February 2022 - 68

Special Contributor
George's World
Austin - part 1
W
ell, the ACBL did it. I was so
excited to play live bridge
at an NABC again. There
were stringent rules - masks always,
proof of vaccination, guards stationed
at entrances to the playing site
with cool computers that scanned for
heat. They detected a coffee machine
100 feet away, so they could easily tell
if you had a fever. Strangely, they also
were able to tell me that my shoe was
untied.
I got to play in some cool national
events: the Open Pairs, the Open
Board-a-Match Teams (my favorite
form of bridge), the Blue Ribbon Pairs
and the Senior Mixed Pairs. After
eight days, I decided to go home and
cook latkes for my family. That was
great fun also.
As always, there were quite a few
unusual and exciting hands. This
month and next, I will walk you
through a few of them. Check out
Mike's Advice
continued from page 62
that your partner has five hearts (he
would have bid them on the previous
round), but he could have four of them
along with four diamonds. His bid
would let you choose the best game.
On this hand, South goes back to
5l and makes it when the heart
finesse works. This is a good game
to reach. Especially good given that
West has shown a weak hand. You
expect RHO to have the kQ.
Postmortem
If partner has a poor hand with a
trick in clubs, he can pass. He knows
you have extras, so if he can produce
a trick, the odds are that you can produce
three.
68 | Bridge Bulletin | February 2022
this one from the Senior Mixed Pairs
playing with Arti Bhargava:
 Q 8 7 2
k J 7 6 5 2
l A 10
' A 4
 -
k -
 K J 9 6 5 3
k K 9 4 3
l K Q 9 8 7 4 3 2 l J
' 10 9 6 3 2
 A 10 4
k A Q 10 8
l 6 5
' K J 7 5
After reaching a sedate 4k as
North-South, our West opponent
surprised us with a 5l bid. My
partner, North, bid 5k. Now you must
make it.
After a diamond lead it looks grim,
but you plow on. With limited entries
there is a lot to do. Let's start with the
kJ. It goes low, low, ouch! Another
heart fetches more of the same. We
cannot worry about spades just yet,
and the hearts are still a problem,
but let's see if the 'Q is onside and
maybe we can pitch our diamond. So,
it goes club to the ace, a club back, and
it is quite a surprise to see the queen
pop. At this point, we have a good
picture of the 5l hand: It's either
1=0=7=5 or 0=0=8=5. We cannot leave
a heart exit for RHO, so we cash the
kA. Now the 'J lets us pitch our losing
diamond. If LHO ruffs, she must
break spades for one loser. If she does
not ruff, we can throw her in with the
heart to endplay her in spades. Ultimately,
one heart and one spade were
lost, making five.
More Mixed Pairs. You have never
seen this happen. Arti showed spades
' Q 8
BY GEORGE JACOBS
NOBET8888@aol.com
twice over my strong hand. First, I
bid exclusion Blackwood asking her
how many key cards she had but not
to count the 'A. Then, I asked her
for the 'A! Sounds impossible, but
it was matchpoints. I could count 13
tricks in spades, but I was looking for
7NT. Turns out the 'A was offside;
the opponents had it. What fun
though. Here were our hands and the
auction:
Me
 K 9 4
Partner
 A Q J 10 8
k A K Q 7 5 3 k 9 2
l A K J 4
' -
1k
3l
5'(1)
5NT
7'(3)
Pass
(1) exclusion key card
(2) one key card
(3) 'A?
(4) Go fish
Something wonderfully unexpected
happened to me recently. You may
already know this, but play along.
ACBL Executive Director Joe Jones
called to tell me I was chosen as the
Honorary Member of the Year. What
a great honor. I believe I was nominated
by Bruce Greenspan, and I am
eternally grateful. Thank you to the
ACBL Board of Directors for their
faith in me. After all these years, I
have finally gotten into the Bridge
Bulletin.
Stay safe and play more bridge.
Chow.
1
3
5k(2)
6
7(4)
l 6 3 2
' 6 4 2
February 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2022
