August 2010 - 63

The recently concluded United
States Bridge Championship had all
you could possibly want, and more.
The winners were the Martin
Fleisher squad. The losers were
the rest of us, although specifically
it came down to the John Diamond
team (see page 14). There was some
great bridge, some not-so-good
bridge, many adventures, a power
failure and a committee that made
time stand still.
Imagine that the second round-robin has ended and the round of 16 is
about to start, but there is a committee. This is a common occurrence, but
the timing of this one could not have
been worse. No other teams could
begin play because nobody knew
who their opponent would be. All
matches ground to a halt. Eventually
that was sorted out as all these things
are. Then the tornado hit. No power,
no bridge. You would have thought it
was monsoon season. I hope the trials
aren't in Chicago next year. Before all

New Life Masters
			➤	continued
Canada

Rita Dayne, Edmonton AB
Charles Hitschfeld, Edmonton AB
Marilyn Swadron, Calgary AB
Olga Burno, Vernon BC
Judy Clerke, Vernon BC
Bud Craig, Kelowna BC
Barb Hiebert, Vernon BC
Loren Leader, Victoria BC
John Moynan, Victoria BC
Michael Young-Lai, Vernon BC
Erv Blakeney, Kentville NS
Ann Poole, Kentville NS
Herb Watters, New Glasgow NS
Sharon Perkins, Ottawa ON
Leonora White, Cote Saint-Luc QC
Donald Drever, Regina SK

By George Jacobs
NOBET8888@aol.com

you Second City defenders yell at me,
I live there and sit on the board of the
USBF, which picks the sites.
On to some fun. Here is your hand:
 A K J 9 7 2 - K A K Q 6 5 2.
Some hand, eh? You will hate it
when you see what partner does. You
open 2 and pard bids a semi-automatic 2. Over your 2, pard bids
2NT, a positive hand. You trot out 3
and are raised to 4 by partner, truly
one of the best people you could ever
have across the table from you. Partner is steady, reliable, tough, funny ...
but that is enough about me. Back to
the hand that Steve held.
Over the club raise you bid 5, Exclusion Blackwood. This means, tell
me how many key cards you have but
do not count the A. Both readers of
my column know that over the years
I have had a hate-hate relationship
with that convention, so it was quite a
leap of faith for Steve to employ it in
this case. He is either fearless or one
of the many who refuse to read my
column.
But I digress: Partner answers,
showing one ace. You know he has
at least four clubs and at most two
spades and specifically the A, so
you brazenly bid 7, fully confident

that it will come rolling home. And
now the tray (where the bids are
placed when security screens are
in use) doesn't come back. "What
could this moron be thinking? I
placed the contract. We are in a
great grand slam." The tray still does
not come back. "Is he nuts? Pass already." Minutes go by. The tension
mounts ...
All of a sudden, a note is passed
under the screen: "95% of the time
this gains 3 IMPs, 5% of the time it
loses 17 IMPs." What?! Oh, no, he is
pulling my great grand and I have a
void. A second later the tray came
back and the bid was 7NT.
Okay now, I want you to see this
from my point of view. I had:
 Q 8  A K J A J 8 5 J 9 7 3.
I hated to waste the A K on his
silly void, so I bid 7NT. I figured that
if spades were split poorly and Steve
did not have the jack, maybe I could
find some tricks in some other suit or
suits. And the odds seemed great to
me. It was only later, after the paramedics had withdrawn, that Steve
pointed out to me that we were not
vulnerable and the potential gain was
only 2 IMPs! Who knew?
Would you consider this coffeehousing? As I doubled 6, I picked
up the 6 card to look at the back
and see how much 6 redoubled was
going to be. Clearly I scared him out
of the redouble. We beat them 800. I
am so unlucky.
Well, it is off to New Orleans where
the Ben-Gays are delicious with all
that powdered sugar. I hope to see all
of you there and maybe we can share
a poor boy one night. Ah, humidity,
how I love thee. Ciao for now.
r
August 2010 Bridge Bulletin

63
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2010
