Tops and Bottoms in the World Mixed Pairs

    by George Klemic, Bensenville IL

In October, I played in one event in the World Series of Bridge Championships in Philadelphia. I would have liked to do more, but all of the major events run quite long. That plus travel issues, vacation time, etc., led me to just play in the mixed pairs. I played with infrequent partner Diana Miller. There are many hands worthy of writing up, but I thought I would start with this tops-and-bottoms approach. 

One of the nice things about world championships is that they are run with everything in place -- all pre-duplicated boards, screens even in the first round, scoring across the entire field, instant results and an early recap sheet in the last round so you can check your scores. Given the across-the-field scoring, the initial rounds had a top of 414 and the "Mixed Plate" consolation event had a top of 206 (the international method is used, where a tie is 1 and a win is 2 matchpoints per board). 

Generally, in this form of scoring, it is very hard to get a cold top or a cold bottom. However, we did in fact get one cold top, but also scattered amongst the weekend results were a number of near tops and bottoms. I have put the cutoff at 2 matchpoints from either 0% or 100%. This gives me five hands (out of 156 for the three-day weekend) that qualified as near tops or bottoms. That's a fair number of hands with swing results, especially considering that we're just playing a standard two-over-one system with strong notrumps!

In all cases, the table screens split the pairs so that North and East were on one side and South and West were on the other. The rules dictated that men always sit North and West.

 Qualifying 2
 Board  20
 Dealer: North

 ♠J987643

 9543

 9

 ♣7

 

♠K2

AQT6

862

♣AQJ3

 

♠T

K82

J753

♣T9642

 

 ♠AQ5

 ♥J7

 AKQT4

 ♣K85

 

 

 West    North
 (me)  
  East    South  
1NT Pass Pass DBL
Pass 2S Pass Pass
DBL

All Pass

 

Opening Lead:  Club 2 (3rd/5th leads)

 

It was interesting to watch this auction as the bidding tray passed under the screen from one side of the table to the other. As North, I first saw the tray come with a 1NT opening. We are playing Cappeletti, and though I might find a 3S call, I know partner might not be in on the joke ... plus, it's not clear this will really help, as the only thing it rates to do is make it more difficult for East-West to find their heart fit, and if they do, I really don't mind. Once East passed (Emma Sjoberg, one of the Swedish junior women players), I knew my partner was likely to come back with a double, and sure enough, I was right. I chose a simple 2S, as it's not clear what kind of hand partner might hold. It continued back around, and I can't say I minded seeing the West's double. What worried me is whether or not partner might try running, but she was very happy with her hand. At this point, it's pretty clear that West intended his bid as takeout, but his partner, short in spades, figured it was business!

 

Looking single dummy at the hand, even with the foulest of layouts, I am ice cold for eight tricks and it's exceedingly likely I'll take nine. So I decided now to play with house money for 10 tricks. I put up dummy's K at trick one because I want clubs continued, not a heart switch. Sure enough, West bit on it and led Q at trick two, ruffed. Now came three rounds of diamonds, discarding two hearts from my hand. A fourth diamond finds West with nothing useful to do -- a low ruff means no trump winners, and a high ruff just lets me discard another heart. In practice, he pitched a side loser, and then I played a spade up with East following, I flew with the ♠A and played the fifth diamond to claim ten tricks, losing just one natural heart and the trump king whenever West wanted to take it.

 

Plus 1070 was in fact a cold top, 414/414. Plus 870 would have also been the same score.

 

 Consolation I
 Board 7
 Dealer: West

 ♠J

 K765

 A53

 ♣A8762

 

♠T7653

JT32

JT

♣54

 

♠KQ2

Q4

86

♣KQJT93

 

 ♠A984

 A98

 KQ9742

 ♣ --

 

 

 West
  (me)  
 North     East    South  
      1D
Pass 1H 2C DBL

  All Pass

Opening lead:  Diamond Queen (Rusinow)

North found an awesome bid. Instead of bidding 2C (not sure of their methods) to show his values, he responded 1H, which allowed my partner to bid a natural 1C. South's double showed 3-card heart support and North chose to pass.

2C can be held to just five trump tricks, but that's not quite how it unfolded. Here's how the play went:

Trick 1)  Q wins

Trick 2)  A wins

Trick 3)  A wins

Trick 4)  K wins

Trick 5)  K to the A (note fall of the J)

Trick 6)  K, ruffed

Tricks 7-9) Three clubs, all winners

Tricks 10-13) Four spades, all winners (South had let loose a spade somewhere in the play)

 

The result was plus 380, which scored 204 matchpoints on a 206 top.

 

 Consolation I
 Board 8
 Dealer: West

 ♠JT5

 AQJ43

 JT

 ♣J94

 

K986

T7

95

♣Q7652

 

♠72

952

AKQ72

♣AK108

 

 ♠AQ432

 K86

 8643

 ♣3

 

 

 West
 (me)  
 North     East    South  
Pass Pass 1D 1S
Pass 2D 3C Pass
Pass 3S Pass Pass
4C DBL All Pass

Opening lead:  Heart 6

I will note that this was against the same pair that had allowed us to score plus 380 on the previous deal, but that didn't influence my decision to bid 4C. At none vulnerable, it seemed pretty clear. It's possible we could get plus 300 if I doubled 3S, but 4C had many ways to win. It was actually correct here, as the DeepFinesse analyzer says ten tricks in clubs (which we took) and eight tricks for them if they declare spades, so 3S doubled only nets plus 100 instead of the anticipated plus 130. The double, of course, changed that to +510, which gave us matching 204's (on a 206 top). The opponents did not seem very happy at the end of the round.

 Consolation I
 Board 9
 Dealer: North

♠AKQ8

KQ83

AJ8

♣63

 

♠J532

A7

43

♣KT752

 

♠6

6542

KQ75

♣AQ84

 

♠T974

JT9

T962

♣J9

 

 

 West
 (me)  
 North     East    South  
  1D Pass Pass
2C Pass 2D Pass
2S Pass 3NT Pass
Pass DBL All Pass

Opening lead:  Diamond 10

We got lucky on the lead and escaped for down one. On a lead of either major suit, the defense can score seven tricks. It apparently didn't matter, as our minus 200 scored two matchpoints on a 206 top. This hand was one of the few where it was costly to not have a regular partnership. I suppose with my hand I needed to forget about trying for a 4-4 fit. I should have assumed partner guaranteed support and just rebid 2C to show the minimum.

 Consolation II
 Board 18
 Dealer: East

♠AQJ8632

--

7

♣KT864

 

♠75

KJ864

AQ6

♣AJ9

 

♠K4

Q93

K109854

♣Q2

 

 ♠T9

 AT752

 J32

 ♣753

 

 

 West
 (me)  
 North     East    South
    Pass Pass
1NT 4S DBL All Pass

Opening lead:  Heart 3

First, we got off to a non-ideal lead, allowing declarer to discard his diamond. Then, after declarer ran the ♠10 to the ♠K, pard led the ♣Q and I erred in thinking a bit long, then winning the ♣A. Declarer was able to identify the situation and finesse my ♣J to only lose one trick in the suit. Our minus 990 scored only 1 matchpoint on a 206 top. Minus 790 scores a little better, but not much.