everybody passes, however, and not without trepidation does East
await the dummy.
This has been the auction:
West |
North |
East |
South |
|
|
Pass |
Pass |
1NT |
Pass |
Pass |
2§ |
Pass |
2¨ |
Pass |
2© |
All Pass |
|
|
|
South leads the diamond king. Bingo! At last
the opponents have helped East-West to reach their fit, but to achieve
a better than average result East still needs an overtrick. East
takes the ace and, going through the motions, cashes the trump ace.
He eyes the eight from North warily. Is this the standard card from
©J875, hoping to
convince declarer that he has the singleton eight, so that declarer
finesses against his partner? East decides, however, that if anyone
has four hearts, it will be North (South wouldn't bid a one-suiter
also holding four hearts), and draws trumps. It now only remains
for him to take the ace and king of clubs and to play a diamond.
South, bereft of exit cards, has to break the spades, and East loses
only two spades, a diamond and a club for a healthy 70+%!
One no-trump and nowhere to go; But LHO isn't
too slow His balancing bid Just proves a damp quib; And helps us
to score in Sorrento!
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