District 25 News for September 2006

Nationals Matter

I've posted no District 25 news since June, because I took the summer off from bridge. That is, unless you count my ten days at the summer nationals in Chicago. Great minds think alike, and many other New Englanders went to Illinois. See Rich DeMartino's August report for the real skinny, and congratulations to the many who did well at the nationals. Our Flight B Grand National Team (Al Wolf, Russell Friedman, Bernard Schneider, and Frances Schneider), whose victory in the District finals I fully reported in April, went on to win the whole thing. Rich DeMartino, John Stiefel, Geoff Brod, and Steve Earl won the National Senior Swiss. Dick Budd and Doug Doub made Grand Master. And Julie Zhu, formerly of Weston MA but now a Unit 128 Floridian, won the Wernher Open Pairs, her first national victory.

Chicago was a well-run and successful NABC, and I was happy to see Kathy Benjamin, who will serve with Frank Lombardo as a coordinator for the 2008 Boston Fall Nationals, in attendance and observing. You can enter the District 25 slogan contest or volunteer to help by emailing either krbenjamin@msn.com or lomb101@aol.com.

Buzz from the Fall Regional

The six-day 2006 New England Fall Regional was held in Nashua, New Hampshire from August 30 to September 4. The Nashua Sheraton, an elegant castle-like hotel, is located off route 3 just north of the Massachusetts border, within walking distance of all manner of restaraunts and the massive Pheasant Lane Mall. Parking was copious and free.

Sheraton Nashua

Nashua was New Hampshire's first District 25 Regional in four years, and 2006 was the first time in many years that Western Massachusetts hosted no regional. Attendance was similar to Springfield 2005 - 1138 table sessions by my unofficial count. The rooms and dining at the Sheraton were great if a bit pricey, and the ballrooms made excellent playing areas: good space, quiet, with high ceilings, good lighting, no mirrors, and tablecloths.

Main Ballroom

803 players won masterpoints in Nashua, topped once again by Victor King, his second straight best-in-show. Victor accumulated 79.70 masterpoints by winning two events and finishing second in two others. A dozen players won at least 50.

Compared to the bids and plays of abundant international bridge stars at the Chicago nationals, the bridge in Nashua seemed less than scintilating to me. I wasn't alone in my assessment - District 25's bulletin editor Dave Metcalf recorded in Monday's final edition that Nashua saw the following gaffes by New England's best players:

  • In a top bracket Knockout semifinal, one table bid a small slam off a cashing ace-king, while the other table bid a grand. The small slam went down because the opening leader held the ace-king, but the grand made from the other side.
  • Two of our District's finest players took a nonvulnerable seven diamond save over a vulnerable six hearts, and went down ten doubled for -2600. Six hearts went down at the other table, so they lost 21 imps.
  • A top player lost a vulnerable game because he miscounted trumps.

Dave also reported the following:

............North
............S-KJx
............H-AJxx
............D-Axx
............C-KQx


............South
............S-AQxxx
............H-x
............D-KQxx
............C-Axx

Two Flight A Swiss declarers played seven spades on a trump lead. They drew trumps in three rounds, ruffed two hearts, and played for a 3-3 diamond split or a red suit squeeze. A push for down one, yet dummy has plenty of entries for a full dummy reversal.

I could offer more examples of big fish that got away. In Monday's Swiss, my teammates were unbeatable. They even moved to the correct table for six out of seven matches, all of which they won. We deservedly got no victory points in the other match, as we messed up the scores of three other teams as well as our own. Or consider this four spade contract from Sunday's Flight A Knockout final:

............North
............S-J8x
............H-AQxxx
............D-A10x
............C-xx
..West.....................East
..S-10.....................S-97xx
..H-J10x.................H-K8x
..D-9x.....................D-KQxx
..C-AJ10xxxx.........C-Qx
............South
............S-AKQxx
............H-9x
............D-J8xx
............C-Kx

Both Wests had bid clubs during the auction, and although any other suit lead would defeat the game (East would have put a club through as soon as he got in), both Wests led their ace, hoping for a ruff or a tap. Neither seeing the dummy nor the spots played by East and South gave them any information, and anway it was too late, because now declarer can get home by playing on hearts. However, one declarer won the club continuation and elected to draw trumps and lead a diamond to the ten. This endplayed East, but repeated diamond returns left declarer without recourse. Down 1. The other declarer won the second club and took an immediate heart finesse. Here East was cooked, and desperately returned a low diamond to dummy's ten. Now ruffing the hearts good either before or after drawing trumps makes an overtrick. Surely declarer should take a trump or two first, but he elected to cash dummy's heart ace. Now the fall of West's heart honor gave him pause, and he cashed the diamond ace, all following. Even one round of trump sees him home, but he played a diamond immediately, and West pitched his other heart as East won. Now the third heart finished declarer off. Push.

Suppose you were dealt S-AQJxxx H-A D-K10 C-108xx and heard your partner open one diamond. You respond one spade, partner rebids two clubs. Since three spades would only be invitational, you issue a game force with an artificial two hearts. When partner bids 2NT, you decide to show where you live with three spades. Four clubs, says pard. You try four diamonds (or four hearts, if you prefer), and partner says four spades. Now what? Convinced that partner had extras and spade tolerance, a fine player bid six spades.

Six spades was the worst of several possible thin slams. He got the lead of the club nine. Dummy hit with S-x H-Kxx D-AQJxx C-AQxx. Six clubs, diamonds, notrump, or even spades would be better from partner's side. Now he needed either the club finesse, or the lead to be singleton and LHO to have Kxx of spades, or possibly S-Kx in the slot. Resigned to poor prospects, he rose dummy's ace and took the spade finesse, which won. RHO dropped the king under the spade ace, and discarded a heart on the third high trump. HA, DK, DA, HK to pitch a club. But alas, LHO ruffed the next diamond and cashed the club king, which had been onside all the time!

Other News

Errata have been brought to my attention in masterpoint race and rank change files I received from the ACBL and posted on this site. For some reason, neither Lloyd Arvedon nor Howard Piltch appeared in our masterpoint listings, and the ACBL reported that Dick Budd achieved Platinum rather than Grand Life Master. Although I know these are mistakes, it does no good to notify me, as I don't own the masterpoint database - Memphis does. If you spot errors, please notify the ACBL directly, and the next files I post will be more accurate.

Our next regional, the New England Masters, will be held in Burlington, VT November 8-12, 2006. The Masters will be Vermont's first regional of the century. Please spare me gripes about the distance from other parts of New England. Interstates 89 and 91 are just long enough to explain the finer points of defensive carding to partner, and Burlington should attract both Canadians and upstate New Yorkers. The Masters is perfectly timed to provide sufficient triumphs and tragedies in place of or in preparation for the distant Fall nationals in Honolulu the following week. So pack a sweater along with your convention card and see you by Lake Champlain. You'll be glad you came.

And while you're at it, enter the North American Open Pairs for a chance to win a trip to the 2007 Spring Nationals in St. Louis. Our District 25 Finals will be held in Sturbridge MA, October 14-15. The NAOP is New England's premier matchpoint event, our only four-session regional pair game, and the only one with a substantial prize in each flight. What have you got to lose (except tricks) ? See the calendar for details.

The webmaster solicits New England bridge-related written matter of suitable quality for posting. District 25 web site material is volunteer only, but you'll see your name in lights. Short is best.

Attaboys and Attagirls

Congratulations to New England players who achieved milestones , moving up in rank during November 2006.

Previous congrats:
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005

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