Dateline: Sao Paulo, Brazil

After an uneventful but exhausting 11 hour plane flight and a few more hours getting to the hotel through an unending traffic jam Ray and I finally arrived in Sao Paulo yesterday.  Sadly the Canadian Seniors didn’t quite put it together to make the final eight.  I talked to John Carruthers in the lobby this morning and he told me that it seemed that on every match one of the pairs had a bad surprise.  They had an unexpected unforced error with a big minus position.  This team had enough talent but they just couldn’t put it together.

I spent a fair bit of time yesterday evening with Canada Master Point Press Women, who just never got off and running although they did manage to beat some of the better teams.  They were disappointed, of course, but Ray and I are still very happy that Master Point Press was a sponsor.  We would like to encourage other businesses and individuals to consider sponsorship in the future.  While you may not get your name on the jerseys even small amounts of money will help.   Every time we saw the name on the WBF website or in the Bulletin it made me feel proud.

Pamela Nisbet gave me a hand she bid from Round 19 of the round robin.  Here is your hand

Board 10. Dealer East. All Vulnerable.

♠ T 7 5 4
♥ K T 4
♦ J
♣ Q 7 5 4 3

Your partner opens 2♣ in fourth chair and you respond 2♦ , a semi positive.  You then bid through a set of relays ending in 2NT partner showing about 24-26 HCP.  You try Stayman and partner bids 3♠.  How do you proceed?

The hand is worth a slam try but which feature should you show?  You could show your shortness or you could show your strength.  Pamela decided to show her strength.  She bid 4♣ ostensibly a cue bid for clubs rather than 4♦ her shortness.  As she pointed out bidding her shortness would have made North unhappy about her diamond strength.  The club cuebid was just what North needed to hear.  She cuebid diamonds and when Pamela showed her ♥ K the pair were in 6♠ very quickly.  This was worth 12 imps.  Only about half the field got to the slam.

Board 10. Dealer East. All Vulnerable.

	♠ A K Q 9 ♥ A 8 5 ♦ A K 10 ♣ A J 2
♠ 8 2 ♥ Q J 7 6 ♦ 8 7 6 4 3 ♣ K 6		♠ J 6 3 ♥ 9 3 2 ♦ Q 9 5 2 ♣ 10 9 8
	♠ 10 7 5 4 ♥ K 10 4 ♦ J ♣ Q 7 5 4 3

The only excitement in the 21st round was the race for the last spot in the Venice Cup (I am sorry to everyone for the number of times I have called it the Venus Cup – I obviously like that name!).  There was a battle for the last qualifying spot between Sweden and Denmark.  At the start of the match if the result had ended in a tie Denmark would have won on imp quotient (taking the imps won and dividing by the imps lost).  Sweden was playing tail ender Barbados and they routed them 77-1 on what was actually a fairly flat set of boards.  By the end of the event as a result of this in case of a tie Sweden would be the imp quotient winner.  With Sweden getting the full 25 VP, Denmark who was 7 ahead of Sweden going into this round needed 19 VP against Australia to stay ahead.  They managed only 16VP in a match where an amazing total of  only 15 imps (10-5) changed hands in 16 boards.  This was  the lowest scoring match in the event to date.

The press room is busy now as everyone is setting up to watch the first match today.