DAY 2 - Tuesday August 9th, 2022
After 6 sessions and almost 100 boards the Youth Open Pairs finalists have been selected. Jamie Thompson & Andrew Spooner (U31) & Jacob Rose & Lara Topper (U21) qualified comfortably, but it went down to the wire for the other pairs.
All three were in contention, but when the music stopped only David Gue & Jamie Simpson had made the cut. Damon Flicker & Josh Tomlin, and Bertie Morgan & Jack Luke-Paredi both missed out by less than 1%.
The different category Pairs Finals will be slightly different movements and timings to cater for the different sized fields. Apparently, only the under-26 event will be shown on Vugraph, but four tables will be shown, which means that we will all get up to 8 chances to see the Aussies in action!
All the best tomorrow to all the Aussies, many of who weren’t sure what to expect in their first International event, and are delighted to have made the final!
In the afternoon break there was also a very large group photo with all the players, wearing their complimentary WBF Blue or Yellow T-shirts.
Lara Topper & Jacob Rose
Despite both only being 19 years old Topper/Rose have been best friends since they were young and have been a formidable bridge partnership for more than 6 years!
Jacob: “Lara and I were stuck at home one rainy day, and my grandma offered to teach us bridge...” Lara: “The rest is history. We’ve been playing together ever since.”
They both remember a traumatic hand from their first ANC where Jacob got doubled and went -2000.
Lara: “We were playing in our first national tournament and on a strong team, so we felt the pressure to pull our weight.”
Jacob: “Even though it was traumatic at the time, we managed to pull ourselves together and went on to win the match comfortably!”
Lara is studying Data science at uni and isn’t afraid to roll out a Gambling 3NT. She enjoys basketball, bouldering, reading and socializing with friends. Jacob is about to start uni and loves reading and watching TV.
Andrew Spooner and Jamie Thompson have both played bridge for over a decade. During that time, they have both picked up a few little tricks along the way. We saw Jamie’s “Strong 3♣ Preempt in third seat” yesterday, today was see Andrew Spooner in action, both in the bidding and the play.
Pairs Qualifying Session 6
Board 20
The first piece of flair on this hand was Andrew’s decision to show a 20-21 point balanced hand, when he had neither of these things. I guess the additional length in Hearts makes up for the missing high-card points. Jamie T bid Stayman, asking for a four- or five-card Major, and Andrew made another interesting choice, in denying the Hearts! There’s a school of thought that says, “if you find that you have a six-card Major in in your balanced hand, and partner bids Stayman, they are probably interested in the other one – consider denying a major!”. This approach is not found in many textbooks.
Jamie T made a slam try in Clubs, and Andrew didn’t have many Clubs, so bid 4NT to sign off (note that if he wanted to co-operate, he would have made a Control Bid).
West led the ♠8, won be East’s King. East might not have been listening to the auction, or perhaps was aware of Andrew’s adventurous style, so returned a Spade. A Heart switch looks like a good option Andrew won the Spade with the Queen, and immediately started on the Clubs. He led the ♣Q, West didn’t cover, and the ♣Q held the trick, dropping East’s Ten. Now Andrew tested Hearts by playing the ♥A and ♥K, getting some mixed news. The Hearts were not running, but it also meant that anyone playing in 4♥ would probably be in trouble.
Andrew reverted to Clubs finessing to the Jack, and then taking his last Spade winners.
Andrew had 8 tricks already, and could win the ♥Q, but since he was in 4NT, still needed an extra trick, so he played a Diamond to the King, which won, marking East with the ♦A. Andrew knew that East had the ♦A and only Hearts remaining, so could play a small Diamond out of his hand, conceding the Ace, but winning the forced Heart return, and the established ♦Q for a fantastic 11 tricks, +660, and 83%.
Josh Tomlin and Damon Flicker bid and made an excellent slam on this hand from near the end of the Qualifying event. The poor Spade split made things a little interesting.
Pairs Qualifying Session 6
Board 23
With only an 8-card fit and missing the ♠J and ♠T, the potential grand slam in Spades was likely to require a 3-2 break. Josh felt like he had a few extras, and it was matchpoints, so he aimed for 6NT instead of 6♠ or 7♠.
Damon received the ♠J lead, which was likely to be from ♠JT or ♠JTx, so he won with the ♠Q and lead another Spade to the King (West pitching a Club). Recognising that he had a Spade loser, and some work to do, he finessed the Diamond which won, and was able to claim 12 tricks soon after, conceding the Spade but ending up with 4♠, 2♥, 2♦, and 4♣ tricks.
With a few pairs going down in 7♠ on the bad Spade break, and many pairs only making 12 tricks in 6♠, making 6NT was worth 85%. Well done boys!
David Gue, playing with Jamie Simpson, found a good play to make 6♠ on the same hand.
Pairs Qualifying Session 6
Board 23, rotated
As before, the known eight-card fit, and the missing King of Diamonds made bidding the Grand Slam a poor choice.
Due to the Kokish Relay sequence, David Gue played this hand from the weaker and shorter Spade hand. David received a Club lead. He won the ♣J and had a few entry problems, so he played the Ace of Spades, and then the ♠K, noticing the poor break. He now played the ♠Q and then a few Clubs (losing the ♠T along the way) to reach this five-card end position.
When David led the last trump from Dummy, East discarded a Diamond, David threw a Heart from his hand, and poor West was squeezed.
West threw a low Heart, which allowed David to play the Heart Ace and then Heart King – dropping West’s Queen – to avoid needing the Diamond finesse.
Well played David.
Posted by Will on Wednesday, 10 August 2022 at 23:04