May 2018 - 23

Van Overbeeke led the ♦Q, forcing
West to ruff and lead a trump into his
tenace.
Maybe West could have underruffed
twice (and unblocked the ♦K if he
thought his partner had the ♦Q!), but
as the cards lay, the defenders could
not get out of their own way. (Give
East the ♦K, and the double underruff
would set the game.)
Because 3NT went down 300 in the
other room, that was worth 14 IMPs as
part of a 54-12 win for van Overbeeke.

Stepping out gets punished

Clay Hall and Mark Jones won the
Lebhar IMP Pairs, and this deal from
the first qualifying session helped
them to the victory.
Dlr: North
Vul: N-S
Bd: 5
♠ J 10 8 6 2
♥AK5
♦J42
♣Q4

West
Hall
1♠
Pass
Dbl

♠AK94
♥Q63
♦A53
♣763

♠Q73
♥J42
♦Q986
♣982

North
1♣
1NT
2♦
All Pass

to 2♦. When this was passed back to
Hall, he also reached for the red card,
ending the auction, and the play was
bloody.
Hall began with the ♥A and
switched to the ♣Q. The defense
cashed three rounds of clubs and East
exited with a spade. Declarer won,
cashed the trump ace, and played a low
trump toward the queen, but East rose
with the king, returned a heart to West,
and ruffed the spade return. Then, a
fourth round of clubs from East promoted West's ♦J .
Down three doubled gave the winners plus 800 for a large pickup of
12.26 IMPs.

"It's easy when you know how ..."
By Barry Rigal

This deal comes from the Silodor
Open Pairs:
♠5
♥ 10 9 8 7
♦ K 10 7
♣ A K J 10 5

East
Jones
Pass
Dbl
Pass

♠AQ
♥ 10 9 7 4
♦ K J 10 9 8
♣K5
West
1♦(1)
2NT

South
1♦
Pass
Pass

Responding with light values has
many champions in the modern game,
but such advocates typically prefer to
do so with unbalanced hands. There
would be much less enthusiasm for responding to a 1♣ opener with South's
balanced junk pile.
Hall and Jones, however, encountered an opponent who believed otherwise on this deal, with South bidding
1♦ in response to the 1♣ opening. Hall
threw in a 1♠ overcall, and North rebid
1NT. Jones doubled, and North ran

North
Pass
Pass

♠764
♥AQ
♦764
♣AJ863
East
2♥(2)
3NT

South
2♠
All Pass

(1) Natural, 5+.
(2) Limit raise: diamonds, minors, or
balanced.
In 3NT after the ♠9 lead, South discouraged, suggesting he had the ♥K.
3NT is an uninspiring contract. Maybe the right approach is to rely on the
club finesse. So you play the ♣K and
a club to the jack, which holds. Phew!
Now you take the diamond finesse. If
it loses to the ♦Q, you can reassess
what to do. When it holds, you are in
great shape. Take care to lead a heart to
the ace, then don't cash the ♣A or you
squeeze your hand. You plan to score
two spades, one heart, four diamonds
and two clubs.
When you lead a second diamond,
however, South shows out! This is the
full deal:

♠95
♥532
♦AQ53
♣Q972

♠AQ
♠764
♥ 10 9 7 4
♥AQ
♦ K J 10 9 8
♦764
♣K5
♣AJ863
♠ K J 10 8 3 2
♥KJ86
♦2
♣ 10 4
Nice defense by North, Simon Cope,
of England. He, along with Peter
Crouch (South), also of the UK, won
the Silodor.
After registering your minus 200,
you check Deep Finesse to see what the
best outcome for declarer is. As usual,
you have been weighed in the balance
and found wanting. DF tells you 3NT is
cold. How do you make it? Simple: Play
the ♦K at trick two. If the defenders
win the first or second diamond, you
set up diamonds using the club entry.
If the defense ducks twice, you switch
your attention to clubs and take four
tricks there.

Repeat champs

Mark Dahl of Richmond VA and
Richard Oshlag of Memphis TN successfully defended their title in the
NABC Fast Pairs. On this deal from the
first final session of the event, Oshlag's
choice to compete in the auction is justified by Dahl's excellent declarer play:
Dlr: West ♠ 8 5 4
Vul: None ♥ K 10 6 5 2
Bd: 24
♦862
♣J6
♠AK2
♠Q7
♥Q93
♥J74
♦Q753
♦ K J 10 9
♣A94
♣ 10 7 5 3
♠ J 10 9 6 3
♥A8
♦A4
♣KQ82

May 2018 Bridge Bulletin

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2018