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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

Kevin Skoropada.

Southern Winners of the National Pairs.

Kevin Skoropada and Moss Wylie had a great weekend at the National Pairs emerging as clear winners. The event was supposed to be held at the Wellington Bridge Club though the live event fell victim to Covid.

There were 48 pairs taking part with pairs playing two boards against each other pair, 94 boards in all over 4 sessions. There were four outstanding scores in a tight competitive event, one per session:

                                    %

Session 1                  70.33             Bill Humphrey – Paul Carson

Session 2                  66.20             Candice Smith – Kinga Hajmasi

Session 3                  65.76             Jan Cormack – Grant Jarvis

Session 4                  65.67             Kevin Skoropada – Moss Wylie

Kevin and Moss were very consistent with % s of 59.35, 55.50 and 59.78 before the booming finish. They won by a clear 3% per session. These were the top 10:

1

Kevin

Skoropada

Moss

Wylie

 

60.09

 

2598.4

2

Jan

Cormack

 

Grant

Jarvis

 

57.09

 

2468.8

3

John

Davidson

 

Sam

Coutts

 

56.89

 

2460

4

Paul

Carson

 

Bill

Humphrey

55.98

 

2420.7

5

Malcolm

Mayer

 

Michael

Ware

 

55.93

 

2418.4

6

Fuxia

Wen

 

Ian

Berrington

55.06

 

2380.8

7

James

Yang

 

Yuzhong

Chen

 

54.53

 

2357.8

8

June

Lei

 

Jeter

Liu

 

54.31

 

2348.3

9

Jane

Lennon

 

Alan

Grant

 

54.21

 

2344

10

Alice

Young

 

George

Sun

 

53.83

 

2327.7

 

Kevin Skoropada  Moss Wylie   2021    3 .jpg
Kevin and Moss celebrating a previous success  

Moss has been playing regularly on the tournament scene all over the country for many years and has consistently performed well with many partners. However, Kevin may be unfamiliar to many readers. So, here is a little about Kevin, self written:

"I started playing (Goren) rubber bridge at home in Vancouver, Canada at the age of 11. When 14, I started playing CC Wei Precision with my father at the local duplicate bridge games. By the time I was 18, I was playing with some partners who went on to play as international level for Canada.

In 1983 I left Canada to see the world ending up in New Zealand where I met Donna, my future wife. After that, I dabbled with competitive bridge, (due to having a young family), played social bridge and read lots of bridge books until 2017 when I joined the welcoming Invercargill Bridge Club. The last five years I've up skilled in modern systems and modern Precision with a small amount of 2/1. Nevertheless, good card play is the key to doing well- 50% of the time you and partner will be defending.”

Bridge in NZ.pngnz map.jpg

Here is one from the winners with Kevin demonstrating what he means with respect to accurate defence:

Board 41
South Deals
None Vul

5

K 10 6 4

A 6 4

K J 10 8 2

A K 9 3

Q 3 2

Q J 10 8

5 4

 

N

W

 

E

S

   

 

West

North

East

South

 

Kevin

 

Moss

 

 

 

Pass

1 

2 ♣

2 ♠

3 ♣

3 ♠

Pass

4 ♠

All pass

 

At trick 1, your partner leads Club-smallA. Which card should you play as North?  You are playing reverse signals, low encourage.

At a few tables, West was declarer and North did not find the necessary club lead. However, of the many North players who received the Club-smallA lead, only two, Kevin Skoropada and Jan Cormack, did not encourage their partners at trick 1. Jan played Club-small8 (discouraging) and her partner, Grant Jarvis, found the necessary heart switch while Kevin “screamed” for a switch to the higher red suit by throwing Club-smallJ.

Board 41
South Deals
None Vul

5

K 10 6 4

A 6 4

K J 10 8 2

A K 9 3

Q 3 2

Q J 10 8

5 4

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

Q 10 8 7 4

A 9

K 3 2

Q 7 3

 

J 6 2

J 8 7 5

9 7 5

A 9 6

 

West

North

East

South

 

Kevin

 

Moss

 

 

 

Pass

1 

2 ♣

2 ♠

3 ♣

3 ♠

Pass

4 ♠

All pass

Grant switched to Heart-smallJ while Moss switched to a low heart with Kevin inserting Heart-small10. Kevin soon won the lead with Diamond-smallA and cashed Heart-smallK and Club-smallA to defeat 4Spade-small.

The only other defender to find a switch at trick 2 was Jan Whyte who switched to Heart-smallJ also defeating 4Spade-small.

With the East hand unlimited in strength, it might be right from South’s point of view for the defence to cash two club tricks, playing Pairs. However, at most tables North overcalled in clubs and South really ought to find a heart switch without signal from their partner. Therefore, they should switch, with a heart being the more logical switch.

However, a defender should make it as easy as possible for their partner. North can see the diamond danger the moment their ace has been knocked out. Even more so than South, they can see the need for a heart switch. A decent partner just needs to hold Heart-smallJ, not too much to ask for!

Either way, the opponents should be held to 9 tricks.

Alive or Dead?

The auction, that is. It’s up to you.

 

     

East Deals
Both Vul

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

K Q 7 4 2

A 5

Q 9 8 7 3

10

 

West

North

East

South

 

 

1 ♠

2 

Pass

Pass

?

 

 

Richard Solomon

 

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