USBC Quarter Finals

I've been trying to watch as much of the USBC as I can... theres nothing watching top level bridge to improve your game.   Unfortunately it becomes much harder to learn when you can see all four hands, its very difficult to put yourself in someones shoes when you can see what the correct action is before you make your decision.   There was a hand last night that watching double dummy prevented me from seeing a great discovery play in a vulnerable game.

The contract was 4H after Chris Willenken opened 1H after two passes, Roy Welland bid 2C reverse drury (good heart raise), from there the partnership negotiated their way to game.

the lead was the 7S: (the pair on lead would lead top of nothing from xxx or xx)

DUMMY           DECLARER

Q9xx                  A8

QJT98               A6xxx

J                         Qxxx

Qxx                    Kx

when they lead the 7S, declarer made his first attempt to make the contract by going up king of spades, and when it got covered by the king he won the ace.  Now came the key play... since his right hand opponent was a passed hand... and was already marked with KJ of spades, and likely the A or K of diamonds since the guy on lead didn't lead a diamond, so he doesn't rate to have both.  Now if declarer would find north with the Ace of clubs, he would be sure that the King of Hearts is offside and will be able to play to drop the singleton king offside at no risk, because he knows its there.   So the best play would be to play clubs to discover where the Ace is for his heart play.    

USA 1 Bracket Round of 8 Results

USA 2 Bracket Round of 64 Results

There are the links to the current round results.  Here is my attempt of explaining the format.

Everyone entered the event in the USA 1 bracket and as we've elminated teams from that bracket, they get a birth into the USA 2 bracket.   

The Nickell team will join the 3 winners in the USA 1 bracket, to play a semi finals and finals to decide who will represent USA on their first team.  At any point should a team lose in that bracket, they will be put into the next round in the trials for USA 2.  

The trials in Canada are also going on right now where my brother is playing with his regular partner jurek, dan korbel and david grainger, kamel fergani and nick l'ecuyer.  In 2002 the last time they held the trials in Penticton BC (where they are now) Vince and I played in place of Grainger and Korbel.  I am so excited to see how they do, they are in my opinion the pre tournament favourites, but i know from experience a lot can happen in the CNTC-A, a lot of unknown players can play great and knock you out when you least expect it.  My mom is also competing in the CWTC in an attempt to play on the Canadian Womens team, her team is Demme.

Canadian Results

See you in the vugraph