And at the half … watch for lovely Wooldridge Defense on B50

It is never easy … Diamond the number 1 seeds trails up and coming Bathurst by almost 50 imps 137-89 as the teams get ready to start day 2.  I am sad that the whole thing will end today.  It has been so much fun to watch.

In many ways as an outside observer the teams seem quite well matched.  Each team has a thoughtful careful player or two and flamboyant action players.

I find interesting the number of bidding misunderstandings during the entire trials.  Bidding has become very complex and the number of competitive auctions have grown.

But it was card play that created two large swings in the fourth segment.

On Board 49 both teams got to 5♣ .  Here is the auction in the Closed Room.  There are differences in the bidding but in both rooms East bid (or overcalled) spades and West raised 1♠ to 2♠ .

Wooldridge	Moss	Hurd	Gitelman
	Pass	1♠	Pass
2♠	DBL	3♠	4NT
Pass	5♣	all pass

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ 10 ♥ 108632 ♦ K5 ♣ AQ732
	South ♠ Q943 ♥ A ♦ AJ73 ♣ K1054

Hurd led the ♠ K and then switched to the ♦ 4.  With only 8 tricks off the top you have to make 3 extra tricks ruffing in the South hand.  Other options?  Setup hearts.  Ruff twice and take the diamond finesse.  But on the play at trick two that is pretty well marked with West.  The simplest line seems a cross-ruff.  You are going to ruff hearts in dummy and spades in hand.  If everything went perfectly you could actually get twelve tricks that way.  To prepare for the cross-ruff your plan is to cash your red suit winners and then begin the joyous process.

This is what happened in the Open Room.  Moss won the ♦ A in dummy, cashed the ♥ A and then crossed back to his hand on the ♦ K, presumably because he preferred to start with a heart ruff not a spade ruff, knowing he had five spades over the North hand.

The problem with this was that East had only one diamond and having won the ♦ A in dummy when he went to play the ♦ K it was ruffed and a trump came back.  On the positive side it was the ♣J and there was only one club outstanding the ♣8.  He would still have been fine if hearts had broken but they didn’t.  In the end he was one down.

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ 10 ♥ 108632 ♦ K5 ♣ AQ732
West ♠762 ♥ KJ ♦ Q109862 ♣ 98		East ♠ AKJ85 ♥ Q9754 ♦ 4 ♣ J6
	South ♠ Q943 ♥ A ♦ AJ73 ♣ K1054

At the other table Lall (who played from the South side won the ♦ K  and played another diamond ruffed by East who returned the ♣ J.  But now East had “ruffed air” and the ♦K was still a winner.  With East out of trump Lall could cash the ♦ A at some point in the hand and still crossruff for eleven tricks.  This was a 10 imp swing for Bathurst.

Diamond lost a game swing on the next board Board 50.  Part of this was the fine defense by West, Wooldridge.

Here is what happened in the Open Room.  North-South is vulnerable.

West	North	East	South
	—	Pass	1♦
Pass	1♥	1NT	DBL
4♣	4♥	All pass

Dealer: Vul:	Moss ♠ 87 ♥ AK10932 ♦ 86 ♣ J74
Wooldridge		Hurd
	Gitelman ♠ KQ93 ♥ QJ ♦ AK7543 ♣ Q

Moss got the lead of the ♦ 2 and led the ♣ Q off dummy.  Wooldridge won the ♣ K and returned a trump which you win in hand with the ♥ A.

Dealer: Vul:	Moss ♠ 87 ♥ K10932 ♦ 6 ♣ J7
Wooldridge		Hurd
	Gitelman ♠ KQ93 ♥ Q ♦ K7543 ♣

Here is the position.  Now what?

I am not sure it is possible to work this out but let’s see what Moss knows.  Hurd is likely 5-5 for his 1NT bid (or maybe 6-5).  The lead of the ♦ 2 suggests he had one diamond.  He has shown in to a trump.  Wooldridge’s bid suggests he has four clubs.  So Hurd is either 6-1-1-5 or 5-2-1-5.  There are several things that suggest to me (besides seeing all four hands) that he is 5-2-1-5.  The first is that he led his singleton diamond which is less likely to work with a stiff heart.  The second is that if Wooldridge had a stiff spade he might have returned it at trick two to get his spade ruff and then give Hurd a diamond ruff for the setting trick.  Also with six spades ace and five clubs to the ace or something like that Hurd might have done more in the bidding.  So let’s assume Hurd is 5-2-1-5.  What do you need to do now?

Dealer: Vul:	North ♠ 87 ♥ AK10932 ♦ 86 ♣ J74
West ♠ A10 ♥ 754 ♦ QJ109 ♣ K532		East ♠ J 6542 ♥ 86 ♦ 2 ♣ A10986
	South ♠ KQ93 ♥ QJ ♦ AK7543 ♣ Q

You need to play a diamond.  Did you work that out?  Even double dummy it is very hard to see it.  The point is that if you lead a diamond and Hurd ruffs it he will have no trump to return.  In fact the situation will not have changed.  You can ruff a club in dummy, cash the remaining high diamond pitching a club loser and so on.  Perhaps this is impossible.  The credit goes to Wooldridge who returned a trump.  At the table Moss played a spade, reasonably expecting the ♠ A to be onside.  Wooldridge won and once again returned a trump and now the hand was down for 12 imps.  A simple quiet and lovely defense.