December
29, 2001 - Romania, represented by a team known as Romanian
Beauty, successfully defended its championship in the third
annual OKbridge Internet World Bridge Championship, defeating
the United States, represented by Speed Demons II, by 23 IMPs.
The 48-deal final was played on Dec. 22 and 29. Romania led
by 3 after 24 boards, then won both 12-board segments on the
29th.
For
the first time, all members of both teams played electronically
from their own homes. No player ever saw his or her opponents,
teammates or partner. In the two previous championships, the
finalists were brought to the site of the Fall North American
Championships of the American Contract Bridge League – Boston
in 1999 and Birmingham, Alabama, in 2000.
Playing
for Romania were four of the five players who won the 2000 championship
– Dorin Petre Musat, Serban Criscota, Alexandre Feber and Catalin
Popescu. Marion Radilescu, a champion in 2000, did not play
this year.
Spearheading
the United States team were Chip Martel and Lew Stansby, who
have won world championships in both the World Open Pairs and
the Bermuda Bowl. They played as a partnership some of the time,
and each also played with his wife, both of whom have several
North American championships to their credit. Jan Martel and
JoAnna Stansby both are experts in their own right. The team’s
third pair consisted of Marty Fleisher, the team captain, and
Ron Gerard.
Each
team received a prize of $5000 (US), and the Romanian champions
were awarded trophies as well. Each member of the Romanian team
was awarded 50 ACBL masterpoints, and each American will receive
37.5 points.
There
were two reasons why the Romanians won, according to Chip Martel.
“They were lucky and they played better than we did.”
On
several occasions Romania got to the contract that made while
the Americans wound up in a poor contract that failed. The following
hand set the tone for the second half.
Board 28 S A K Q J 6 4
Dlr:
West H
A 3
Vul: Both D
T 5 3
C K 2
S 9 8 7 S T 3 2
H Q 8 7 H T 6 4
D K 8 7 2
D A Q
C 8 6 4 C A 9 7 5 3
S 5
H K J 9 5 2
D J 9 6 4
C Q J T
West
North
East
South
Lew
Stansby
Musat
Chip Martel
Criscota
Pass
1C
Pass
1S
Pass
1NT
Pass
2C
Pass
2S
Pass
2NT
Pass
3NT
All Pass
Romania
was using a forcing club system with lots of gadgets, so the
first four bids were artificial. The first natural bid was Musat’s
two spades. Musat decided his hand was fine for notrump when
Criscota was able to bid two notrump naturally. Martel made
the normal lead, a club, and Criscota played back a second club
to set up his 10th trick – plus 630 for Romania.
West
North
East
South
Popescu
Fleisher
Feber
Gerard
Pass
1S
Pass
1NT
Pass
2NT
Pass
3H
Pass
3S
Pass
3NT
Pass
4H
All Pass
Fleisher
knew Gerard was very short in spades. As a result of Gerard’s
three heart bid, Fleisher thought his ace doubleton of hearts
would be a major help in a heart contract. So, after bidding
spades a second time and getting a three notrump response, he
decided on the heart game.
Popescu
led a club to partner’s ace, and Feber cashed his top diamonds
to establish book. He switched back to a club, and Gerard went
after hearts the normal way, cashing the ace and then finessing.
After winning his heart queen, Popescu cashed his diamond king
and led a fourth diamond, enabling his partner to score his
heart 10. Down three – 14 IMPs to Romania.
Bridge
writers often use an x to denote a small card, but sometimes
holding a 7 instead of a 6 can make all the difference in the
world. Look at this deal from late in the match when Romania
held an 11-IMP lead.
Board
44 S --
Dlr: West H
A Q 8 7 3
Vul: None D
A Q T 8 3
C 6 5 4
S A J 7 2
S T 9
H 4 2
H T 9 6
5
D K 9 D
7 6 5 4
C A Q T 8 3 C J 9 7
S K Q 8 6 5 4 3
H K J
D J 2
C K 2
West
North
East
South
Jan
Martel
Musat
Chip Martel
Criscota
1C
2NT
Pass
3H
All
Pass
Musat
showed the red suits with two notrump, and Criscota chose hearts
despite his strong spade suit. Musat was not excited by Criscota’s
minimum response, so he passed.
Criscota
won the trump opening lead with the jack and led the spade queen.
Jan put up the ace, but Criscota did not ruff – he discarded
a club to maintain dummy’s heart length. When Jan led another
trump, declarer quickly cashed the spade king, sluffing another
club from dummy. Next came the diamond jack, covered and won.
Criscota then cashed two more trumps and all his diamonds, finally
losing a club at the end. Making five for plus 200.
West
North
East
South
Popescu
JoAnna Stansby
Feber
Lew Stansby
1NT
2H
Pass
3S
Pass
4S
All
Pass
JoAnna
showed hearts and a minor with her two heart overall. Lew’s
bid showed long spades with little interest in any other suit.
JoAnna raised to game on her void, expecting slightly better
spades from her partner.
Lew
won the opening heart lead and immediately went after diamonds.
When Popescu covered the jack, Lew won and attempted to cash
two more, pitching a club – but Popescu ruffed in with the deuce.
He cashed the club ace and continued with the queen, ruffed.
Stansby led the spade 5, won by Feber with the 9. Feber could
have gained another trick by returning his last diamond to set
up two more trump tricks for his partner. But he actually chose
to lead the club jack. Stansby ruffed and drove out the trump
ace – down one for a 6-IMP loss.
But
let’s see what happens if Lew held the spade 7 instead of the
6. He would win the opening lead and immediately attack trumps,
leading the king. When he regained the lead he would cash the
spade queen. The 10 would fall, and his only other loser would
be the jack of trumps. Making game would mean a gain of 6 IMPs
instead of a loss of 6. The United States would have trailed
by 5 instead of 17.
Romania
was much more aggressive than the United States on the next
board, and it paid off handsomely.
Board
45 S T 4
Dlr: North H K 3
Vul: E-W D
A 8 7 6 5
C Q J 6 4
S A Q 8 7 6 S K J
H A 5 H
J T 8 4 2
D K Q 4 D J 3
C K 7 3 C T 9 8 2
S 9 5 3 2
H Q 9 7 6
D T 9 2
C A 5
West
North
East
South
Jan
Martel
Musat
Chip Martel
Criscota
Pass
Pass
Pass
1S
Pass
Pass!
Pass
Chip
had two spade honors and six high card points. Why did he pass
one spade? He had his reasons.
“It
looked as if we were losing,” he said. “We were down by 8 going
into the last 12 boards, and the opponents got to a good diamond
slam on the first board of the last set.
Nothing much good had happened to date, so I figured passing
was a decent way to play for a swing (I had six high card points,
three of them were jacks. My ploy sort of worked – it created
a swing.
“Even
if I bid there is no guarantee we would have gotten to game.
Partner
would have bid two notrump showing 18-19. Would I have carried
on to game? I don’t know.
”Note also that if you reverse partner's minors (king-queen-small
in clubs, king and two small in diamonds), game is a poor gamble.
This result was typical of the match -- when the opponents were
pushy, the cards meshed well and the opposing cards were
friendly. When we were pushy, the opposite was true.”
West
North
East
South
Popescu
JoAnna Stansby
Feber
Lew Stansby
Pass
Pass
Pass
1S
1NT
Pass
2D
Dbl
Pass
2H
Pass
2NT
Pass
3NT
All Pass
JoAnna
tried the unusual notrump. Popescu showed his powerful hand
by doubling Lew’s two diamond response. Feber bid his five-card
heart suit, and Popescu bid an invitational two notrump. Feber
reassessed his hand – the spade honors might solidfy that suit,
and partner had shown strength in both minors. The diamond jack
and the 10-9-8 of clubs probably would pull their weight as
well. So he accepted the invitation and bid game.
He
was right on all counts. His honors solidified spades for five
tricks, and his diamond jack helped provide two tricks in that
suit. The heart ace was the eighth trick. Everything depended
on the club situation. It was likely that JoAnna had the ace
for her one notrump bid, but Popescu had little choice. He led
a club and put up the king. It held! He had his vulnerable game
for a 10-IMP pickup that just about cinched the championship
– Romania now led by 27 with three boards to go. After two push
boards the Americans scored 4 IMPs on the final deal, leaving
Romania as champions by 23 IMPs.
