January 2014 - 17

Round-robin
When teams from the same country
or zone compete in the same event,
World Bridge Federation practice is
to have them face each other early in
the event rather than later, so USA1
(Kevin Bathurst, Kevin Dwyer, John
Kranyak, Bobby Levin, Steve Weinstein
and Gavin Wolpert) and USA2 (Martin
Fleisher, Mike Kamil, Zia Mahmood,
Chip Martel, Michael Rosenberg and
Chris Willenken) were opponents in
the third of 21 rounds. The following
deal helped USA1 to a 34-7 win.
Dlr: South ࡕ J 9
Vul: N-S ࡖ A 5 3
ࡗAQJ43
ࡔKQ4
ࡕ32
ࡕ K Q 10 8 5
ࡖQ976
ࡖ 10 4
ࡗ 10 7 2
ࡗK86
ࡔ8753
ࡔJ62
ࡕA764
ࡖKJ82
ࡗ95
ࡔ A 10 9
West
North
Bathurst R'berg
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass

1ࡗ
Dbl
2ࡕ
3NT

East
South
Dwyer Willenken
1ࡔ
1ࡕ
Pass
Pass
2ࡖ
Pass
3ࡕ
All Pass

The auction "right-sided" 3NT in the
sense that, played from the South side,
there was no chance the contract would
make on a spade lead from West, a sure
thing given the bidding. With North as
declarer, there was at least some doubt
on East's part about how to proceed
after the inevitable duck of the opening
lead of the ࡕK. Dwyer thought things
over for a bit before continuing with
the ࡕQ. From there, Rosenberg had
no chance and he finished two down -
minus 200.
At the other table, the auction was
the same except for Weinstein's second
call as South (he doubled instead of
passing), making North declarer at
this table, too. Martel, East, also led the
ࡕK, but after considerable thought, he

switched to the ࡔJ. Levin had no difficulty from there, scoring plus 630 for
a 12-IMP swing.
In round five, USA1 faced Poland,
featuring three players who are
regulars at NABCs in North America:
Cezary Balicki, Adam Zmudzinski
and Krzysztof Jassem. On this deal,
Grzegorz Narkiewicz - founder of the
young Bridge 24 team that won the
2013 Spingold in Atlanta - took the
right view in a slam to earn 14 IMPs for
his side.
Dlr: North ࡕ A J 10 9 5
Vul: None ࡖ 5 4
ࡗ98
ࡔA643
ࡕQ74
ࡕ2
ࡖJ2
ࡖKQ7
ࡗ Q 10 7 6
ࡗJ532
ࡔJ852
ࡔ K Q 10 9 7
ࡕK863
ࡖ A 10 9 8 6 3
ࡗAK4
ࡔ-
West
North
Balicki Levin
2ࡕ
Pass
3ࡗ (2)
Pass
3ࡕ
Pass
4ࡖ
All Pass

East
Zm'ski
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass

South
Weinstein
2NT (1)
3ࡖ
4ࡗ
6ࡕ

(1) Ogust.
(2) Good hand, bad suit.
Zmudzinski led the ࡔK. Levin
pitched a low diamond from dummy,
won the ࡔA and made the percentage
play of a low spade to the king and another to his ace (58%). When the queen
did not drop, Levin was one down for
minus 50. At the other table:
West
North
Kranyak Nar'wicz
Pass
1ࡕ (1)
2ࡕ
Pass
4ࡕ
Pass
6ࡕ

East
Wolpert
1ࡔ
Pass
Pass
All Pass

South
Buras
1ࡖ
4ࡔ
5ࡔ

(1) Takeout with fewer than four spades.
Wolpert also led the ࡔK, taken in
hand by declarer. At trick two, the ࡖ4
went to the queen and ace. Declarer

played another heart from dummy,
taken by Kranyak with the jack. A club
return forced dummy to ruff, and a
third round of hearts was ruffed by
Narkiewicz, Kranyak discarding. Was
there an inference from Kranyak's discard? He knew, after all, declarer was
out of hearts. In any event, Narkiewicz
played the ࡕ9 to dummy's king and
played another trump to his 10. That
was plus 980 and 14 IMPs to Poland.
The following deal was played in
round nine and showed how tuned in
the Italian team was, especially Bocchi.
After eight qualifying rounds, Italy
and Brazil were in contention for spots
in the top eight. Italy was ahead 38-11
with one deal left in the match. It was
an interesting board. The matchups
were Norberto Bocchi/Agustin Madala
against Marco Toma/Diego Brenner,
and Alfredo Versace/Lorenzo Lauria
versus Joao-Paulo Campos/Miguel
Villas-Boas.
Dlr: West ࡕ K Q J 6 3
Vul: E-W ࡖ 8 2
ࡗJ42
ࡔ 10 8 2
ࡕ 10 8 7 2
ࡕ9
ࡖ7
ࡖ J 10 6 4 3
ࡗKQ53
ࡗ 10 9 7 6
ࡔKQ97
ࡔA64
ࡕA54
ࡖAKQ95
ࡗA8
ࡔJ53
West
Toma
Pass
Dbl
Redbl
Pass

North
Bocchi
Pass
Pass
3ࡕ
Pass

East
Brenner
Pass
2ࡗ
Pass
Dbl

South
Madala
1ࡖ
Dbl (1)
4ࡕ
All Pass

(1) Three-card spade support.
Brenner led the ࡗ10, Bocchi winning
the ace. He played the ࡕA and a spade
to his jack, then stopped to consider
what the bidding had told him. West, a
passed hand, made a takeout double of
1ࡖ then redoubled when Madala made
a support double of 2ࡗ. That convinced Bocchi that West held at most
one heart.
January 2014 Bridge Bulletin

17
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2014
