2010 ACBL NABC Orlando: Senior Knockout, R16, 4 of 4, Board 55 Hamman and Zia

Comments

1. BridgeHands says:
   November 29, 2010 at 6:43 am

   At the other table in the Closed Room, East went down one, doubled in 3 Spades – a risky proposition although South opened 1 Notrump and North held game-going values. In the Open Room, South began with 1 Club. After opponent Zia overcalled 1 Diamond with a reasonable suit, Hanna in North tried a “mixed raise,” showing Club support along with an invitational raise in Hearts. Sensing a Heart fit, Bob Hamman jumped to 4 Spades with his nice 8 card suit and neutral vulnerability. With 15 HCP and Spade tenaces behind Bob, South didn’t waste time making a double.

   On lead, Lebi begin with the Heart Ace and for some reason partner North gave an ambiguous signal with the Heart 5. What was that all about? So South switched to a Diamond Ace and continued with a second Diamond, figuring partner was looking for a ruff. Surprisingly, North-South were 3-3 and Hamman saw an opportunity to promote dummy’s fifth Diamond with the Club Ace entry.

   After ruffing with the Spade 10, Bob devised a sneaky play. Rather than trying a Spade finesse that was marked to fail, sneaky Bob floated the Spade 5, winning the trick! Oh-oh, next came the Spade Ace, smothering South’s Spade Jack. Now more than happy to eventually lose the Spade King to South, Bob used the precious Club Ace as an entry to Zia’s dummy hand. Playing the promoted Diamond trick Bob pitched his losing Heart.
   So with 5 tricks on the board and another 5 trump winners after South ruffed the dummy Diamond, Bob walked away with 10 tricks. Doubled and vulnerable, a BIG swing went to the Meltzer team: plus 790 instead of down 500 (the other table was 3 Spades doubled, down 1). And so the swing was 14 IMPs, allowing the Meltzer team to march home with the sun shinning on their head and shoulders.

   In retrospect, North’s errant signal on trick one seems to be “Exhibit One, the smoking gun, your Honor.” But once the defenders neither cashed out their Hearts nor removed the Club Ace entry from the dummy, the declarer found the ray of light to make a doomed contract.

   How about you? Would you have Bob Hamman’s flair, creative vision and steady nerves to play the Spade 5 instead of finessing a Spade to your Ace-Queen-Ten? If so, I’m sure Rose Meltzer and company would like to have a chat with you…

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   • Christel says:
     November 30, 2010 at 3:58 am

     that was about the worse defense I have ever seen by pros …. were they drunk? N couldn’t part with the 9 of H?
     Great example to show learners how important carding is …. and paying attention to it:)

     Reply
     • BridgeHands says:
       November 30, 2010 at 9:38 am

       Yes, postmortems offers us both bidding and play insights (both inspired and questionable) as well as provide insights for our future play. And while we are surprised to see professionals error, we should pause to consider some of the downsides of their tourney environment. It is possible the out of country pros are faced with long travel arrangement, face fatigue playing day after day, particularly in a different time zone and suffer from erratic sleep. Coupled with the pressure of playing in the Open Room against a world class team with thousand of viewers,it can be difficult to maintain an intense focus and targeted concentration.

       And to be sure, on the opening lead partner should have provided a very clear signal – certainly responder can afford to signal loudly. Another tip – when the dummy contains a 5 card suit with honors and entries, be particularly attentive when you hold a 3 card suit. Thirty six percent of the time partner will also hold a 3 card suit (suit breaks 5-3-3-2), a dangerous suit potentially allowing the declarer to setup the suit (ruff trick 4, pull trump, re-enter dummy and pitch a loser on the fifth card in the suit.

       Still, looking back on the hand, the final responsibility falls with the opening leader to set the contract. Having won 2 tricks in the red suit and holding the trump King-Jack-small behind the declarer, when declarer plays a small trump from a known long suit, the player should go up and win the Jack. True, partner *could* hold a winner and result in crashing honors but the risk-reward is too great not to win the trick (down 200 versus 500 points). Playing against one of the top players in the world (Bob Hamman), the defenders should sense the trap is being set

       So yes, we can profit from the lesson learned by both the declarer and defenders on this hand.

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