A podium finish at the World Bridge Games!

Recently I had the pleasure of playing in Buenos Aires for the U.S. women’s team. I played with Lynn Baker, and the other pairs on our team were Sandra Rimstedt with Cecilia Dwyer Rimstedt, and Jill Meyers with Kerri Sanborn. Our captain was Joe Stokes, and our assistant captain/coach was Sam Dinkin. I feel very lucky to have been on a team with such talented players, and just as lucky to have been on a team with such lovely people.

It’s always nice to start a tournament well, but unfortunately the round robin got off to a rocky start. After the first day of play, we found ourselves placed 23rd out of 24! Luckily, we didn’t let this affect our confidence or focus. The round robin went smoothly for us after the first day, and we managed to finish 9th with 16 teams qualifying.

My favorite hand from the round robin is one where I was a little crazy!

You hold:

First seat favorable. Playing an aggressive opening style, I chose to open 1C.

The auction was :

It felt like overcaller had AKQxxx of clubs and was thinking they could fall back on spades if the clubs didn’t come home. I knew that both the clubs and the spades were not sitting favorably for declarer, and with two aces I didn’t think there would be too many overtricks if it was making. I also felt I had a good hand for defense against 4S if they pulled 3N, so I doubled! I know it’s a lot, especially having opened with just ten points, but the upside was huge.

Here was the hand:

Partner led a low diamond and declarer won with the king. Now declarer played ace, king, queen of clubs and a heart to the king. I won my ace, and cashed two club tricks. Then I played a spade to partners king and partner cashed two diamond tricks, having pitched two diamonds on the clubs. Partner played a spade back to my jack, and I cashed the ace of spades. When the dust cleared, declarer was 3 down for +800!

After placing 9th in the round robin, we had a one day match against France, the 8th seed. This was not the draw we were hoping for; France came in second in the Europeans and they play really solid. We managed to squeak out a 17 imp win to move onto the round of 8. Our opponent was the winner of Poland (number 1 seed) and China Hong Kong (number 16 seed). China Hong Kong ended up beating Poland by one imp, making them our matchup in the round of 8.

High level competitive bidding decisions swing a lot of IMPs, and because of the lack of space to be scientific, they are very difficult. I remember facing a lot of high level bidding decisions with varying levels of success in the match against Hong Kong. This board was my favorite: Partner opens 2H, playing an extremely aggressive style where every hand with 5H and 3-10 high card points is preempted.

You are favorable and the auction comes 2H-x to you, holding :

You decide to bid 4D, showing a good long diamond suit and 4 card support for your partner’s hearts. The auction comes back 4S-p-p to you. Partner is supposed to bid here if their values are concentrated in diamonds and hearts, so their pass conveys some information. I found myself in a difficult position because the favorable vulnerability makes it very tempting to save in 5H, but my aces mean that 4S could easily be down. If partner had a singleton diamond, we were probably beating 4S one or two tricks on a good day. So I chose to double, which is not pure penalty to me because I begged my partner to bid over 4S when I bid 4D. If I had pure penalty of spades, I wouldn’t bid 4D.

My partner had the perfect hand for me. Here was the full hand:

4SX went one down for +200. Our teammates were +300 defending 4HX for win 11, instead of losing 5 imps if I tried to sacrifice in 5H.

Our lead was at 132 IMPs with two sets to play, and the opponents withdrew. They were lovely, and our teams swapped jerseys after the match was over.

We faced Sweden in the round of four. The Swedish women’s team has been a powerhouse, so this was bound to be a tough match. I learned an important lesson this match on takeout doubles when partner holds length under their suit.

I couldn’t hold myself back, and made a takeout double hoping the hand was a partscore battle. This is problematic for a few reasons. First of all, I know my partner has spade length, so I know I’m putting them in a tough position. Partner’s likely spade length means it’s very possible they pass 2Sx, which I can expect will be a catastrophe because my hand is terrible for defense, and the spade length is sitting over partner. Second of all, I’m light on high cards, which makes it less likely we can make something at the three level or beat 2SX.

Disaster struck:

We only took 1 spade, 1 diamond, and 1 club against 2Sx. Our -1070 combined with our teammates +170 lost us 14 imps. Later in the match, I faced a similar problem.

I held :

Red against green, I opened 1S and the auction continued :

With heart shortness and a decent hand, my instinct was to make a takeout double. However, I thought back on my previous takeout double when my partner was under their suit and decided it wasn’t worth the risk. I passed, and we ended up defending 2H. Here was the hand:

I started with the ace and king of spades. My best defense now would have been continuing with the ten of spades, allowing my partner to pitch a club. Declarer can still take 8 tricks on this defense, but it becomes more difficult. Instead, I shifted to the king of clubs and declarer won the ace. Declarer scored two diamonds, a club, and 5 hearts for 8 tricks. North at the other table understandably doubled with my hand, and my teammate managed to take 9 tricks for +570. We won 10 imps on the board and I felt I had partially redeemed myself for my double of 2S.

Unfortunately, we fell short against Sweden and withdrew down 91 going into the final set. We then played China for the bronze medal, in the most exciting match of bridge that I have ever been a part of.

The match started poorly for us. After two sets, with only 16 boards to go, we were down 56! I was out for the last set and nervously waited for the scores to come in.

We picked up 13 imps on the second board, and I joked with my captain “13 down, 43 to go”. It felt like I looked away for two seconds and the next two boards came in plus 6 and plus 12 for us.

After just nine boards we took the lead, and after 16 we won the set 88-0!!

It was an amazing comeback, helped by a wild set of boards. Our team was thrilled, and our favorite board when discussing the set was this:

South (Sandra Rimstedt) led the queen of clubs. North (Cecilia Dwyer Rimstedt) played the four of clubs, which was upside down attitude. Sandra continued with the 3 of clubs to Cecilia’s jack, and Cecilia now shifted to a spade to Sandra’s ace. Sandra cashed 2 clubs for down one. Jill and Kerri had +790 at the other table in 4HX, which combined for win 13. It was fate that Cecilia had the lowest club spot, making the four of clubs very readable as encouraging. Sandra thanked Cecilia numerous times for having both the four and jack of clubs.

Overall, it was a spectacular two weeks with great people. We are thrilled to be coming home with a medal!