From Dublin: Hands from the Buffett Cup

By Patrick Jourdain and the Daily Bulletin staff at the Warren Buffett Cup

The Warren Buffett Cup, held right before that infernal biennial golf match the Americans can't seem to win these days against Europe, was interesting. The Europeans worked well as pairs and teams, but suffered mightily in the individual.

This year's event, held in Dublin, Ireland, saw the US win by 23 matches, BAM scoring.

Here is a report from the Pairs segment in Day 1..

There were a couple of tables at which 3§ was made, so Bocchi did not achieve that great a result here as he struggled to down two, but there was nothing he could have done about it.

Hampson led the ªqueen of spades to the king and ace and Gitelman returned a low spade to the jack. The diamond switch went to the king and ace and now came a spade ruff. Hampson exited passively with a diamond, for Bocchi to ruff, and declarer played §A and a club to the jack then a heart up.When Gitelman played low, Bocchi had two heart losers, so only seven tricks and –100.

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In Session 3, Board 30 proved crucial in the set where Berkowitz and Cohen, playing against the twins, were comparing with the table where Daniela von Arnim and Sabine Auken were at the table with Steve Weinstein and Bobby Levin. There were points of interest in both bidding and play.

The par for the deal is +140 to North/South playing a heart partscore. East/West can be held to seven tricks in spades, though it requires a perfect defence to manage it, so in theory, if they press on to 3ª North/South might get +300.

There were some interesting differences in style at three tables featured. South always opened 1¨, though For Cohen/Berkowitz it was Precision,West overcalled 1ª and North bid 2©, irrespective as to whether it was forcing (Berkowitz and Helness) or non-forcing (Auken). In typical mode, Justin made a pre-emptive raise on the East cards whereas Levin initially passed and then competed when Weinstein re-opened with a double.

At two tables, North/South pressed on to 5¨, apparently too high, whereas von Arnim doubled Three Spades, the theoretical best spot for her if they could take it two off. Let's see how the three managed in the play….

Auken led a club against 3ª doubled. South played three rounds of the suit, choosing the TWO on the third round to ask for a diamond back. North ruffed with the singleton jack of trumps, and dutifully played a diamond to South's ace, and back came the singleton heart. That looked a sound defence, but Weinstein had the answer to keep his losses to one trick. He put on the ace, ruffed his winning club to reach dummy, and picked up the trumps with the finesse; 100 to N/S.

The defence to achieve two down is for South to play the singleton heart BEFORE giving North the club ruff. Declarer can win the ace, and prevent North from getting a ruff by playing ace and another trump, but only at the expense of South getting two trumps instead. South can win the second trump, underlead the diamond, and receive a heart ruff.The defence makes the two clubs, a heart, a diamond and two trumps.

So now let's put the spotlight on the two tables where South was in 5¨. If West simply cashes his two aces, East's trump trick sets the game. But both Wests led a club from the queen.The jack won in dummy, and two more rounds of the suit disposed of dummy's spade.A heart came next, and both Wests rose with the ace to find the only play to give declarer a problem… the fourth club, in this position:

Both declarers ruffed the fourth club with the jack of trumps. At the table where Larry Cohen was declarer, Justin Hackett over-ruffed and returned a spade to the king and ace and a ruff in dummy. Dummy had only two trumps left. Cohen ruffed a heart. Now, if both red suits were breaking he could play ace and king of trumps and enjoy the hearts.

Knowing that West had at least nine black cards, Cohen delayed his decision by playing a low trump first. At this point if West had no hearts and ¨10x left it would be necessary to finesse the nine of trumps and ruff another heart high to establish dummy. But Cohen accurately played for West to have one card in each of the red suits. He put on the trump king and led hearts from the top. One spade went away on the heart king, and when East ruffed the next he over-ruffed and ruffed his last spade. 5¨ was home. For the USA it was a win on the board and a win in the set by just half-a-point. Phew!

At the table where Helgemo was declarer in the diagrammed ending, he also ruffed the fourth club with the jack of trumps but Hampson, East, pitched a spade. Helgemo cashed the king of trumps and king of hearts ditching one of his spades, ruffed a heart to set up the suit, drew a second trump with the ace, ruffed a spade, and led a winning heart. East ruffed with his master trump, but declarer's last spade disappeared on this trick and he could claim the game.

While Fred is flying about playing, lecturing bridge teachers on using Bridge Base Online for classes, and updating the software of BBO to do more, he reminds us that Bridge Master 2000 is available for those who wish to improve their declarer play.

There are two versions of the software: one for less experienced players (Audrey Grant's Better Bridge Edition), and the regular 180 hand set (Standard Edition). Both are available directly from Bridge Base at their website (www.bridgebase.com) or from your local bridge supply house. Refill sets for Bridge Base 2000 are also available through the Bridge Base website or local bridge supply house.