June 2012 - 19

Vanderbilt KOs

Sontag, David Berkowitz, Terje Aa
and Jorgen Molberg.
Semifinal: Amoils vs. Falk
The Amoils squad jumped out to a
53-14 lead in the first quarter, and 13
of those IMPs came from this muchtalked-about grand slam that Grue
played perfectly to bring home the
contract:
Dlr: West
Vul: E-W

Q6
 K J 10 8 6 4
Q954
6
K5
 A J 10 8 7 4 3 2
N -
Q973
W E
 K J 10 8 7
S A6
J9
A42
9
A52
32
 K Q 10 8 7 5 3
West
Cheek
Pass
4NT (2)
Pass (4)

North
Friedland
2
Pass
Pass

East
Grue
4 (1)
5NT (3)
7

South
Dahl
4
7
All Pass

(1) Slammish with spades.
(2) Roman Key Card Blackwood.
(3) 0 or 3 with a void.
(4) Encouraging.
Suspecting that his opponents were
about to continue exploring for a
grand slam in spades, Dahl, at favorable vulnerability, tried an obstructive 7. This action had a downside,
however, as it helped declarer later in
the play.
Grue won the opening lead of the
K. Needing a place to park his losing clubs, he went about establishing
dummy's diamonds. After first cashing
the A, he continued with the A
and K then the J through North
to take the ruffing finesse. When
this play succeeded, he had the two
pitches he needed for the losing clubs
in his hand.
How did Grue know to play this
way? The bidding. North has six
hearts for his weak two-bid, and
South likely has three for his raise to
4. The jump to 7 guaranteed long

clubs, but because South had followed to two rounds of diamonds and
one spade, it was not unreasonable to
play South for 1=3=2=7 shape.
Plus 2210 and a 13-IMP pickup for
Amoils when Falk and Lusky stopped
in 6 on this auction:
West
Falk
Pass
5

North
Wolpert
2
Pass

East
Lusky
4
6

South
Amoils
5
All Pass

Lusky made 12 tricks for plus 1430.
The Falk squad regrouped in the
second quarter, winning it 41-26. The
last board of the quarter put 12 IMPs
in Falk's column:
Dlr: West  9 8 3
Vul: E-W  A K 10 7 2
94
J72
J75
 A K 10 6 4
N
6
Q
W E
 A 10 6
KQ32
S
 A K Q 10 9 8
643
Q2
J98543
J875
5
West
Bessis
1
Dbl
Dbl
5
6

North
Friedland
1
Pass
Pass
Pass
All Pass

East
Del'Monte
Dbl (1)
3
4
5

South
Dahl
1
4
4NT
Pass

(1) Five or more spades.
Protected by the favorable vulnerability and the superb fit in hearts,
Dahl went crazy in the auction, doing
everything possible to deflect his opponents from getting to the best contract: 6. Yet even if he failed in that
task, it was possible that East-West
would go wrong in the play, because it
might be difficult to guess the position of the Q.
Bessis and Del'Monte were not
fooled by the spade psych, of course,
and they discovered in the auction
that North-South had a huge heart
fit (which explains South's hyperactivity), but they arrived in a slam

whose success depended on locating
the trump queen.
After the defense cashed a heart on
the opening lead, declarer won the
club return in dummy, cashed the A,
crossed to the A, and ran the J.
Down one.
At the other table, the auction was
this:
West
Falk
1
Pass

North
Grue
1
Pass

East
Lusky
1
Dbl

South
Cheek
5
All Pass

Cheek bid as high as he dared on
the first round, and East-West decided to take the money. Grue lost
the obvious five tricks to finish down
three, minus 500.
Down 24 IMPs at the half, Falk
hoped to continue chipping away at
Amoils's lead, but it didn't work out
that way. Amoils won the third set
61-22, putting the contest almost
completely out of Falk's reach. Some
of the third-quarter action was a bit
unlucky from Falk's point of view:
the opponents bid a grand that made
when a critical finesse worked, and,
on another deal, teammate Friedland
revoked on the opening lead to let
through a non-making game (fatigue
from playing four-handed?). On this
deal, however, methods mattered:
Dlr: East  Q J 3 2
Vul: None  8 7 3
K6
 10 9 7 4
 10 9 8 5
-
N
 A 10 6
KQJ2
W E
AQ42
 J 10 8 7 5 3
S
KQ
J83
AK764
954
9
A652
West North
East
Bessis Friedland Del'Monte
Pass
Pass 2
Dbl
3
Pass
4
5
All Pass

South
Dahl
1
Pass
Pass

Friedland made a simple raise of ➤
June 2012 Bridge Bulletin

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2012