Swiss cheese
For the last weekend in San Diego, I played the North American Swiss Teams with my Canadian friends-Jonathan Steinberg, Toronto ON; Daniel Korbel, Waterloo ON and Maurice de La Salle, Edmonton AB.
Michael, Jonathan, Daniel and Maurice.
The NA Swiss had a large-145 teams and strong field. It was two qualifying, two semifinal and two final sessions over three days. Only 36 teams made the cut into the final. On the third day, the huge ballroom playing area at the Manchester Grand Hyatt looked like a Swiss cheese after so many teams had been eliminated.
It was tough going in the final and we finished in 19th place.
There were bright spots. Here is a hand Maurice and I bid to the grand slam in hearts.
Board 2. Dealer East. N-S Vulnerable.
I was West and held. ♠ 8 ♥ A987 ♦ K953 ♣ A642
This was the auction.
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♥ | 1♠ | ||
| 2♠ | Pass | 3♠ | Pass |
| 3NT* | Pass | 4♣ | Pass |
| 4♦ | Pass | 4♠ | Pass |
| 5♦ | Pass | 7♥ | Pass |
| Pass | Pass |
*3NT was slam try.
4♣ and 4♦ cue bids, 4♠ was kickback-RKC for hearts.
Maurice bid the grand after he found out I held A♥ K♦ and A♣ .
These are the hands.
| Dealer: East
Vul: N-S |
North | ||||
| ♠ | 762 | ||||
| ♥ | 62 | ||||
| ♦ | Q62 | ||||
| ♣ | J8753 | ||||
| West Michael |  |
East Maurice | |||
| ♠ | 8 | ♠ | AQ54 | ||
| ♥ | A987 | ♥ | KQJ1043 | ||
| ♦ | K953 | ♦ | A107 | ||
| ♣ | A642 | ♣ | |||
| South | |||||
| ♠ | KJ1093 | ||||
| ♥ | 5 | ||||
| ♦ | J84 | ||||
| ♣ | KQ109 | ||||
South made the best lead of a heart but it was to no avail. Maurice won in dummy with the seven, crossed to the spade ace, ruffed a spade then used two club ruffs as entries to ruff the rest of the spades. Only then used the diamond ace to draw trumps. Discarded the diamond loser on the club ace. Well played.
* click on Next to see the movie.
Making thirteen tricks for +1510 to win 11 imps. Our opponents stopped in the small slam.
The high power team of Carolyn Lynch, Scottsdale AZ; Mike Passell, Las Vegas NV; Cezary Balicki, Smolec Poland; Andrew Gromov – Aleksander Dubinin, Moscow Russia; Adam Zmudzinski, Katowice 40-479 Poland. Won the event running away. They started the final day of play with a carry over of 40 VP! Everybody else spent the day playing for second.
Big Thank You to Maurice, Jonathan and Daniel for the game and a nice weekend.
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Bridge-related
I think getting there won the board. Was anything in your auction blackwood or Maurice must have been happy to see the HA in dummy.
I know you’d have liked to do better, but just getting to the final day is no small feat.
Hey Linda, 4S by Maurice was Kickback – A variation of Roman Keycard Blackwood using one suit above four of the partnership’s agreed trump suit as a keycard asking bid. My 5D reply said I had 2 key card with heart as trump.
hey Dave, I am happy with our game, also enjoyed your company.
Nice bid hand Michael 🙂 Also I liked your essay about the game against Zia The Great !