Play Hard, Play Well:  US Team Trials!
–Robert S. Todd

After playing a few tune-up days at the Palm Beach Regional with Sam Marks I was ready to play some good bridge.  I flew to Chicago prepared as I could be for my first US Team Trials.  The scene was inspiring.  There were great bridge players everywhere and you could tell that even the best were a little anxious to get the competition underway.    

My partner, Chris Moll, and I volunteered to sit out the first match for our team and we were pleased to see them come through with a win.  The second match was our team bye, so Chris and I didn’t see action until the third round.  We were anxious to get started in the battle.  The first board out of the box put us to the test immediately.  

Dealer: South                            ♠ AKJxx

All Vul.                                     ♥ 98xxx

IMPs                                        ♦ x

♣ AK

♠ 10x

                                                ♥ AJ10

♦ AKQxxx

♣ Jx

  
The Auction was uncontested.
1♦ -- 1♠
3♦ -- 3♥
3N-- 4♣
4♥ -- 6N!

Notes on the Auction
3♦ showed a good hand (my partner and I are conservative about these rebids.)      
3♥ showed at least 5-4 in the Majors.
3N denied a Major suit fit.
4♣ was a cuebid.
4♥ was delayed support for ♥.
My 6N bid was aggressive, but even if we didn’t have a ♥ control I hoped the opponents couldn’t find a ♥ lead on this auction.

The slam is not lay down, but not a disaster either.
The lead was a small ♣.  Plan your play!

First, we need to bring in the ♥ suit (split honors or both onside third.)  Then we need to combine as many chances as possible in ♦ and ♠ in order to obtain our 12^th trick.

Here is how the play went:
1:  ♣ x A x x                 (+1)
2:  ♥ x x 10 K              (-1)
3:  ♣ x K x J                 (+2)
4:  ♥ x Q A x                (+3)
5:  ♥10 ♥x ♥x ♣x         (+4)

 So the ♥ suit has come in, now we need to find our 12^th trick.  We start by crossing to the ♠A (hoping to find a singleton ♠Q) and then we cash our ♥ tricks. 
6:  ♠ x x A x                 (+5)
7:  ♥9 ♣x ♦x ♣x           (+6)
8:  ♥8 ♠4 ♦x ♣x            (+7)
We can afford to discard two diamonds on the long ♥ since we only need four ♦ tricks to make our contract.

Now we hope to find 3-3♦.
9:  ♦ x x A x                 (+8)
10: ♦K ♦10 ♠x ♦x         (+9)
11: ♦Q ♣x ♠x ♦x          (+10)

When the ♦ suit failed to break we are left with the following end position:  ♠KJ opposite ♠x ♦x.  We have seen all 13 ♣.  RHO is known to hold one ♠ and the ♦J while LHO is known to hold two ♠. 

Partner played a ♠ to the J and took 12 tricks: +13 IMPs.  Well Done!

The complete hand was

                                                ♠ AKJ62

                                                ♥ 98632

                                                ♦ 4

♣ AK

♠ Q85                                                              ♠ 974

♥ K75                                                              ♥ Q4

♦ 102                                                               ♦ J987

♣ Q8653                                                         ♣ 10972 

♠ 103

                                                ♥ AJ10

♦ AKQ653

♣ J4

 
My first time at the US Team Trials was not a success for our team.  But I enjoyed the event tremendously and learned a lot about what to expect from the best players in the country.  I’m sure I’ll be back to play in the Trials many more times and I expect things only to get better from here.