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More
than 1 million dollars was in the prize pool for the 2007
Cavendish Invitational Pairs in Las Vegas. The winners (for the
3rd time) were Bobby Levin & Steve Weinstein. To read more,
see the Cavendish
website.
There were some good "technical"
deals, but for me, the most fun was this exhibit:
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Dlr: East
Vul: E-W
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North
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♠
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10985432
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♥
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J73
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♦
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--
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♣
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J32
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West
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East
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♠
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A7
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♠
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Q
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♥
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64
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♥
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AKQ1082
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♦
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AKQ
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♦
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J98654
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♣
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AKQ1098
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♣
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--
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South
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♠
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KJ6
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♥
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95
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♦
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10732
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♣
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7654
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Obviously, East-West have a grand slam in either red suit. The
best contract is 7NT, which is 100% on any lead and any lie of the
cards. 7♦
could go down on a bad day if the defense
can ruff the opening heart lead, and 7♥
could also go down if there was a heart loser.
I was curious to see if all 28 tables would reach this grand
slam. Some Easts opened the bidding 4♥
and their partner used RKC
and drove to 7NT upon learning of the 2 keycards and the ♥Q.
At other tables, East opened 1♥
and West responded 2♣.
Most Norths took advantage of the favorable vulnerability to jump
to 3♠
. East, with 6-6 now took another
call (some 4♦
and some 4♥).
South raised to 4♠
and West was checking the back of the cards.
That's a lot of bidding when West has a prime 22-count! Most Wests
at this point just bid 7NT. They knew the opponents must have the
top spade pictures, so that meant partner had everything else.
I wondered, would everyone bid the grand? I looked at the
scores after the session. Out of 28 tables, how many would you
guess reached seven?
Did you guess all 28? You are right. Not all played in notrump,
but since this was IMP scoring, it didn't make a big difference.
At your local duplicate, do you think it would have been a flat
board in 7NT? I doubt it!
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website
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