Cavendish John Roberts Teams

This year’s winners are Jim Mahaffey, Mike Passell, Sam Lev, Jacek Pszczola, Jie Zhao and Zhong Fu by 1 Victory Point!

With one round to play O’Rouke had 175 VP, Mahaffey in second place had 151 VP. Seems the leaders will hold on to win. To win this event Mahaffey had to blitz their last round opponents and O’Rouke, Jacobus, Hampson, Rodwell, Levin and Weinstein had to not lose by more then 15 imps in their match. Then it happened, Mahaffey blitz and O’Rouke lost by 17 imps. 

The Chinese Pair of Zhao and Fu played very well in the last round to contribute to their teams’ victory.

They are long time China nation open team members. 2006 was a very good year for Zhao and Fu. First they won the the Vanderbilt in Dallas playing with Fred Chang, Gunnar Hallberg and Seymon Deutsch. Then they followed that up by winning the World Open Pairs in Verona.

Board 20. Dealer West, North-South Vul.

	Fu
	♠ AKQ73
	♥ 742
	◊A102
West	♣ K8	East
♠J1052		♠ 86
♥ 9853		♥ J106
◊ K9		◊ QJ8653
♣1064	Zhao	♣ 32
	♠ 94
	♥ AKQ
	◊ 74
	♣ AQJ975

 

 

This was the auction.

 

West	North	East	South
pass	1S	pass	2C
pass	2NT	pass	3C
pass	3D	DBL	pass
pass	RDBL	pass	3H
pass	3S	pass	4H
pass	4NT	pass	5S
pass	5NT	pass	7C
pass	7NT	All pass

 

The auction is of some interest.

Fu opened the north hand one spade as his hand was suit orientated. Zhao’s two club bid was game forcing. Two no trumps was waiting and three club shown extra length. Three diamond was cuebid and club interest. Pass of the double of three diamond was forward going. Redouble promised first round diamond control. Three heart cuebid, three spade cuebid, four heart cuebid. Four no trumps Roman Key Card for clubs, five spade shown two key cards and the club queen. Five no trumps asked for kings and also said that they had all the key cards and invite seven. Seven club said we have what we need. Seven no trumps was a very thoughtful bid as Fu knew they needed all the imps they can get for a blitz. 

As you can see there are 13 winners and gained 13 imps.

In the other room the north-south pair had a lazy auction to six no trumps.

West	North	East	South
pass	1NT*	pass	4C**
pass	4S***	pass	6NT
pass	pass	pass

* 1NT 14-16 points

** 4C Gerber

*** Two aces

The Cavendish Invitation Pairs started play to-day and is carried live on BBO

Total auction pool is $958,500. The favorites are Levin and Weinstein went for $61,000. Hampson and Rodwell, last year’s winners went for $55,000 and the third highest pair are Helgemo and Helness went for $50,000. They were all bought by Jim Mahaffey.