The Digital Fountain Hand of the Year
Player: David Berkowitz (USA)
Journalist: Jody Latham (USA)
Bulletin 431 p.3;ACBL Nationals at Birmingham,Alabama Nov 2000
Larry Cohen and David Berkowitz appeared to be on their way to victory in the Blue Ribbon Pairs when they had a monumental 69% game in the first final session.They finished fourth. Early in the fourth session they scored a triumph on this exceptionally tough hand:
Board 26.
Vul: Both Dlr: East | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; | |||
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||
lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; |
West | North | East | South | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cohen | lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; | Berkowitz | lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; |
lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; | lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; | 1NT(1) | Pass |
2![]() | 4![]() | 5![]() | Pass | ||||||
5![]() | Pass | 5![]() | Pass | ||||||
7![]() | All Pass | lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; | lt;td | gt; | lt;/td | gt; |
(1) 14-16 HCP
(2) Transfer to clubs.
South led a spade, and Berkowitz won the ace while pitching a heart from dummy. He found out about the 4-0 trump split when he led a club to the king. (It looks safe to cash the A instead of crossing to the king, but you go down if you cash the
A.)
Berkowitz took his top diamonds and then ruffed a third diamond with the 10 (South throwing a heart). He then led K.If South ruffs declarer can easily set up the diamonds and pick up trumps, so South threw a second heart and West a diamond.Berkowitz now ruffed a spade (South throwing another heart)and cashed the
K. Next came dummy's last diamond, which he ruffed with the ace (South throwing a fourth heart). Now came the eight of trumps, covered by South. Berkowitz crossed back to his own hand with the
A and finished with a trump coup.At that point, dummy was down to the
Q-5 and South had the
7-4.