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well, across the Tasman, actually!

Good Timing on Gold Coast.

There’s nearly 200 Kiwis enjoying themselves this week at the Gold Coast Congress. Condolences to those who could not make it because of the weather back home.  Here’s hoping there are some success stories, too. At the time of writing, GeO Tislevoll and Liam Milne are leading in the top section of the Bobby Richman Open Pairs.

Here’s an awkward little slam which some found themselves in.

 

After East opened, they were pushed to slam by their partner. As East, you receive J lead from South. What is your plan?

If diamonds broke and the Q could either be finessed or appear in three rounds through ruffing a heart, then you could afford a spade loser. A few if’s in that. So, maybe win and take an immediate trump finesse. It works, or seems to. Another option is that with North holding K, you will have 12 tricks. That seems better than relying on diamonds. However, disaster would strike if you play A and a second club as this was the lay-out:

 

No joy in relying on the red suits this time. Also, if declarer played a second round of trumps before playing on clubs, they would fail too as when in South could draw a third round of trumps, leaving East with two club losers.

The winning line seems to be to lead dummy’s small club at trick 3. There does not seem much cost in this. South can win but cannot damage declarer who can win the return, say, the club continuation, play a second round of spades and ruff their third club in comfort.

"E" for "Enjoyment

We all like to try our best at the table but this Gold Coast Congress is about enjoyment too…and none could demonstrate that better than the lively group from Kaikoura who are over here…and, they will have a good time!

Kiwis at the Coast

As stated, GeO Tislevoll and Liam Milne have a slender 1% lead in the A Final of the Bobby Richman Open Pairs. In 5^th place are Pamela Nisbet and Jan Cormack. 11^th equal are Jenny Millington and Barry Jones and in 14^th place Liz and Blair Fisher. There is one more round of 27 boards to be played.

In the Restricted Pairs A Final, Margie Robbie and Jenni Borren are in 3^rd place and Jan Bennett and Derek Bartosh in 9^th place. Sue Hunt and Sue Skarupsky lead the C Final. In the D Final Trish Clearwater and Viv Murray are in 3^rd place with Sue Solomons and Craig Shannahan 4^th.

Final results of the Weekend Matchpoint Swiss Pairs saw Linda Cartner and Jonathan Westoby 4^th, Anne Somerville and Murat Genc 5^th and Gary Foidl and Yuzhong Chen 7^th. In the 0-500 MP category, Tim Rigter and Rochelle Van Heuven led going into their last match but dropped to 8^th.

Final results of the Pairs tomorrow.

Richard Solomon

 

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