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“How Not to win the Gold Coast Pairs”…. 20 years ago.

You may feel today’s article relates to you. The two deals come from an article written by Michael Cornell and had the above as its title. Back in early 2005, Michael and his then partner, Ryszard Jedrychowski, a Polish player who played in and for New Zealand before moving to Australia, nearly won the Open Pairs at the Gold Coast Congress (maybe you have not come quite as close as Michael did. He and Ryszard finished a mere 30 matchpoints finishing runners-up).

Michael cited 5 deals and had they got any 2 out of the 5 right, then they would have been champions. So, try these two.

 

Michael described his partner’s pass of 1 x as “very brave…but matters did not end there.” What do you bid as South? 1 is described as “better minor, maybe 4432”.

Or how about here as West with South being Michael Courtney which according to Michael, means that in opening 4“ he holds 13 cards!”

 

So, to bid or not to bid? In both cases, it was best to use the “pass card”!

 

West Deals Both Vul	♠ A K J 2 ♥ A 9 8 3 2 ♦ 5 ♣ A 10 5
♠ 10 9 4 3 ♥ K Q J 7 ♦ A K 2 ♣ 6 2	N W   E S	♠ Q 8 5 ♥ 6 4 ♦ 10 9 8 4 ♣ Q 8 7 4
	♠ 7 6 ♥ 10 5 ♦ Q J 7 6 3 ♣ K J 9 3

 

 

 

So, did you recognise North, Michael Cornell’s, double as being for penalties? Perhaps, you would have bid 1NT first-time round with the South cards. Now, it looked like Ryszard was a bit nervous defending 1x assuming that he recognised the double of 1 as for penalties…and after you have passed 1x for penalties, so it should be.

Michael commented: “It was no surprise that Ryszard misguessed the spade position and finished down 2 in 2NT. Had he passed 1x, we would have collected + 500 on the obvious trump lead, a swing of 20 matchpoints.”

Even down 1 would have been a very good result on a part-score board against vulnerable opponents.

Second Problem

Did you bid 4 at favourable vulnerability on the second board? Ouch as if you did, you would hear that dreaded word “Double” from your left-hand opponent..and that is not for take-out!

 

 

Unfortunately for the Kiwis, Ryszard did bid 4 and North “had the hand he would have preferred me to hold” commented Michael. “He played the hand very well, running Q, pinning the short 9, to lose only two trump tricks.” However, with 3 diamond losers, a heart and a club, that meant -800, a mere 3 matchpoints.

There would have been 18 more had 4 been passed out assuming this contract had been defeated. Declarer has 3 side-suit losers and must avoid a trump loser to succeed. Michael commented further:

“4 is an interesting contract with a 4-1 heart break. The defence can beat it by playing a diamond early to take out an entry for a trump reduction. Otherwise, South can create an extra entry to dummy by playing a diamond to 10 once the bad trump break is discovered.”

 

 
Ryszard Jedrychowski 

So, so close to winning and Michael had had many successes across the Tasman but not this time.

Richard Solomon

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