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Daily Bridge in New Zealand

 

On-line to Nelson: National Swiss Pairs.

Many words have and will continue to be written and spoken about this event being transferred late in the day to on-line. Whatever one feels about that decision, it was great having 98 pairs participate.

We are going to salute the successful pairs….and discuss this deal below:

     

West Deals
Both Vul

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

K 10 6 4

K J 8

A K 8 7 6

8

 

West

North

East

South

1 ♠

Pass

?

 

Congratulations to the following prize-winners:

0verall

           

vps

               

1

Pamela Livingston

New Plymouth

Jan Alabaster

Christchurch

 

131.04

               

2

Jeff Miller

Otago

 

Graeme Stout

Otago

 

129.93

               

3

Lynda Rigler

Karori

 

Peter Delahunty

Karori

 

124.74

               

4

Jenny Wilkinson

Christchurch

Shirley Newton

Christchurch

 

123.51

               

5

Grant Jarvis

Franklin

Jan Cormack

Auckland

 

123.17

               

6

Geo Tislevoll

Akarana

Geeske Joel

North Shore

 

121.37

               

7

Ian Berrington

Akarana

Fuxia Wen

Akarana

 

120.98

               

8

Val Gardiner

Akarana

Carlos Pellegrini

Overseas

 

119.75

               
               
               

Top 4 without a Grandmaster

         
               

1

Jerry Chen

Akarana

Dong Gao Bi

Mt Albert

 

118.07

               

2

Tani Blackburn

Wellington

Peter Collinge

Havelock North

113.16

               

3

Barbara Gordon

Nelson

 

Raewyn Taylor

Nelson

 

110.33

               

4

Rona Driscoll

Taupo

 

John Driscoll

Taupo

 

109.4

               
               
               
               
               

Top 2 TOPs Pairs

           
               

1

Peter Bone

Nelson

 

Thomas Pyatt

Nelson

 

106.5

               

2

Jo Gear

Westport

Wendy Coburn

Westport

 

99.15

               

The end result was in doubt until virtually the last card was played. One of the last matches to finish was that between Pam Livingston- Jan Alabaster and Lynda Rigler- Peter Delahunty, who had an extremely good tournament. Pam and Jan picked up 9 imps over the last three boards to win a tight match by 3 imps and just enough vps to squeeze past Jeff Miller and Graeme Stout. A very consistent performance from the winners who lost three matches, the largest loss being by only 4.65 imps.

The top three

Jan Alabaster and Pam Livingston.jpg  
Jan Alabaster and Pam Livingston

 

Jeff Miller Graeme Stout.png Peter Delahunty and Lynda Rigler .jpg  
Jeff Miller and Graeme Stout     Peter Delahunty and Lynda Rigler

Winning matches certainly helps, helps the partial As, and Barbara Gordon and Raewyn Taylor actually won more matches (8) than the overall winners!

Splinter to Slam

So, back then to our problem….and problem it must be as less than one third of the East-West pairs made it to the coldest, lay-down small slam possible. The two hands had only 26 hcp between them and 25 of them were necessary for the contract to be so cold. The East-West hands could have come out of a text-book on splinter bids.

West Deals
Both Vul

J 3

9 6 2

9 5 3

K Q J 10 7

A Q 8 7 2

A Q 7 3

4 2

3 2

 

N

W

 

E

S

 

K 10 6 4

K J 8

A K 8 7 6

8

 

9 5

10 5 4

Q J 10

A 9 6 5 4

 

West

North

East

South

1 ♠

Pass

4 ♣

Pass

4 

Pass

4 NT

Pass

5 ♠

Pass

6 ♠

All pass

Some East players used a Jacoby 2NT (game-force, spade support) in response to West’s opening. However, when West jumped to game with a minimum hand and no shortage, they declared. Others simply bid 2Diamond-small and jumped to 4Spade-small over their partner’s 2Heart-small rebid. The East hand has too much potential for a delayed game raise.

This is a deal where East has to show rather than ask their partner more about their hand. A double jump (4Club-small) should be a singleton or void with 4 card spade support and is traditionally in the 10-13 hcp range. Yes, it is a jack too strong but was probably a more useful and certainly a more successful approach.

With minimum values, but most importantly, nothing wasted in clubs, West should make one try for slam, with a 4Heart-small cue-bid. One try was all East would need as Roman Key-Card did the rest. While East could not be sure about the Heart-smallQ or indeed whether West had three small diamonds, with West surely having some length in clubs, they had to be shortish in one of the red suits: well worth the slight risk of a second loser along with one of the black aces.

A few North-South pairs bid aggressively in clubs, right up to the 5-level! While trumps were not a problem, every other suit was. Both North and South hands were essentially flat, making such aggressive bidding risky. Had any East-West decided to punish 5Club-small, they would not have had to worry about missing slam, -6 or 1700 for the defenders. Alas for East-West, no pair took their opportunity. Pre-emption lives on, as the interference seemed to talk the opponents out of bidding slam. A warning there when you do bid aggressively. Do not just look at your trumps.

Finally, thanks to all those involved in running the event, the directors and scorer, Allan Joseph, Caroline Wiggins and Kevin Walker, and to Evelyn Muncaster who ably oversaw the change from live to on-line event on behalf of the Nelson Club.

A defensive problem from the weekend will be featured tomorrow.

Richard Solomon

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