Bob, Fred, I and Jerry
San Francisco was a great place for the US Fall Nationals. We did so and so, nothing I would call a success but I guess we didn't embarass ourselves totally either. We won a 1-session BAM, a top-bracket consolation knockout (losing our first match on American soil a mere 14 hours after a 20 hour trip and 9 hour time-zone skip) with Mårten Gustawsson and Gunnar Andersson.
The Blue-Ribbons had us finish 31th out of 104 reaching day 3 (416 pair entering) and the North American Swiss saw us fade to 28th place day 3 (160 teams entering, 40 made it to day 3), playing with Robert Bitterman, Jerry Helms, John Diamond and Brian Platnick.
In the Swiss, a distributional layout started off day 3. The first 2 days boards were shuffled each match but the final day all matches played pre-duplicated boards. South, all white (deal rotated):
______T
______653
______AKJT9865
______A
A876_________KQ953
7____________982
Q73___________
98732________KJT65
______J42
______AKQJT4
______52
______Q4
The auction went:
1H - pass - 2D - 2S;
pass - 4S - 5D - pass;
6H - pass - pass - X all passed
1H was 11-15 5+suit, 2D was artificial gameforce with at least 3 hearts, pass after 2S denied shortness in spades and 5D was natural. 6H was a reasonable guess, or so I thought.
West obviously thought X was a general vote of mistrust for the contract and failed to lead a diamond, which of course would have resulted in a swift 2 off, instead opting for a surprise attack in clubs. This was lucky for us and I managed to take the first round finesse in diamonds after collecting the trumps for +1310 (need to, no re-entry otherwise after drawing trumps) for +9 imps vs 6D making at the other table.
Britain's David Bakshi found the text-book switch to a heart at his table against 6D, removing the entry to dummy prematurely and declarer was not prepared to finesse in trumps first time around and went down. Well done David!
The Blue-Ribbons had us finish 31th out of 104 reaching day 3 (416 pair entering) and the North American Swiss saw us fade to 28th place day 3 (160 teams entering, 40 made it to day 3), playing with Robert Bitterman, Jerry Helms, John Diamond and Brian Platnick.
In the Swiss, a distributional layout started off day 3. The first 2 days boards were shuffled each match but the final day all matches played pre-duplicated boards. South, all white (deal rotated):
______T
______653
______AKJT9865
______A
A876_________KQ953
7____________982
Q73___________
98732________KJT65
______J42
______AKQJT4
______52
______Q4
The auction went:
1H - pass - 2D - 2S;
pass - 4S - 5D - pass;
6H - pass - pass - X all passed
1H was 11-15 5+suit, 2D was artificial gameforce with at least 3 hearts, pass after 2S denied shortness in spades and 5D was natural. 6H was a reasonable guess, or so I thought.
West obviously thought X was a general vote of mistrust for the contract and failed to lead a diamond, which of course would have resulted in a swift 2 off, instead opting for a surprise attack in clubs. This was lucky for us and I managed to take the first round finesse in diamonds after collecting the trumps for +1310 (need to, no re-entry otherwise after drawing trumps) for +9 imps vs 6D making at the other table.
Britain's David Bakshi found the text-book switch to a heart at his table against 6D, removing the entry to dummy prematurely and declarer was not prepared to finesse in trumps first time around and went down. Well done David!
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