November 2020 - 19

Soloway (South) played in 3♠ and
made 10 tricks despite the 5-1 break.
West led a diamond. East won and
played a second round, declarer ruffing.
After a trump to dummy's queen and
trump back, declarer discovered the
bad split. West ducked the ♠A again,
but was eventually forced to break
clubs. Soloway guessed well to put up
the ♣Q, and scored plus 170. True,
Altman could have held it to three by
shifting to a club at trick two.
At my table, Goldman's questionable
1♠ overcall directed us toward 4♥.
Lawrence, after winning the diamond
lead, naturally shifted to his singleton
spade. Now came the key play: What
spade would you return for your partner to ruff? Take your time: 12 IMPs are
at stake. Holding the ♣K, Goldman
returned the ♠2. Lawrence ruffed and
led a club. I won the ♣A and cashed
two high hearts, expecting to pull the
trumps. However, Goldman still had the
♥J, so I simply cashed the spades,
discarding clubs from dummy, ruffed a
club, and ruffed a diamond back to my
hand to pull the last trump: plus 420.
Were you able to foresee this position
and request a diamond back instead?
This beats the contract because I would
get overruffed in the ending when I try
to get back to my hand. The ♣K is a
mirage; you will get it eventually. True, if I
decided to play Lawrence for 5-5 shape
and draw only one round of trumps, I
would make it, but that certainly seemed
to be against the odds.

The Precision Team led the Aces
136-132 after three quarters. The last
set started with seven straight partials,
which saw the Precision Team gain
slightly. Then this complicated deal:
Dlr: West ♠ 8
Vul: N-S ♥ K 8
♦AKQ6543
♣ J 10 6
♠932
♠ K 10 7 6
♥ A 10 3
♥J97
♦ 10 9
♦J872
♣A9742
♣83
♠AQJ54
♥Q6542
♦-
♣KQ5

West
Soloway
Pass
Pass
Pass

North
Stuart
1♦
3♦(1)
3NT

East
Hamman
Pass
Pass
All Pass

South
Neiger
1♠
3♥

West
Altman
Pass
Pass
All Pass

North
Wolff
1♦
3♦(1)

East
Sontag
Pass
Pass

South
Jacoby
1♥
3NT

(1) 14-15, solid suit
At each table, 3NT was reached from
different sides.
Jacoby bid hearts first, intending to
reverse into spades, but changed plans
over the diamond jump. West led a low
club against him, dummy's 10 winning,
and the top three diamonds were next,
declarer pitching two spades and a
heart, while West discarded a spade.
When diamonds failed to split 3-3, declarer could not afford to play a fourth
round, as there might not be an entry to
the dummy if the ♥A were offside. So
Jacoby took the spade finesse, played
a heart to the king, and the ♥8 from
dummy was covered by the 9, queen
and ace. The idea was to endplay East
with the master heart to force a spade
exit in the endgame. But West continued with the ♣A and a third club,
allowing Sontag to make the excellent
play of ditching the ♥J. Jacoby finished down one.
At the other table, Hamman led the
♥J. Declarer won the ♥K and cashed
the top diamonds, discarding two
spades and a heart from dummy. Here,
however, West, Soloway, discarded a
low club. After a spade to the jack held,
and the ♣K was ducked, the ♣Q went
to West's ace, and another club cleared
the suit. Declarer next ducked a heart
into the West hand. Soloway could
cash a club and a heart, but was forced
to return a spade into the dummy. Plus
600 and 12 IMPs for North-South.
Another game swing in the Precision
Team's favor soon followed, and things
went rapidly downhill for the Aces
after that. The final score: Precision
Team 192, Aces 155.

The almost unbeatable Aces were
now 0-2 against the Precision Team.

The '72 Vanderbilt final

The Precision Team faced Paul
Swanson-Jack Blair and Fred Hamilton-Howard Perlman in the Vanderbilt
final.
Only Swanson and company stood in
the way of the Precision Team winning
their third national knockout out of
four times at bat. The Swanson team
was considered a surprise finalist, but
the two pairs had been playing very
well in the event, particularly Swanson-Blair.
The first quarter saw the lead seesaw, but SWANSON emerged with a
27-IMP lead in the 18-board segment
after the Precision Team posted several soft results late in the set.
Dlr: West ♠ 8
Vul: N-S ♥ A 10 7 3
♦ A 10 8 7 6
♣743
♠Q
♠ 10 7 6 3
♥KQ95
♥642
♦K95
♦32
♣ K 10 9 6 2
♣AQJ8
♠AKJ9542
♥J8
♦QJ4
♣5
West
North
Swanson Weichsel
1♣
Pass
2♣
Pass

East
Blair
1♠
3♣

South
Smith
Pass
All Pass

West
North
East
South
Altman Hamilton Sontag Perlman
Pass
Pass
Pass
4♠
All Pass
This pattern of not opening hands with
1♦ with a three-card suit and less-thansound values repeated itself throughout
the match. It seems clear to me that 1♦
shouldn't promise four within a strong
club system, even with a 13-15 1NT.
Altman's decision to not open was
going to become prominent, assuming Perlman was counting. As the play
went, Altman was laying a clever trap for
declarer. After the ♥K went to dummy's
November 2020 Bridge Bulletin

19
November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2020
