USBF Open Championships 2011 – an interesting “small” deal

The team trials to fill the second Bermuda Bowl spot started yesterday.  Diamond who is the number 1 seed has a bye to the round of 16.  Meanwhile as I look down the scoresheet I see that at the halfway point there are a few surprises.

Nickell (Nickell-Katz, Hamman-Zia, Meckstroth-Rodwell) seeded two is in a dogfight with the number fifteen seed Ivatury playing four-handed Ivatury (Ivatury-Henner, Chan and Lee).  Nickell leads by a mere 2 imps 108 to 106.   The good news is that they will likely be on BBO so I can watch Meckwell some more.  (I like doing that).

There are some interesting hands from their match in the Bulletin

The number 3 seed Gordon (Gordon-Pratap, Berkowitz-Sontag, Rosenberg-Willenken) is faring worse.  They trail 14th seeded Aker (Aker-Richter, Johnson-Simson, Donn-Goren) 152-120.

Bathurst (10) (Bathurst-Zagorin, Grue-J. Lall, Hurd-Wooldridge), a young team has a nice lead over Mahaffey  (Mahaffey-Passell, Cohler-Seamon, Lev-Pszczola) 159 to 100.

As you go down the table the top seed is losing or narrowly ahead in every match with the exception of the eighth and ninth seed (which you would expect could go either way).

This makes one wonder.  Is the competition that tight?  Are all the teams that equal?  Is the seeding process working?   Its good the matches are as long as possible in a knockout making it more likely that luck will even out and the best team win.

Kevin Bathurst

There were of course many interesting deals from the Nickell-Ivattury match.  But here is a little quiet hand from the third segment.  Both tables played 1NT.  Lee made it for Ivatury while it failed at the other table.  In the Open Room West bid 1♣ and North bid 1NT ending the auction.  In the Closed Room West opened 1♦ (which is a “nebulous” diamond and can be two and is often short) and the rest of the auction was the same.  Here is the deal:

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ Q2 ♥ AJ6 ♦ A9542 ♣ AK8
West ♠ KJ106 ♥ K7 ♦ KJ6 ♣ Q953		East ♠ A8753 ♥ 10532 ♦ Q8 ♣ J6
	South ♠ 94 ♥ Q984 ♦ 1073 ♣ 10742

A spade was lead and in the Open Room the defense cashed five spades.   Lee pitched two diamonds from hand and a diamond and a club from dummy.  On the fifth spade this was things were a bit tight.  West threw his ♣ 9 (discouraging) and Lee decided to throw another diamond leaving himself with A9 alone.  East returned a small diamond and West hoping to avoid end plays rose with the ♦ K.  Here is the end position.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ – ♥ AJ6 ♦ 9 ♣ AK8
West ♠ – ♥ K7 ♦ J6 ♣ Q53		East ♠ – ♥ 10532 ♦ Q ♣ J6
	South ♠ – ♥ Q984 ♦ – ♣ 1074

At this point declarer has one trick and the defense has five.  It seems hard to see how he can make seven tricks.  Lee cashed his top two clubs and exited a diamond to East.   East had to lead a heart and it is impossible to prevent Lee from making the last four heart tricks.  An endplay that was worth a lot of tricks!  It turns out that East must return the ♦ Q.  It is true that West will be endplayed eventually and have to give Lee two heart tricks, but that is a lot better than four heart tricks.  When West is in he can cash the long diamond and a club.  Such a small decision by East and such a big change in the outcome.  This little board was worth 7 imps to Ivatury when 1NT went down 2 at the other table.