March 2016 - 27

The USA2
under-26 team:
Christian Jolly,
Julie Arbit, Greg
Herman, Anam
Tebha, Jordan Kaye
and Oren Kriegel.

the Maryland Forest Service through
the AmeriCorps program.
Kriegel, 21, is a senior at the University of Chicago, where he is studying
political science. An accomplished
writer, Kriegel's articles have appeared
in The Bridge World and the Bridge
Bulletin. Tebha, 23, graduated from
the University of Nevada at Las Vegas,
and she plans to begin graduate studies
in chemistry next year at New York
University.
A common theme during the Junior
USBCs was aggressive bidding backed
by good card reading (and good luck).
Here's a deal from the critical second
segment when HERMAN opened up a
lead they would not surrender.
Dlr: East ♠ K Q
Vul: None ♥ A K J 8 2
♦ A Q 10 5 2
♣ 10
♠9765
♠ A 10 8
♥Q3
♥ 10 5 4
♦K87
♦J4
♣A642
♣KQ973
♠J432
♥976
♦963
♣J85
West
North
Sanders Tebha
1♥ (2)
Pass

2NT (3)
4♥

East
Gannon
1♣ (1)
Pass
All Pass

(1) At least two clubs.
(2) At least four spades.
(3) Hearts and diamonds.

South
Kriegel
Pass
3♥

Opening lead: ♥3.
Kriegel may well have been thinking game on this hand after his RHO
opened 1♣, but not for North-South
and certainly not from his side. Tebha
felt she did not need much from partner for game, so she bid it.
The defense started with a trump,
giving nothing away. Declarer won the
♥A and went about gathering information by leading a spade honor at
trick two. East won, cashed a high club
and locked declarer in dummy with
a spade. With no entry to hand, declarer led a second high trump and was
pleased to see the queen fall. He drew
the last trump.
If he could navigate the diamonds, he
could make his contract. The bidding
and play suggested that East held three
spades, and he was known to have
three hearts. Because West did not
raise clubs, declarer placed East with
at least five and, therefore, at most two
diamonds.
Still with no entry to hand, declarer
has the choice of playing ♦A and a low
diamond, hoping for a singleton honor
or doubleton king; or he could play ♦A
and ♦Q, hoping for a singleton honor
or the doubleton jack.
The play suggested that opener held
the ♠A and either ♣A K or ♣K Q.
With the ♦K, he might have had
enough to open 1NT, which East-West
play as 13-15. With nothing else to
go on, declarer therefore opted to pin
the jack in the East hand, where the
expected diamond shortness was,

emerging with a well-earned plus 420
and 7 IMPs for the Herman team.

Under-21

In the Damiani Cup final, SOUKUP
(David Soukup, Hakan Berk, Nolan
Chang and Isaac Stephani) beat
OLSEN (Jake Olsen, Cole Spencer,
Julian Kurtzman and William
Danielsen) 203-91.
Soukup, 18, is studying mathematics
at the University of Rochester. Berk is
a freshman at the University of Maryland studying electrical engineering.
Chang, 19, is working toward a degree
in computer science at California State
Polytechnic University at Pomona.
Stephani, 17, is a high school senior in
Cincinnati.
The four-handed squad has added
Cole Spencer. Spencer, who lives in
Fayetteville AR, is a 17-year-old
high school student.
Here is a winning effort from Berk in
the team's earlier semifinal matchup
versus HU (Michael Hu, Arthur Zhou,
Brent Xiao and Suzanne Campbell).
Dlr: North ♠ A 10 3 2
Vul: E-W ♥ 8 7 5
♦ K 10 6
♣AQ3
♠95
♠K8764
♥ K 10 4
♥QJ962
♦J942
♦-
♣ 10 9 6 2
♣K87
♠QJ
♥A3
♦AQ8753
♣J54
West
Zhou
Pass
All Pass

North
Berk
1♣
2NT

East
Hu
2♣
Pass

South
Soukup
2♠ (1)
3NT

(1) Diamonds, at least invitational
values.
Opening lead: ♥6.
This deal highlights one of the drawbacks of two-suited overcalls: They
give declarer a lot of information if
your side ends up on defense.
Berk opted for a confident 2NT
March 2016 Bridge Bulletin

27
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2016
