oct10

too greedy and doubled 6NT for penalty. Such a double makes absolutely no sense unless he has the club ace-king! At last, Yuval Lubinski knew what was really going on, and he confidently bid Seven Spades . In case East doubled again, he was ready with a redouble! Some other Norths were less alert. At four tables the contract was 6NT (doubled, one down). In one case, North even redoubled 6NT! One could not find a single table where they played 6NT undoubled. It turns out that bridge players have become too greedy, doubling unnecessarily instead of just taking a huge plus when the opponents err and bid the wrong slam. The second deal occurred in the Open Pairs Finals A, playedduring the last day of competition. Mark-Lubinski were playing against Israeli Junior internationals Oren Toledano – Ami Zamir. Board 30, Dealer East, Vul None ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ Q54 82 JT74 Q963 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 9 KQJ5 Q95 KT852 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ AK82 AT974 A AJ4 ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ JT763 63 K8632 7 West North East South Zamir Lubinski Toledano Mark 1 ♥ 2 ♥ (1) 3♠ (2) 4♠ 4NT Pass 5♣ (3) Pass 5 ♦ (4) Pass 6♣ (5) Pass 7 ♥ Pass Pass 7♠ Dbl All Pass (1) Five spades + five cards in a minor suit (2) Splinter: spade shortage plus heart fit. (3) One or four keycards (out of five) (4) Asking about the queen of hearts. (5) I have the queen of heart, as well as the king of clubs. South’s fateful decision to enter the bidding with only four high-card points did not turn out well for his partnership. East-West would have probably bid seven hearts anyway. The success of this contract depends on declarer’s view on clubs (of course, no South player would be so stupid to lead his singleton club against a grand slam). The normal line of play without intervention is to start with dummy’s club ace. However, after South had shown a five-five distribution (Obviously, his second suit is diamonds), declarer would clearly have played North for the club queen. In fact, there are plenty of examples in bridge literature where such an intervention with a very weak hand merely provides declarer with a map of the distribution, helping him to make his contract. In a way, Yuval Lubinski was right when he saved at seven spades, as his opponents would have made seven hearts. However, this time the save was far too expensive (both sides were non-vulnerable). East-West took eight tricks in defense and scored +2000, which was worth 98.72% for them, while making seven hearts was worth “merely” 85.90%.