Saturday, March 19, 2016 Volume 59, Number 9 Daily Bulletin 59th Spring North American Bridge Championships [email protected] Editors: Sue Munday and Brent Manley NPR spotlights bridge By Darbi Padbury Rather than get into the “nitty gritty” of bridge If the bar is more crowded than normal, it’s only and the NABC, Ahn Gray, news reporter for Reno then that I realize it must be a Friday, rather than Public Radio, the local NPR affiliate, wanted to tell Tuesday.” a story “about the devoted bridge fans.” – Oren Kriegel On Monday morning, some of the game’s most “For me, I think notable personalities and a couple of its rising stars the biggest appeal sat down to talk to it was that you with Gray. They never see it all, that described their love no matter how good Silodor Open Pairs winners: Jeff Meckstroth for the game and you get, there’s and Eric Rodwell. what motivates them always something to keep playing. new. I’ve been Meckstroth, Rodwell win “When I come playing seriously to a tournament, I for 30-plus years, win Silodor Open Pairs get sort of lost in and if I go and play Disappointed to have lost in the second round this world. I lose this afternoon, there of the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams, Jeff Meckstroth track of time and would be three or and Eric Rodwell took their frustration out on the often don’t even four bridge deals that I had never encountered field in the Silodor Open Pairs, winning the event know what day it is. continued on page 5 continued on page 11 Marsz, Marsz, Klukowski* * “Marsz, Marsz Dabrowski” (March, March, Dabrowski) is the first verse of the Polish national anthem’s chorus. Dabrowski was a Polish General with a strong patriotic attitude). By Francesca Canali At 20 years old, Michal Klukowski has already remarkably contributed to the bridge history of his country by winning four major champions – world and European. In Reno he was playing in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams on the Mahaffey team Women’s Pairs winners: Tatiana Ponomareva (Jim Mahaffey npc, David Bakhshi, Bob Hamman, and Victoria Gromova. Roger Lee, Piotr Gawrys and Sam Lev). Besides his bridge talent, what is most Russian women victorious impressive about Klukowski is his extremely strong in LM Women’s Pairs temperament. Two years ago, he was playing in the In a close race, Victoria Gromova and Tatiana final against two top-ranked players, fighting for Ponomareva edged out their competitors to win the the world title (World Bridge Series, Sanya 2014). continued on page 11 When one of his opponents asked him not to make noises while extracting the cards from the bidding box, the 18-year-old boy did not feel intimidated. He looked straight into his opponent’s eyes and replied: “I don’t think that is the reason you are continued on page 7 Vanderbilt semis set, two high seeds fall Victors in the NABC 10K Knockout: Mark Jones, It’s been a March Madness kind of Vanderbilt No. 3 James Cayne (Michael Seamon, Alfredo Steve Stewart, Vlad Isporski and Mac Busby. bracket this year, with the powerful Nickell and Versace, Lorenzo Lauria, Antonio Sementa and Zimmermann teams going out early and two Mustafa Cem Tokay) versus No. 15 Andrew Melville strong in more top-10 seeds sent to the sidelines in Friday’s Rosenthal (Aaron Silverstein, Chris Willenken, Jan quarterfinal round, leaving these semifinal pairings: Jansma, Thomas Bessis and Frederic Volcker). NABC KO win No. 1 Lavazza (Norberto Bocchi, Diego The high seeds who lost on Friday were No. 7 The team captained by James Melville jumped Brenner, Zia Mahmood, Giorgio Duboin, Alejandro John Diamond and No. 8 Martin Fleisher. The latter out to a 22-IMP lead after one quarter and led Bianchedi and Agustin Madala) versus No. 5 Peter was taken out by the Lavazza team. Fleisher won throughout the match in defeating the Paul Darin Bertheau (Daniel Zagorin, Bas Drijver and Sjoert the opening set and had a 76-59 lead at the halfway continued on page 10 Brink). continued on page 10 Goodwill Message Smile often. through Friday Sandy DeMartino, chair ATTENDANCE 10,311 tables Ailieen Osofsky Goodwill Committee Page 2 Saturday, March 19, 2016 Daily Bulletin SPECIAL EVENTS MEETINGS / SEMINARS / RECEPTIONS Sunday, March 20 Peter Pender Memorial Vugraph. (Room TBA) CELEBRITY SPEAKER PROGRAM Presented by the ACBL Educational Foundation Saturday, March 19 Don’t miss these free lectures by some of the best-known 9:15 am Barbara Seagram A Failure to Communicate players in the game! Talks will be held in the Eldorado 6:45 pm Hank Meyer Planning the Play at Notrump Convention Center. Speakers and topics are subject to change. ENTERTAINMENT and HOSPITALITY Late-night snacks will be served at the Silver Legacy at 10:30 p.m. near the Saturday, March 19 Silver Baron Ballroom on the mezzanine level and at 11 p.m. at the Reno Silver Legacy’s famous sticky buns Ballroom. Sunday, March 20 Apples Decisions, decisions Sneaky, sneaky A focused player All writers look with special affection on the Don Kern of Bay Minette AL pulled a fast one Not long ago, Bob Sanner of Palo Alto CA was deals they themselves write up. David Caprera in the second qualifying session of the Mixed Pairs playing in a tournament in Mountain View CA. He (East in this write-up, playing with Billy Pollack) that earned him and partner Faye Marino a near and three other players went out to dinner between drew this to my attention. It’s from the Thursday top. sessions one night. On their way back to the afternoon Open Pairs. To quote a British comedian ♠ A 7 tournament venue, Sanner’s partner asked, “Do you of 40 years ago, I think you’ll like it – not a lot, but ♥ A Q 8 5 think Bernie Sanders has a chance to win?” Before you’ll like it. ♦ K 9 3 2 Sanner could answer, one of the other players piped Dlr: South ♠ Q J 10 7 ♣ 9 6 4 up: “Where does he stand in the event right now?” Vul: Both ♥ 8 2 ♠ K 10 5 ♠ Q J 9 8 4 3 2 ♦ Q J 9 4 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 4 Bridge Bucks and ♣ 8 4 ♦ A Q J 8 7 5 ♦ 10 4 ♠ A 9 3 ♠ 8 2 ♣ K 8 5 ♣ A Q 7 check cashing ♥ K 10 9 7 5 ♥ Q J 4 3 ♠ 6 Bridge Bucks and check cashing services will ♦ — ♦ K ♥ K J 10 9 7 6 2 be available: ♣ 10 9 7 5 2 ♣ A K Q J 6 3 ♦ 6 Silver Legacy, mezzanine level ♠ K 6 5 4 ♣ J 10 3 2 Outside (to the left of) the Silver Baron rooms ♥ A 6 Kern played 4♠ from the East. On the lead of Saturday, March 19 9:30–10 a.m. and ♦ A 10 8 7 6 5 3 the ♦6 (which he suspected was a singleton), he Noon–1 p.m. ♣ — won the ace in dummy and casually played the Players may purchase Bridge Bucks using West North East South ♦10 from his hand. He led the ♠10, which held, American Express in addition to VISA, MasterCard 1♦ and then the ♦Q. North ducked and now Kern had and Discover. 1♥ Dbl 4♦ 4♠ one more trick than he was entitled to. Pure gold at There is a check cashing limit of $500 a day. Pass Pass 5♥ Pass matchpoints! Pass 5♠ Dbl All Pass Correction All three of your calls are not without interest. Smoking Policy In Thursday’s Daily Bulletin on page 3, the You might bid 4♣ at your first turn if it showed a Smoking is not permitted in the playing area device used to duplicate boards for the NABC fit in hearts, but in an unfamiliar partnership 4♦ is during any bridge playing event at an NBAC. This was incorrectly identified. ACBL uses the less ambiguous. At your second turn, maybe 5♣ is includes electronic smoking devices. PlayBridgeDealer4 for that task. an option but 5♥ perhaps gives less away. At your third turn, you double more to stop partner than for any concrete belief you should actually beat 5♠! Partner leads the ♥9, promising the 10. Playing standard signals, you have your first decision. You play the jack in an attempt to suggest an even number. Declarer wins the ♥A, leads the ♠5 to the 10, partner playing the 9 and you drop the 2, suit preference for clubs. Partner wins the ♠A and tracks the ♥10. Duck or overtake? If you overtake, which is technically the right play? Answer: None of the above! Look again at the full board: Partner is begging you to play a diamond, so why don’t you? Note: It can never cost. Declarer is clearly 4-2 in the majors, whether he has four, five or six diamonds, your clubs won’t go away. But if he has seven . Masterpoint disclaimer Results reported in the Daily Bulletin are subject to change because of score changes or corrections. The masterpoint awards as shown are, therefore, also subject to change. Daily Bulletin Saturday, March 19, 2016 Page 3 JUST FOR NEW PLAYERS I started by reading. I Improving your game learned a lot early on from By Brent Manley Watson’s “Classic Book on the Play of the Hand.” It was Playing in a women’s pairs in New York originally published in 1934, City, one of the players heard a 1NT opener on but the principles Watson her right.