Page 10 - ABF Newsletter October 2024

2024 Under-26 Transnationals
George Bartley
The U26 Youth Transnational tournament was held in Wroclaw, Poland during July 2024. The open U26 team finished ninth out of 19 teams, while the wom- en’s U26 team (reported on by Lauren Travis in the August newsletter) finished an incredible fourth in their field.
In the pairs event, Jack-Luke Paredi and I (pictured) finished fourth in the A-Final. The other Aussies narrowly missed the final. The U26 open team was Bertie Morgan and Alex Goss, Lara Topper and Tomer Libman, and Jack Luke-Paredi and me. Our captain was the ever-youthful Mike Doecke. It would take far too long to thank everyone involved, but suffice to say that a large number of expert players have proved a great help to our bridge.
No review is complete without a few interesting game swings, so what follows are the most notable.
Board 7-23. Dealer South. Both vulnerable.
]4
[ A K Q 10 8 4 } Q 10 6 5 4 {3
]A9875 ]KJ632 [52 [3
}A8 }K97
to make, and it can lead to lots of tricky decisions for the opponents. Of course, I hadn’t imagined that the dummy would be so nice; indeed Jack understand- ably considered slam. A fantastic low diamond lead from East put the hand in early trouble. The defence only have three top tricks, but a diamond ruff would set the contract. I falsecarded by dropping the ten and queen on the ace-king of diamonds, which con- vinced the defence to switch to spades. The contract was now secure, and +620 was worth 12 imps when 5[ went down one at the other table.
Board 10-21. Dealer North. NS vulnerable.
]AK95 [J92 }K973 {96
]86 [A6 }AQ86 {AJ754
{ Q 10 9 7
] Q 10 [J976 }J32 {AKJ6
{8542
] 10 2
[ K Q 10 7 5 }J542
{ 10 3
]QJ743 [843
} 10 {KQ82
SOUTH Tomer
1NT 3}2 3NT
WEST Lara
1]
pass
all pass
1. Two places to play, most likely diamonds and hearts.
WEST NORTH George
EAST
all pass
1. Puppet stayman, asking for a five-card major. 2. Denied a five-card major.
3. Showed four spades.
NORTH EAST Tomer
SOUTH
SOUTH Jack
pass 1
WEST
pass
pass
all pass
NORTH EAST Lara
pass pass 3{ 1 pass 3[ 3 pass
3[ 4] 4NT 1 pass
1} pass 5[
pass 4[
1. A youth player passed a 12-count in first seat? Game’s gone
WEST NORTH
EAST SOUTH George
soft.
For this board, all credit must go to Liam Milne.
There is absolutely no chance I would have bid 4[ here if not for a discussion I had with Liam only a few weeks prior to the World Championships. He had proposed that 4[ is an excellent pressure type bid
Page: 10
1} 1] dbl
Jack
pass 1NT
pass 3[ all pass
On this board, both Australia’s Tomer Libman and the German South, Felix Doermer, did well to make
2{ 2] pass 5}
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: October 2024