The Open Trial Quarterfinals

by Phillip Alder

Three of the four 120- matches to select the USA-2 world championship team, played in Schaumburg, IL, on May 12 and 13, were comfortable victories. Paul Fireman, Gavin Wolpert, Vincent Demuy, John Kranyak, John Hurd and Joel Wooldridge defeated Craig Ganzer, Robert Brady, Franco Baseggio, Brady Richter, William Watson and Howard Liu by 271 international match points to 233. Jimmy Cayne, Michael Seamon, Curtis Cheek, Joe Grue, Mike Kamil and Zia Mahmood were given an early night when Bart Bramley, Lew Stansby, Roger Bates, Matthew Granovetter, Fred Stewart and Kit Woolsey conceded after 105 boards. Cayne won by 248 imps to 137. Mark Gordon, Pratap Rajadhyaksha, David Berkowitz, Alan Sontag, Kevin Dwyer and Jacek Pszczola beat Martin Fleisher, Chip Martel, Ishmael Del'Monte, Brad Moss, Michael Rosenberg and Chris Willenken by 263 imps to 203. The closest match was between the top seeds, John Diamond, Brian Platnick, Kevin Bathurst, Justin Lall, Eric Greco and Geoff Hampson, and eighth-seeded Jim Mahaffey, Sam Lev, Billy Cohen, Gary Cohler, Brian Glubok and Mike Passell. Diamond won the first of the eight sets by 38 imps to 1, and gained imps in two of the next three sessions to lead by 54 imps at halftime. But Mahaffey won the subsequent two sets to cut the deficit to 4 imps. There were 30 boards to be played. First, here is a bidding problem. With everyone vulnerable, you pick up:

‰ Q Š A K Q 3 ‹ A J 8 4 3 Œ Q 8 3 West North East South You Pass 1‹ Pass 1Š 1‰ ??

What would you rebid? We will come back to that in a moment, after we look at the fourth board in the penultimate session (see the next page).

1 North Dlr: West ‰ J 9 8 6 Vul: Both Š 5 2 ‹ 7 3 Œ Q J 9 8 3 West East ‰ Q 7 ‰ 10 2 Š Q J 9 4 Š A K 8 7 6 ‹ A K 9 8 ‹ Q J 10 5 4 2 Œ 10 7 4 Œ – South ‰ A K 5 4 3 Š 10 3 ‹ 6 Œ A K 6 5 2 Table 1: West North East South Hampson Passell Greco Glubok 1‹ (a) Pass 2‹ (b) 2‰ 3‹ 3‰ 4Š Pass 5Œ Pass 5‹ All Pass (a) Two-plus diamonds, 10-15 points (b) Natural and forcing for one round

Greco decided to try to bid out his shape; hence his two-diamond response instead of one heart. Then, when he hinted at a slam with four hearts, Hampson liked his great red-suit holdings, but had no control-bid (cue-bid) available. So he made a fake five-club control-bid. Now Greco, with no spade con- trol and apparent duplication in clubs, signed off in five diamonds. Nicely done! North had an easy spade lead, so the defenders took the first two tricks. Plus 600 to Diamond. Note that if North-South had sacrificed in five spades doubled, they could have been set 800 if East got two club ruffs; but that would have taken some doing.

Table 2: West North East South Lev Lall Mahaffey Bathurst 1‹ Pass 1Š 2‹ (a) 2Š (b) 4‰ 5Š Dble Pass Pass Pass (a) At least 5-5 in the black suits (b) Four-card support

Mahaffey, looking at a double fit, had no hesitation in bidding five hearts, keeping his diamond support hidden up his sleeve. Bathurst doubled to show a strong hand, and Lall, eying the vulnerability, decided not to , despite knowing that each side had a double fit. South led the club king. East ruffed, drew trumps, and then, strangely, claimed only 12 tricks when he had all 13. He could have run the diamonds, discarding both of dummy's spades, then crossruffed the last four tricks. Plus 1050 gave Mahaffey 10 imps on the board; plus 1250 would have gained 12 imps.

Now back to the bidding problem given earlier. This was the full deal:

2 North Dlr: North ‰ K 9 8 7 5 4 Vul: Both Š J 5 ‹ K 10 7 Œ 7 2 West East ‰ A 10 6 2 ‰ Q Š 9 8 6 4 2 Š A K Q 3 ‹ 9 6 ‹ A J 8 4 3 Œ A K Œ Q 8 3 South ‰ J 3 Š 10 7 ‹ Q 5 2 Œ J 10 9 6 5 4

As you can see, six hearts is a great slam; and as the cards lie (hearts 2-2 and diamonds 3-3), seven hearts can be made. Let's look at the auctions.

Table 1: West North East South Hampson Passell Greco Glubok Pass 1Œ (a) Pass 1NT (b) Pass 2Œ (c) Pass 2‰ (d) Pass 2NT (c) Pass 3‰ (e) Pass 4Œ (f) Pass 4Š (g) Pass 4‰ (h) Pass 5‹ (i) Pass 6Š All Pass (a) Strong, artificial and forcing, 16-plus points (b) 8-plus points, 5-plus hearts (c) Relay (d) Balanced (e) 4=5=2=2 (f) Set hearts as trumps (g) Signoff – nothing extra (h) Roman Key Card Blackwood (i) Two key cards (two aces, or one ace and the heart king) but no heart queen

That was an excellent, controlled sequence. North led the club seven. West won with his ace, cashed his club king, crossed to dummy's diamond ace, and discarded his second diamond on the club queen. North ruffed and exited with his second to dummy's ace. Declarer ruffed a diamond, played a trump to dummy, and claimed plus 1430.

Table 2: West North East South Lev Lall Mahaffey Bathurst Pass 1‹ Pass 1Š 1‰ 4Š All Pass

3 East should have rebid three spades, the jump cue being a splinter bid showing four-card heart support, the values for game and a singleton (or ) in spades. Then West would surely have pushed toward a slam, perhaps starting with a four-club control-bid. But when East bid only four hearts, West under- standably passed. Lev won 13 tricks, but Diamond gained 12 imps en route to victory by 231 imps to 212.

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