April 2020 - 36

Our First Slam

After two weeks of bridge class at Williams College, we attend our first regional
By Max Everett, Jihoon Kim, Geoffrey Lu, Robert Nielsen, Alex Simons and Miranda Wang

In early January, six brave students
from Williams College in Williamstown
MA signed up to take an ACBL College Initiative course on "Tournament
Bridge" with Atwell Professor of Mathematics Emeritus Frank Morgan and
consultant Jim Berry. They soon played
in a regional. Their report of the experience, complete with some of their own
bridge analysis, is presented here.
Max: "None of us had played bridge
before. After two days of introductory classes, we - Max Everett, Jihoon
Kim, Geoffrey Lu, Robert Nielsen, Alex
Simons and Miranda Wang - started
competing at the Pembury Bridge
Club in Pittsfield MA. After two weeks
of classes and club play, we spent
five days at the Joan Gerard Winter
Regional in Tarrytown NY. All six of us
earned masterpoints.
There was one particularly memora-

ble deal in the Swiss teams: It was our
first time bidding and playing a slam:
Alex Simons
♠A432
♥AKQ95
♦K764
♣-
Max Everett
♠QJ95
♥J76
♦A8
♣AK92
Alex opened 1♥. Max responded
with Jacoby 2NT, showing a strong
hand with heart support (we're still doing it with just three pieces). With his
strong hearts and a void in clubs, Alex
knew we had slam potential. He bid
3♣ to show a club control (we don't
know about bidding shortness yet). In

New players from the bridge class offered by Williams College attend their first tournament, the
District 3 Winter Regional, held Jan. 20-26: Geoffrey Lu, Alex Simons, Miranda Wang, Jihoon
Kim, Max Everett and their teacher, Professor Frank Morgan.

36 Bridge Bulletin April 2020

hindsight, he realizes he had controls
in all suits and could have gone right
to 1430 key card. Max bid 3♦ showing
slam interest and a diamond control.
Now Alex jumped to 4NT to ask for key
cards. Max responded 5♥, showing
two or five key cards without the ♥Q,
so Alex knew that Max held the ♣A
and the ♦A. Alex went to 6♥."
Alex: "In my hand, I had two diamond losers and three spade losers.
My plan was to toss the two diamond
losers on the ♣A K and hope for just
one spade loser with a finesse.
"A low diamond was led. I won the
king in my hand to keep the ♦A as
an entry to the ♣A K. After drawing
trumps (they broke 3-2) and ending in
my hand, I went to the board with the
♦A and threw my two diamond losers
on the ♣A K. Then I played the ♠Q to
finesse. Alas, the king was offside and
won the trick. I ruffed the diamond
return and played spades, which fortunately broke 3-2, so now my little ♠9
was good. I could then claim the rest,
making 6♥. A bolder declarer might
try to make seven by ruffing two diamonds, but with the spade finesse off,
you can't do better than making six.
"I hadn't realized how much playing
bridge would remind me of a puzzle.
You have a certain number of losers, and
you need to figure out if there's a way to
make any of your losers go away while
keeping your opponents from turning
any of your winners into losers."
Max: "I had an absolute blast learning how to play bridge with all of you
this month. Alex and I play cards
together (hearts, Rook, euchre, etc.)
three or four nights a week, so I knew I
would enjoy bridge, but I didn't expect
how quickly I would get sucked in.
When we went to the regional, Robert
and I got back to our room after two
full sessions during the day, only to
play on BBO for another hour and a
April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2020
