Round 9
South was Alex Kolesnik, a good friend when I was in Austin Texas. He used to
be a Russian genius and was involved in some high school olympic competition
or some sort. After he immigrated to US, he took bridge and so much for
academic pursuit. Now he teaches in an Austin community colledge. He's
slightly older than me in the mid 30's but a gold life master already.

Board 27 Love all, Dealer S.
J8432
43
QT3
963
7 KQT6
A JT98752
AKJ98754 6
KT8 2
A95
KQ6
2
AQJ754
N E S W
1C(1)5C(2)
P P P
This might not be the everyday sequence you see and needs a bit explanation.
South's 1C is strong and artificial. Against that, our method is Suction: a
bid suit shows either (1) the higher single suited hand, or (2) the other two
suited hand. For example, 1C-1S overcall shows either a C suit or D/H suits.
When Fred's 5C came to me, I gave this a brief thought before passing. I
thought about possibilities of Sunction but what's the point on 5 level?
Alex passed too and against the 5C, the North led a S to my K and A. Alex led
the CA and another. Fred finessed the T and cashed the CK. He then tried to
cash 2 D and the 2nd got ruffed. Alex played HK to Fred's singleton A and Fred
exited with another D. Alex can pitch a major but he still needs to give me
two at the end. So Fred got 1D, 2C, 1H, + 2 at the end. That was 5 off for
-250.
When the play ended, the director was summoned and there was a misinformation.
We were the offending side as I failed to alert Fred's bid, even though we
really didn't have agreement, as the director smiled to agree that the merit
of playing Suction at 5 level is minimal.
Alex's argument is should he be properly informed, he might double that and
our 5D will be doubled for -500, losing 3C 1D and 1S on perfect defense. We
naturally protested this claim as the prospect of doubling 5D was completely
unclear and South will choose to pass 5C even if we did so.
This hand was ????ted to many experts and given the right explanation, each
and everyone passed 5C, so the score was to stand. However, for our failure to
alert (a non-existent) agreement, we were issued procedure penalty. Usually
this would be 1/4 to 1/2 board, but the director sympathized me and only
issued 2 matchpoint penalty. As a matter of fact, we got 14/51, so we couldn't
afford too high a penalty anyway, otherwise they might as well just adjust the
score.

Board 28. NS vul. Dealer W.
AJ8
T4
AQT742
76
752 KQT963
Q982 A5
K985 63
K5 QJ4
4
KJ763
J
AT9832
N E S W
p
1D 1S x 2S
3D 3S 4C p
4D p 4H p
4N p 5C p
5D p p x
p p p
When 5D passed to Fred, he had heard enough of this nonsense and doubled. I
led a trump to the J, K and A. From there declarer had to lose 2S, 1H, 1D, 1C
after a correct H guess and that was +800 and 49/51.