November 2012 - 16

Westheimer
Wins Wagar
By Paul Linxwiler

T

he team captained by Valerie
Westheimer beat the squad led
by Geeske Joel 159-92 to win
the Wagar Women's Knockout Teams
in impressive fashion .
Westheimer outscored Joel in each
quarter: 53-35 in the first, 47-33 in the
second, 28-17 in the third and 31-7 in
the fourth.
Westheimer of New York NY played
with Disa Eythorsdottir of Huntsville AL, Mildred Breed of Austin TX,
Shawn Quinn of Sugar Land TX, Jill
Levin of Henderson NV and Jenny
Wolpert of Jupiter FL.
Playing with Joel of Palo Alto CA
were Tobi Sokolow of Austin TX, Janice Seamon-Molson of Hollywood FL,
Jill Meyers of Santa Monica CA, and
Sylvie Willard and Benedicte Cronier
of Paris, France.
In the final, the Joel team picked
up 16 quick IMPs at start of the first
quarter, 10 of which came from the
very first board:
Dlr: North ࡕ A Q 8 2
Vul: None ࡖ Q 9 8 5 2
ࡗ-
ࡔAKQ9
ࡕ K J 10
ࡕ6
N
ࡖ A 10 7 4
ࡖK63
W E
ࡗ 10 5 4 3
ࡗAQJ87
S
ࡔ32
ࡔ J 10 6 5
ࡕ97543
ࡖJ
ࡗK962
ࡔ874
West North
Quinn Meyers
1ࡖ
3ࡗ
Dbl
Pass
4ࡕ

East
Breed
2ࡗ
Pass
All Pass

South
S.-Molson
Pass
3ࡕ

On the lead of a low diamond,
Seamon-Molson ruffed in dummy
16 Bridge Bulletin November 2012

Winners of the Wagar Women's Knockout Teams: Jenny Wolpert, Jill Levin, Mildred
Breed, captain Valerie Westheimer, Hjordis Eythorsdottir and Shawn Quinn.

and played a heart to the jack and
West's ace. Quinn exited with a club
to dummy's ace, and declarer ruffed a
heart in the closed hand. After a club
to the king, another heart was ruffed,
dropping East's king, and declarer
played a trump toward the dummy.
Seamon-Molson disdained the finesse, however, to keep playing along
crossruff lines. When East followed
to the trump ace, declarer knew that
the most the defenders could collect
against this line of play would be two
trump tricks. So when dummy's ࡖQ
and ࡖ9 were cashed (declarer pitching diamonds from her hand), West
could do no better than ruff and cash
the ࡕK. Making four, plus 420.
The auction at the other table:
West
Joel

North
Disa
1ࡖ
Pass 4ࡗ (1)
All Pass

East
South
Sokolow Westheimer
Pass
1ࡕ
Dbl
4ࡕ

West led a low diamond, and Westheimer pitched a heart from dummy,
allowing East to win the ace. Declarer won the ࡗQ return in her hand
(pitching another heart from dummy)
and risked the trump finesse. When
that held, she cashed the trump ace,
revealing the 3-1 split, but now she
would have to guess well to get home.
The winning line on this particular

layout is to simply cash the top clubs.
This works whenever the suit is 3-3
because a heart can be pitched on the
fourth club, but it also works when
West started with two clubs, as in
the diagram. If West ruffs the third
round of clubs, the only other trick
the defense will get is a heart. And if
West declines to ruff the ࡔQ, declarer
can just play a fourth round of the
suit, pitching the ࡖJ from her hand,
crossruffing the rest as West gets only
the boss trump.
After the ࡕA, however, Westheimer
exited dummy with a low heart to her
jack, but Joel won and cashed the
ࡕK, leaving declarer one trick short
in the crossruff endgame. Minus 50.
This deal, also from the first quarter,
put 12 IMPs in Westheimer's column:
Dlr: North ࡕ J 9 6 5 3
Vul: E-W ࡖ A Q 10 8
ࡗQ762
ࡔ-
ࡕ K Q 10 7
ࡕA42
N
ࡖ95
ࡖK6432
W E
ࡗAK43
ࡗ J 10
S
ࡔQ96
ࡔK53
ࡕ8
ࡖJ7
ࡗ985
ࡔ A J 10 8 7 4 2
In second seat at unfavorable vul-
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2012
