Bridge Today Daily Column
Issue #67 - Aug 29
(reprinted with permission)
http://www.bridgetoday.com/daily/btdaily67.htm
Board 120
West dealer
None vul
West (you)
K 9 7 6 3
8 6 3
Q J 6
A 2
West North East South
pass 2H* 2S 3S
4H pass 4S 5H
5S 6H pass pass
?
*good weak two-bid
As West, what is your call?
| Board 120 Vul: None Dealer W WEST |
NORTH T 5  A K T 9 7 5 4  7 5 3  9 |
EAST |
| K 9 7 6 3 8 6 3 Q J 6 A 2 |
SOUTH |
A Q J 8 2 K T 8 4 Q J 7 3 |
| 4 Q J 2 A 9 2 K T 8 6 5 4 |
| SOUTH | WEST | NORTH | EAST |
| Moss | Weinstein | Gitelman | Garner |
| -- | Pass | 3 |
Dbl |
| 4 |
4 |
Pass | Pass |
| 5 |
Dbl | Pass | 5 |
| Pass | Pass | Pass |
Opening lead: C9
At table one Garner (East for the Jacobs team) made a good decision to remove his partner's double of 5H to 5S, which made with an overtrick. Plus 480, however, did not look like a great result, since a slam in spades is there....
Table Two
| SOUTH | WEST | NORTH | EAST |
| Zia | Greco | Rosenberg | Hampson |
| -- | Pass | 2 *1 |
2 |
| 3 |
4 |
Pass | 4 |
| 5 |
5 |
6 |
Pass |
| Pass | Dbl | Pass | Pass |
| Pass | |||
 |
|||
| *1 alerted | |||
Opening lead: CQ
Here Rosenberg (North for the Jacobs team) started with 2H, which this pair plays as a good weak two-bid. This might have hurt them but it looks like Zia threw in a curve ball with his false cuebid of 3S, showing a strong hand. The auction worked its way up to 5S when suddenly Rosenberg took his partner seriously and bid 6H. Was it bid for a make or a save?
Hampson passed it around to Greco, who could have been the hero if he had bid 6S. But he doubled. Now it was Hampson's chance to be the hero, simply by leading the ace of spades, and then switching to a diamond. But he led the CQ and that was the match. When the CQ held, he next cashed the SA, followed by a diamond switch. Rosenberg won the ace, ruffed out the ace of clubs, drew two rounds of trump ending in dummy and ruffed another club. Then he led a trump to the queen and claimed, discarding one spade and two diamonds on three high clubs. Down one was -100 and worth 9 imps, for a 5-imp victory in the match. West is still wondering if he should have bid 6S, and East is still pondering the implications of the SA lead. Had he led that card instead, and switched to diamonds, he would have defeated the contract three tricks for +500 (win 2 imps), won the match by 6 imps, and earned a trip to Shanghai next year for the world championships.
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