The Senior Trial – Part 3

by Phillip Alder

After Doug Simson, Jeff Aker, Dennis and Jerry Clerkin, Mark Tolliver and Marc Zwerling lost the undefeated-teams final of the United States Senior Trial, they dropped into the semifinals of the repêchange event for once-defeated teams. There, Simson played against Jon Sorkin, Jeffry Mandell, Cheri Bjerkan, Larry Robbins, David Lehman and Richard Melson. Simson won by 205 international match points to 164. The second 90- semifinal was more exciting. With one 15-board set to be played, Dan Morse, John Sutherlin, Mark Feldman, Chip Martel, Fred Stewart and Kit Woolsey led Paul Street, Marc Jacobus, Bart Bramley, Lew Stansby, Mike Passell and Eddie Wold by 143 imps to 123. There were three double-digit swings in this set, the first two coming immediately. (These two boards have been rotated to make South or West the declarer.)

North Dlr: East ‰ K 10 5 3 Vul: E-W Š A 8 7 3 2 ‹ Q 10 Œ K 4 West East ‰ 4 ‰ J 8 7 6 Š Q J 10 6 4 Š 5 ‹ 5 4 3 ‹ A K J 7 Œ Q 9 3 2 Œ J 10 8 6 South ‰ A Q 9 2 Š K 9 ‹ 9 8 6 2 Œ A 7 5 Table 1: West North East South Bramley Woolsey Stansby Stewart Pass 1‹ (a) Pass 1Š Dble 1NT (b) Pass 3NT All Pass (a) 11-15 points, 2-plus diamonds (b) Denies three hearts

Guided by the auction, Bramley led the club deuce, fourth-highest. Stewart won with dummy's king and played a heart to his nine. West won with his ten and persevered in clubs. South won and cashed his heart king, getting the bad news when East discarded the diamond seven. Now declarer cashed out, taking four spades, two hearts and two clubs for down one. Note that North-South could have made four spades with careful play.

1 North Dlr: East ‰ K 10 5 3 Vul: E-W Š A 8 7 3 2 ‹ Q 10 Œ K 4 West East ‰ 4 ‰ J 8 7 6 Š Q J 10 6 4 Š 5 ‹ 5 4 3 ‹ A K J 7 Œ Q 9 3 2 Œ J 10 8 6 South ‰ A Q 9 2 Š K 9 ‹ 9 8 6 2 Œ A 7 5 Table 2: West North East South Martel Wold Feldman Passell Pass 1‹ (c) Pass 1Š Dble Pass 2Œ Dble (d) All Pass (c) 11-15 points, 2-plus diamonds (d) Card-showing

After Wold made a card-showing double on the second round, Passell decided to take whatever money was available. North made the best , the club king. He continued with his second , South winning and leading a third round. North discarded an encouraging spade three, using upside-down sig- nals. Declarer (West) won in the dummy and led the heart five. South took the trick with his king and shifted to the spade deuce. North won with his king and returned the spade ten, covered by the jack and queen. West trumped and ruffed out North's heart ace. Then declarer cashed dummy's two top diamonds. The queen dropped, establishing the jack, so that was down two, minus 500 and a loss of 11 imps. Mysteriously, though, the official record has down three and 13 imps for Street . My scores reflect the correct score.

2 North Dlr: South ‰ K Q 9 5 Vul: None Š 10 5 ‹ K J 10 8 6 2 Œ 3 West East ‰ A 8 7 6 4 ‰ J 10 3 2 Š 7 4 3 Š Q 9 8 2 ‹ Q ‹ 7 4 Œ Q J 9 7 Œ A 10 4 South ‰ – Š A K J 6 ‹ A 9 5 3 Œ K 8 6 5 2 Table 1: West North East South Bramley Woolsey Stansby Stewart 1‹ (a) 1‰ 2‹ (b) 3Š (c) 3‰ Pass 3NT Pass 4‹ Pass 5‹ All Pass (a) 11-15 points, 2-plus diamonds (b) Inverted minor-suit raise: game-invitational or stronger (c) A mixed raise: typically four-card spade support with 7-9 support points and nine losers

Table 2: West North East South Martel Wold Feldman Passell 1‹ (d) 1‰ 2‹ (e) 3‰ 4‰ Pass 5‹ Pass 6‹ Pass Pass Pass (d) 11-15 points, 2-plus diamonds (e) Inverted minor-suit raise: game-invitational or stronger

Stewart knew the club ace was missing and did not like that his partner had spade values. Passell also knew about the club ace, but liked his other controls. At Table 1, Bramley led the club queen to save one overtrick. Martel chose the heart seven. Then Passell played smoothly to take all of the tricks: three rounds of hearts, discarding dummy's club, club , spade ruff, club ruff, spade ruff, club ruff, bringing down the ace. So South continued with dummy's diamond king, played a diamond to his ace, cashed his two high clubs, and claimed. Minus 420 and plus 940 gave Street another 11 imps and the lead by 2 imps.

3 Morse gained three overtrick imps on the next deal. Then came Board 79:

North Dlr: South ‰ J 9 6 2 Vul: E-W Š – ‹ A 7 3 2 Œ A J 8 4 2 West East ‰ A Q 8 7 4 3 ‰ K 10 5 Š A Q J 6 2 Š 9 7 4 ‹ 8 ‹ K 9 6 Œ 5 Œ K Q 6 3 South ‰ – Š K 10 8 5 3 ‹ Q J 10 5 4 Œ 10 9 7 Table 1: West North East South Stansby Stewart Bramley Woolsey 2‹ (a) 2‰ Pass 4‰ Pass 4NT Pass 5‹ (b) Dble 5‰ Pass Pass Pass (a) A weak two-bid in either major (b) One key card

This contract looked fine, but had no chance with the actual distribution. Stewart cashed his two aces and led another diamond, declarer (West) discarding a low heart from his hand. After a spade to the ace, a spade to dummy's ten and the spade king, West threw two more hearts on dummy's top clubs. Then he played a heart to his queen, but North's ruff defeated the contract.

Table 2: West North East South Feldman Passell Martel Wold Pass 1‰ Pass 1NT (c) 2‰ (d) Pass 2NT (e) 3‰ (f) Pass 4‰ 4NT (g) Dble 5‹ Pass Pass Dble All Pass (c) Semiforcing (d) Michaels: at least 5-5 in hearts and either minor (e) Asking for the minor (f) Limit raise with three-card support (g) “Come on partner, which is your minor?”

The play in five diamonds doubled was complicated. What actually happened was that West led his singleton club. When declarer ducked in the dummy, East won with his queen and shifted to the spade five. South ruffed and ran the diamond queen to East's king. Declarer ruffed the next spade and led the club ten. When West discarded a spade, South won with dummy's ace, trumped a spade, drew the missing trump, and overtook his club nine with dummy's jack. East won with his king and shifted to a

4 heart. Declarer ruffed in the dummy, cashed his two club tricks, and conceded one spade at the end. The defenders had taken one spade, one diamond and two clubs for down two. Plus 100 and plus 300 gave Morse 9 imps and the lead. The match was decided by Board 86:

North Dlr: East ‰ K 7 5 Vul: Both Š J 10 8 ‹ J 6 Œ K Q 8 7 4 West East ‰ A Q J 6 2 ‰ 10 9 Š 9 5 Š K Q 7 3 ‹ K 10 7 4 ‹ 9 8 5 3 Œ 3 2 Œ J 10 5 South ‰ 8 4 3 Š A 6 4 2 ‹ A Q 2 Œ A 9 6 Table 1: West North East South Stansby Stewart Bramley Woolsey Pass 1NT (a) Pass 2Œ (b) Pass 2‹ (c) Pass 3NT All Pass (a) 14-16 points (b) Puppet Stayman (c) No five-card major

Table 2: West North East South Feldman Passell Martel Wold Pass 1NT (c) Pass 3Œ (d) Pass 3‹ (e) Pass 3NT All Pass (c) 14-16 points (d) Puppet Stayman (e) No five-card major, at least one four-card major

Against Woolsey, Stansby led the spade queen, promising the jack but nothing else. Declarer correctly ducked in the dummy, and East played his ten. On the spade-deuce continuation, though, South had a nasty guess. He got it wrong, playing low from the dummy. East won with his nine and shifted to a diamond. Declarer had to , so West won and cashed his spades for down two. Against Wold, Feldman led the spade jack, Rusinow, promising the queen and nothing else. Declarer ducked, but on the low-spade continuation, guessed correctly, winning with dummy's king. He then ran clubs to give this position (see the next page):

5 North ‰ 7 Š J 10 8 ‹ J 6 Œ – West East ‰ A Q 6 ‰ – Š 9 Š K Q 7 ‹ K 10 ‹ 9 8 3 Œ – Œ – South ‰ 8 Š A 6 ‹ A Q 2 Œ –

South led dummy's heart eight and took East's queen with his ace. Then he exited with his last spade. West took three tricks in the suit, but had to lead from his diamond king into South's ace-queen. Even if West had discarded down to a singleton diamond king, Wold would surely have read the position. Nicely played by Wold to gain 13 imps for the Street team and win the match by 166 imps to 155. The USA-2 final match will be featured in the next two articles.

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