August 2018 - 21

Dlr: North ♠ 9 8 6 4
Vul: None ♥ K Q 8
♦KJ9
♣J62
♠ Q 10
♠AK7532
♥AJ743
♥9
♦Q652
♦ 10 8 4 3
♣73
♣ 10 9
♠J
♥ 10 6 5 2
♦A7
♣AKQ854
East started the bidding with a weak
2♠ opening, but at both tables, North-
South took over and crawled into 5♣.
Both Wests started with the ♠Q, and
then the defensive paths diverged as
Hornby-Fisher made short work of the
defense: Fisher overtook the ♠Q to fire
back his lone heart, essentially playing
his partner for either the ♣A or ♥A.
One fast ruff later meant down one.
At the other table, Caley played the
♠3 at trick one, clearly a discouraging
card, but one that failed to elicit the
♥A and a second heart from his partner, so 5♣ came home. Moral: Don't
ask (or expect) partner to do for you
what you can do for yourself!

During last year's final segment of
the CNTC, TODD staged a fantastic
rally to nip L'ECUYER at the wire,
largely on the basis of some successful slams missed by their opponents.
Would the excellent result fashioned
by Kimelman-Bart on this deal be the
start of a repeat rally?
Dlr: North ♠ 4
Vul: Both ♥ A K 9 8 4
♦AKQ75
♣K5
♠ A J 10 7 6 3
♠852
♥ Q 10 5 2
♥J6
♦ 10 4
♦J92
♣8
♣96432
♠KQ9
♥73
♦863
♣ A Q J 10 7

West
Pass
Pass
Pass
Pass

North
East
Kimelman
1♥
Pass
2♦
Pass
3♦
Pass
4♣
Pass
6♣
All Pass

South
Bart
2♣
2NT
3NT
5♣

After the typical 2/1 start to the auction, North knew his partner would
have roughly the equivalent of an opening bid along with good clubs to make
the initial game-forcing response. East
held out some hope that his baby clubs
might play a role, but the 3-2 diamond
split compensated and Bart had no
problem bringing home 12 tricks - and
12 large IMPs when the forcing 1♣
auction at the other table didn't diagnose that both North and South had
maximum values for their early calls.
3NT made in comfort, but without a
vulnerable slam bonus.

The penultimate segment settled
nothing (12-11 for GARTAGANIS), so
the result of the match rested on the
final 14 deals.
During that dramatic set, another
great team result established a bit of
breathing space for our squad when
Smith-Zaluski found the winning
defense, and captain Judith earned an
entry to the "Best Declarer Play of the
2018 CNTC" sweepstakes on this challenging deal:
Dlr: South ♠ 4 3
Vul: N-S ♥ J 10 4 2
♦AJ8
♣K954
♠J9652
♠ A Q 10 7
♥95
♥Q3
♦K9752
♦ Q 10 3
♣3
♣ A 10 8 7
♠K8
♥AK876
♦64
♣QJ62
Despite holding minimum combined
values, both North-South pairs took an
optimistic route to 4♥, and the result

hinged on the cardplay.
For GARTAGANIS, Smith led his
singleton, and Zaluski diagnosed his
best chance to set 4♥ might be via
ruffs, so he won the ♣A and returned
the ♣8 for one ruff, and after a spade
to the ace, a second club ruff followed.
When Judith declared, East for
TODD gave the same club lead a long
study before deciding to maintain his
tenace over dummy's cards by playing
the ♣7 to force the ♣J from declarer.
Two high trumps brought good
news, and Judith continued with a low
diamond to the jack and queen. East
cashed the ♠A, but didn't like what he
saw from West, so reverted to diamonds, playing the ♦10 to the ace.
Declarer ruffed the third diamond
and cashed the ♠K before leading a
club to dummy's king and East's ace
- to thoroughly endplay the defender.
East had only losing options: to lead
away from his guarded ♣10 to declarer's split tenace or yield a ruff and
discard by playing back a spade. That
was 10 well-earned tricks for declarer
and 13 IMPs for the team.

Many reports like this start with a
quiz question or two for the reader, but
I'm going to end with one. You hold:
♠A 3 ♥J 9 8 3 ♦10 5 3 2 ♣A 7 5
and with both vulnerable, you pass as
dealer. Your LHO opens 1♥, partner
overcalls 1♠ and RHO passes. What's
your call?
For TODD, East passed and that
effectively ended the auction with 1♠
yielding 10 semi-lucky tricks.
For GARTAGANIS, Zaluski chanced
his arm with a 1NT response. That
attracted a raise to the nine-trick game
from Jeff Smith, who gave full appreciation to the likely source of tricks he
held in the spade suit:
♠K Q J 8 7 5 ♥10 6 ♦A Q ♣Q 8 2.
That ♥10 was just enough to spruce
up Zaluski's heart stopper, and nine
tricks rolled home for one last doubledigit swing and the 2018 CNTC title for
GARTAGANIS.
◾
August 2018 Bridge Bulletin

21
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2018
