February 2019 - 18

Blass Class

Blass npc wins Reisinger Board-a-Match Teams

BY PAUL LINXWILER

2018 ACBL President Jay Whipple (third from left) presents the Reisinger trophy to the winners of the Reisinger Board-a-Match teams: Sjoert
Brink, Michal Nowosadzki, Jacek "Pepsi" Pszczola, Bas Drijver and Jacek Kalita. The non-playing captain was Josef Blass.

A board-a-match contest with a
world-class field is a wickedly difficult
event to play in, which is why the
Reisinger BAM Teams typically draws
an exclusive field each year. In 2018,
some 34 squads entered the Reisinger
at the Fall NABC in Honolulu, and the
team led by non-playing captain Josef
Blass took home the trophy. The squad
was a Polish and Dutch ensemble
consisting of Jacek "Pepsi" Pszczola,
Michal Nowosadzki, Jacek Kalita, Bas
Drijver and Sjoert Brink.
The Blass team finished just over
half a point ahead of George Mittelman's squad, which also featured an
international lineup. Mittleman, of the
Toronto area, played with Ken Bercuson of Las Vegas, Ron Pachtmann of
Israel and Piotr Zatorski of Poland.
The Reisinger is played over three
days, with the field cut roughly in half
each day. BLASS had a close call on the
opening day of the contest, as they tied
for the last qualifying position. Twenty
teams advanced to the semifinal round,
and BLASS just made the cut with a
score of 27 (14 points in the afternoon
session and 13 points in the evening),
placing them tied for 19th-20th place

18 Bridge Bulletin February 2019

with Gaylor Kasle's team.
BLASS compensated for the narrow
qualification, however, by dominating the second day of the event, the
semifinal. BLASS posted a convincing
19.5 score in the first session (26 or
27 is the maximum each session) and
followed up with 18 in the second set to
put them in clear first place going into
the final day. Their carryover was 4.61,
a "bonus" that would be added to their
total in the final.
MITTELMAN's carryover was 3.05,
which they earned for finishing fourth
in the semifinal round. These totals
(and the differences between them) are
significant in the final.

Deals from the final

This deal from the opening round
of the final illustrates typical boarda-match strategy. Because the object
is simply to outscore your opponents
playing at the other table (against your
teammates), overtricks are critically
important when it's clear the contract
will be the same at both tables.
The teams captained by Pierre Zimmermann and Michael Polowan faced

off on this layout:
Dlr: East
Vul: N-S

♠J93
♥642
♦ J 10 9 8 2
♣63
♠ K 10 6 5 4
♠72
♥ 10 9 8
♥AKQJ5
♦A6
♦K3
♣ 10 9 4
♣KQ82
♠AQ8
♥73
♦Q754
♣AJ75
At both tables, East declared 4♥
from the East side after a Precision 1♣
opening, and both declarers received a
trump lead by South.
Piotr Gawrys (ZIMMERMANN)
won the opening lead in hand and immediately played a spade toward the
dummy. Polowan (South) rose with the
♠A and played another trump. Gawrys
won in hand, cashed the ♠K, ruffed a
spade high (discovering the 3-3 split)
and drew the last trump, ending in
dummy. After a club to the queen and
South's ace, declarer claimed 11 tricks.
Plus 450.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2019