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Las Vegas Bridge Championships
Bidding and play problems from the summer championships.
Featured Noozer
The 2008 Summer North American Bridge Championships is concluding in Las Vegas today. Over 20,000 tables were in play, and thousands of players from all over the world attended. The main event is the Spingold KO teams which had 108 teams and one of the strongest fields ever.
The first hand I played in the event required a difficult bidding decision:
P, 3N,
and 
are all reasonable alternatives. However, my teammates who played this pair the first set suggested doubling them at any reasonable opportunity, so I passed. This worked well as the deal was:
After the
lead and a trump switch this was down 500 with no game on our way (declarer won the club to play a heart rather than a spade, so lost all 4 diamonds.
The next deal presented an unusual challenge:
After a lively auction West led a heart to the K, A and Q. West threw the
on the second heart. Now what?
To start with, East must have substantial playing strength to bid 4H vulnerable. West seems to have a club honor, and East is signaling for diamonds (by playing higher hearts). So I assumed that the diamond king was offside and the spades weren't breaking.
I pitched a diamond on the 3rd heart (to keep RHO from winning a late diamond trick to play another heart). On the 4th heart I ruffed high, then ran the
and played A and ruffed a diamond with the 
leaving:
With the diamonds good, easy to lead the spade 7 t the 8 and A, then back to the club A to finesse against the J5 with dummy's K6. If West had kept his diamonds I could lead the spade 2, to the 8 and A, then play Q and ruff a diamond, club A, then coup West.
Best defense is to discard 3 clubs as West, then I don't see any way to make it.
The first hand I played in the event required a difficult bidding decision:
P, 3N,
and are all reasonable alternatives. However, my teammates who played this pair the first set suggested doubling them at any reasonable opportunity, so I passed. This worked well as the deal was:After the
lead and a trump switch this was down 500 with no game on our way (declarer won the club to play a heart rather than a spade, so lost all 4 diamonds.The next deal presented an unusual challenge:
After a lively auction West led a heart to the K, A and Q. West threw the
on the second heart. Now what?To start with, East must have substantial playing strength to bid 4H vulnerable. West seems to have a club honor, and East is signaling for diamonds (by playing higher hearts). So I assumed that the diamond king was offside and the spades weren't breaking.
I pitched a diamond on the 3rd heart (to keep RHO from winning a late diamond trick to play another heart). On the 4th heart I ruffed high, then ran the
and played A and ruffed a diamond with the leaving:With the diamonds good, easy to lead the spade 7 t the 8 and A, then back to the club A to finesse against the J5 with dummy's K6. If West had kept his diamonds I could lead the spade 2, to the 8 and A, then play Q and ruff a diamond, club A, then coup West.
Best defense is to discard 3 clubs as West, then I don't see any way to make it.
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