A first board disaster – USBF Trials

The Wolfson and Silverstein team sat down to play segment 8 in the Round of 16.  Silverstein led by only 2 imps so this figured to be an exciting final segment.  Silverstein (Silverstein-Rosenthal, Levin-Meyers) had to be considered the underdog.  They were the eleventh seed playing six seeded Wolfson (Wolfson-Cohen, Ekeblad-Rubin, Garner-Weinstein) and they were playing four handed which probably wasn’t too much of a disadvantage this early in the event but still means the players had no opportunity to rest.  On the first board Jill Levin, an American internationalist with an incredible bridge pedigree was first to speak with everybody vulnerable.

What do you like as an opening bid?  There are some that like to open this type of hand 1NT even with the stiff spade honor.  That is not my style.  Levin made the normal 1♦ opening bid.  Partner responded 1♠ .  I think this hand is good enough for a reverse, just and so did Jill.  She bid 2♥.

Now over to Jill Meyers who held:

She is going to raise hearts with four of them.  The question is should she bid 3♥ suggesting extra or 4♥ , a minimum.   You have just enough to make game opposite a minimum reverse.   Of course a lot depends on partnership style.  I think it is borderline.  She does have a potential source of tricks in the spade suit and some fillers in the minors if they are useful.  The problem with bidding 4♥ is you have taken up all the space.  I really don’t like doing that so given a borderline decision it seems reasonable to go more slowly.

Jill Meyers raised to 3♥ .  Before reading on decide what you think of this bid.  Levin chose to ask for keycards (using 4♠). I am more conservative.  Even if I expected partner to have more I don’t see the harm in cue bidding 4♣ .  I think Levin has a minimum and if partner has the hand she expects Meyers will push forward.I am not certain this would have helped but Meyers probably would have slowed things down.  Meyers responded 5♣ (1 or 4).  North doubled.  Levin holding the ♣ K might have realized that this had to be the ♣ A and that they were off three key cards.  She might have bid 5♥ and hoped the ♥ K  was one of the missing keycards and it was onside.

Dealer: Vul:	Cohen ♠ Q10963 ♥ – ♦ 9843 ♣ A764
Meyers ♠ AJ8754 ♥ 10986 ♦ Q ♣ QJ		Levin ♠ K ♥ AQJ5 ♦ KJ1072 ♣ K32
	Wolfson ♠ 2 ♥ K7432 ♦ A65 ♣ 10985

Did she panic now?  Was she so certain that in their system Meyers would not have bid 3♥ with only one keycard?  For whatever reason she bid the grand slam in hearts.  In the end Levin got out for two down doubled as the defense faltered a bit.  While 4♥ can be made there was some chance that had they reached that contract (as they surely would have) they might have still gone down.  In the other room Wolfson made a terrible overcall of 1♥ which meant that East-West landed in 3NT which is easier.  If they failed in the heart game they would have lost about 12 imps anyway and instead they lost 15 imps.

However you rationalize it this was a terrible way to start the session.   They did well to regroup and play their best the rest of the session.  In the end Silverstein lost the set 41 to 7.

We have all had nightmare boards.  Sometimes it is interesting to think about what causes them.   Perhaps, a lesson here might be to take things slowly even when you are certain you know what to do.

Despite this board I think the two Jill’s played well in tough company.  It is a shame that their tournament has ended so soon.