Board 5 North Open Room
Dlr: N S QJT7 West North East South
Vul: NS H KQT9 Boyd Passell RobinsonSeamon
D T Pass Pass 2S
C JT94 Pass 4S Pass Pass
West East Pass
S A3 S 8
H AJ873 H 62
D J9765 D AK842
C 3 C 87652 Closed Room
South West North East South
S K96542 Cayne Goldman Burger Soloway
H 54 Pass 2D 2S
D Q3 5D Pass Pass Pass
C AKQ
Open Room Closed Room
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
N 4 7 T J N 4 7 T ST 9-HT Q K
E 5 8 K-C2 E 5 8 A-DK-H6 2 C2 D4
S K-S5 3 A S-CK-S2 3 Q 4 5 CQ S4
W-C3 A-D7 S3-HA W 3 A-D6 5 3 J-HA-H7
Contract Results for NS IMP Total IMP
Open Room 4S/S -100 7 12
Closed Room 5D/E -400 14
Comment: I don't know what signal Boyd-Robinson used. If using the
standard suit preference signal, East should play C2 at trick 1
because it's crystally clear that West has a singleton club and C2
makes the suit preference more clear, though it doesn't matter on this
board.
In closed room, Burger made a mistake. The hearts might break 5-1. If
that's the case Burger shouldn't lead the H6 because South might have
singleton K, Q, T or 9. If he led H6, which was covered by singleton
K, Q, T or 9, then it would leave dummy with J873 and North with KQT4
and declarer was unable to get a heart trick.
Board 6 North Open Room
Dlr: E S J743 West North East South
Vul: EW H A74 Boyd Passell RobinsonSeamon
D JT6 Pass Pass
C 832 1C Pass 1S Pass
West East 2C Pass 2D Pass
S K65 S AQ982 2H Pass 4S Pass
H Q H KT62 Pass Pass
D A973 D 842
C AKJ54 C 6 Closed Room
South West North East South
S T Cayne Goldman Burger Soloway
H J9853 Pass Pass
D KQ5 1C Pass 1S Pass
C QT97 2D Pass 2H Pass
2S Pass 4S Pass
Pass Pass
Open Room Closed Room
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
N 6 3 2 A-S4 8 7 3 4 N 6 3 2 A-C8 T 7 4 J S7
E 2 6 D4 2 8 S2-H6 A-HK E 2 6 D8 2 D4 S2-HK-H6 S8-HT
S-DK T 7 3 T 9 8 H5 9 S-D5 2 9 3 Q-DK 8 9 Q J
W A-CA-CK-HQ K-C4 S5-S6 D3 W A-CA-CK-HQ 5 3 D7 S5-D9 S6
Contract Scores for NS IMP Total IMP
Open Room 4S/E -620 12
Closed Room 4S/E -620 14
Comment: The declarer play in open room was straightforward. The
defence in closed room was interesting. My guess is that, Goldman
thought that Soloway led D5 from Qxx, which gave him an impression
that declarer had QT98x Kxxx Kxx x or AT98x Jxxx Kxx x. Suppose
declarer had QT98x Kxxx Kxx x, then declarer had 2 club tricks, 2
diamond tricks, 1 heart trick and at least 5 trump tricks (ruff the
fourth heart with SK and leave QT98 in hand). Suppose declarer had
AT982 Jxxx Kxx x, declarer had 2 club tricks, 2 diamond tricks and
needed 6 trumps tricks, which could be provided by cross-ruffing. In
any event, the contract seemed icy cold. So I guess Goldman was trying
to confuse declarer. E.g., Declarer had QT98x Kxxx Kxx x. Being afraid
of bad split in clubs, declarer might ruff the club with S8. Then
after HK, ruff a heart in dummy, DK, ruff the last heart with SK,
declarer has to get two trumps tricks from QT92. Declarer might lead a
trump from dummy and play the SQ, which works when LHO has singleton J
or small or trumps break 3-2. Of course, it's a postmortem analysis
from a spectator's view. I really don't know why Goldman led a club at
trick 5.
Burger made a minor mistake at trick 9. His goal was to get 4 tricks
from
S K6 S AQ98
H -- H T
D 9 D --
C J4 C --
He should ruff D9 with SQ (though it's not likely that Soloway led a
diamond from Kx doubleton), ruff HT with SK, lead a trump from dummy
and cover RHO's any trump. Since there is a safety play available,
why not take the safe way?