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Daily Bridge in New Zealand
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Matt Brown.
Success at Atlanta for Matt Brown.
Kiwi successes in American National competitions are a rarity. So, we can salute the recent achievement of Matthew Brown who was in the team which won the Mixed Swiss Teams on the last two days of the ACBL Fall Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month.
Matt’s team consisted of US based players John McAllister, Lilly Justman, Sophia Baldysz along with our currently UK based international representative. Matt and Sophia had only met briefly before they started playing in this event. Some Kiwis may remember John who visited New Zealand a few years ago playing bridge and promoting a documentary he had made called "Double Dummy", set at a Youth World Championship, with the aim of encouraging young people to play bridge.
Lilly Justman, John McAllister, Sophia Baldysz and Matt
The Mixed Swiss Teams event consisted of 86 teams which was reduced to 44 after the first day at which point the McAllister team were in 6th place. However, they finished strongly as was demonstrated by the scores at the end with McAllister on 140.41 vps while the second placed team was on 117.13.
Hand dealing at major events in the USA is still common and the players in this event did hand deal during the first day. This board came early on Day 1 and demonstrated a big level of trust in a brand new partnership:
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South Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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Matt |
Sophia |
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1 ♦ |
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Pass |
2 ♦ |
Pass |
2 NT |
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Pass |
3 ♠ |
Pass |
4 ♥ |
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Pass |
4 ♠ |
Pass |
4 NT |
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Pass |
5 ♣ |
Pass |
6 ♦ |
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All pass |
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1
was better minor and Matt chose to game force in diamonds rather than bid his heart suit. 2NT showed holds in both majors while Matt’s 3
showed shortness in spades.
4
and 4 were both cue-bids, the latter implying a void. 4 also implied a control in clubs or else Matt would have signed off in game. Sophia checked for key-cards, got a 1 or 4 response and bid the diamond slam.
West led a small trump. Sophia won with J to play two top clubs and then ruffed a club. When the 
Q fell, she cashed A and dummy was high except for the K, making 6 and gaining 12 imps when the opposition stopped in 4.
Matt commented that was great understanding for a partnership only 12 boards old. It was certainly a great result for the team.
Richard Solomon
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