Watching the US open trial semfinal

I sat down to watch a few hands in the last segment of the semifinal.  I was hoping to catch some good and exciting bridge.  The Nickell team was leading the Welland team by about 35 imps.  As I sat down Garner was playing 2H.  This was actually a pretty good spot because in the other room Hamman and Compton who were having a spot of trouble were in 4H which was off at 4 top tricks.  2H was cold; basically if you drew trump you couldn’t go down.  You were off a three side tricks and your hearts were all high missing the A and Q.  If you were frisky the heart finesse did work for an overtrick.  Somehow Garner did go down when he didn’t draw trump for no good reason.  Had fatigue set in?

So there went 6 or 7 imps.  But that wasn’t the real problem on the next board, Hamman and Compton missed a great slam.  At the Garner-Weinstein table the auction went 1S-5H (exclusion) all pass.  They went -600 into their own vulnerable slam.  These things happen but I can’t help believing that the two boards were related.  That the unhappiness caused by the first board caused the disaster on the second board.

One of the real bright spots of our game in Montreal was that no matter what happened, even when I forgot the system we played the next board as if the prior board hadn’t happened.  Isabelle was truly great at the table. 

Then I watched one great hand played by Zia in a losing cause in the other match and I realized that sometimes you do get your money’s worth.  Here is the hand

Rosenberg

S A76

H 104

D A64

C Q10972

Zia

S Q95

H KJ32

DKQ107

C K3

With everyone vulnerable in the other room the East-West pair Levin and Weinstein bid to 3S and went for -400.  Zia playing South was down a lot.  In fourth he stretched a bit to open 1NT.  Martel bid 2S which I believed showed spades and a minor and Michael pushed on to 3NT.  The opening lead was the SJ and Zia won the SQ.  He now played the CK from his hand which held, Stansby throwing the C8.  If Zia needed 4 club tricks the only choice is to play a club to the queen hoping that Stansby has the CJ8 or to play for the C8 to have been a falsecard and for clubs to break 3-3 with Martel holding 5-1-4-3.  (All of which seems unlikely). 

Zia can make 9 tricks if the heart is onside and he brings diamonds in for 1 loser.  So he doesn’t actually need to play for a miracle club holding.  But when you think about it if Martel the spade bidder has the CA there is no need to play a club to the C10.  The CQ will win the trick. Zia still has a play to make the hand if everything else works.  The C8 also has a suspicious feel to it, doesn’t it.  Anyway Zia play a club to the CQ dropping the CJ and easily made the hand.

Well done.