DAY 2 - World Bridge Championships

Hello Canada and hockey fans in Newfoundland and the United States,

Who started his Toronto Maple Leaf broadcasts with the above introduction?

It is 6:00 am here in Beijing. When I look out my hotel window, it is amazing to see
the streets of Beijing completely empty- not a single person or car to be seen.

Day 2 did not provide the turnaround that our team was hoping for. We started with
a 21-9 VP loss to the Finish team who played very well. This was followed by a tie with
Scotland 15-15 and a tie with the strong Russian team 15-15. The day however did end
on a positive note. Canada - Russia was on BBO and I watched much of that match back
at the hotel with Karen and Pamela who were sitting out that match. With two boards to
go our team was trailing by 18 IMPs and it was time for me to leave and join my players
for the match comparison. Much to my surprise we ended up winning the match by I IMP
as the team rallied to gain 19 IMPs over those last two boards. This left everyone on an
upbeat note.

Here is a hand from the Scotland match which is a good instructive hand on declarer play.

The bidding has proceeded very quickly by your side 2 H Pass 4H all Pass.
The opening lead is the nine of spades. Plan your play.

Dummy

A K 4
J 9 8 6
4
A 6 5 4 2


You
Q 5
A 7 5 4 3 2
K 10 6 5
9

You, of course, appropriately thank your partner for that fine dummy. This looks pretty easy. No Spade losers, one heart loser, four possible diamond losers, and no club losers. Three diamond losers will be eliminated by discarding one on the extra spade winner in the dummy and two others by trumping in the dummy. What could possibly go wrong? Well, if you get lazy and play the Ace of hearts at trick two you will go down. And you will have no one to blame but yourself. Trumps are 3-0 and the Ace of Diamonds is over the King. So your careless play of the Ace of Hearts allows the opponents to get in, play two more rounds of trump, and now you are able to trump only one of your losing diamonds. You will end up losing 2 hearts and 2 diamonds. A careful declarer wins the spade lead in the dummy and leads a diamond at trick two. Nothing can possibly go wrong now. When given this hand as a declarer play problem, I trust none of us would go down, but in the heat of battle at the bridge table, would we all be so careful? It is this kind of hand on which it is so easy to succumb to laziness and then sheepishly have to say "minus 50" to our teammates. The Scotish declarer against our team had this very oversight.

The next hand I found to be interesting from a defensive point of view.

Pascale's Russian opponent open a strong club, which Pascale met with a overcall of 1 diamond. The auction then proceded Pass Pass 2NT (22-23) Pass 3NT all pass.

Pascale's hand: Q J 2, K J 9, K J 9 7 5, J 2

I was kibitzing our talented young star from Chicoutimi and agonized along with her as the hand unfolded. As Pascale was contemplating her lead, I, under no pressure, decided that I would lead the Queen of spades. Eventually, Pascale led....the "Queen of Spades."

Dummy appeared with: 10 5 4, A 10 8 2, 10 8 6 2, 10 4

The play developed as follows: Trick one: SQ, low, nine (upside down att) Ace. Trick two: S3, Jack, low, 8. Trick three: Pascale continued well with her last spade. low, ten, low, low. Trick four: low diamond, 2 (upside down count) Q, K. Trick five: you and Pascale to lead. You are left with: none, K J 9, J 9 7 5, J 2

As would we all, Pascale gave this long and hard thought. Again, as an observer I decided that I would switch to the King of Hearts, feeling that although this might cost a heart trick that it would serve to cut off the looming 10 of diamonds as a trick in dummy, unless declarer had the Queen third of hearts. And maybe partner's second spade play of the 8 had suit preference connotation? So what's you choice? - you have to do something. Pascale finally sallied forth with the Jack of Clubs.

The point of this hand is not so much what you lead at trick 5, but the thoughts behind your choice. Maybe you don't share my excitement about this hand, but I think it is the kind of hand that we as bridge players die for. It's because of hands like this that we play this fabulous game.

Pascale's switch allowed the declarer to bring home her contract.

Declarer held A K x x, x x, A Q x, A K Q 3 (three spades, one heart, one diamond, four clubs)

Any heart switch would beat the contract, but I strongly believe that if you switch to a heart, that the King is the proper card.

The Russian declarer should really have now made an overtrick, but I guess she was just happy to now be making 3NT and didn't build the extra diaomnd that she could have. Her little mistake did cost her 1 IMP as Pascale's teammate made plus one in the other room on the normal diamond lead.

Pascale had done wonderfully in choosing not to lead a diamond, which makes declaer's task very simple. A great hand - hope you enjoyed the ride.

In match 2, Karen and you, in third seat hold: A K Q 10 6 5 4 3, 4 2, 7 5 3, K .

As you are admiring all those spades, your partner amazes you by opening 1S!

As the tray is passed to her side of the screen, Karen leans forward to check that she hasn't misread Pamela's bid. Right hand opponent overcalls 2D and Karen cue bids 3D (limit raise or better). Lefty Passes, Partner jumps to 4S, righty Passes and it's back to you? What do you now do? Pass? 5C? 4NT? 5S? 6S? There should not be any trump losers. Karen chose 5S.(Karen, I assume this was asking Pamela for a diamond control, not asking about the quality of her spades). Turns out that Pass is the winning action. Anything else results in a minus as four spades is the limit of the hand. The opponents make 5C but had missed their chance to find that fit. Our team won 1 IMP on this hand. Just a fun little hand.

Breakfast is served at the Intercontinental from 6:00 - 10:30 am. It is quite a social time as we get to talk with our fellow Canadians and friends from around the world. And I'm getting hungry - so time to go.

Have a good evening everyone.

It's moving day for your Candian Women's Team.

John