Welcome back to Phoenix, Arizona and the 2022 U.S. Fall Nationals. Every round of the Soloway KO Teams produced close matches, big comebacks and nail-biting finishes, and the final was no exception. The two surviving teams are #5 STREET (America’s Paul Street, Canada’s Nicolas L’Ecuyer, Italians Andrea Manno and Massimiliano di Franco, Poland’s Piotr Zatorski and Israel’s Ron Pachtman) and #17 COPE (England’s Simon Cope and three young Americans, Finn Kolesnik, Kevin Rosenberg and Ishmael Del’Monte).

Only one problem this week. With both sides vulnerable, you are sitting North holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

STREET led by 13 IMPs, 32-19, after the first stanza, and added to that advantage in the second. Aggressive actions in both rooms helped their cause on this deal:

Paul Street (left) opened a weak 2♠ (perhaps showing spades and a minor, although there was no explanation) and Nicolas L’Ecuyer’s gently raised to the three-level. That was enough to silence their opponents. 

Declarer could have made an extra trick by picking up the trumps. As it was, four spades, four hearts and a club ruff added up to nine: N/S +140.

Kevin Rosenberg did not open the South hand, so Simon Cope got to start with a feather-weight 1♥ in third seat. Vulnerable against not facing a passed partner, Ron Pachtman’s double on minimum values with only three spades might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it worked like a dream on this layout. Despite Rosenberg’s barrage to the four-level, Piotr Zatorski refused to be shut out.

Declarer had to find both minor-suit queens, but that was no problem for the Polish double European junior champion. N/S -600 and 12 IMPs to STREET.

The next deal looked to be a question of choosing the right game to play, but things did not work out that way. In the first room, E/W got to the optimum spot for their side quickly, apparently tipping their opponents dangerously overboard:

After Patchman’s jump to 3♣, Zatorski upped the ante to the five-level, leaving Simon Cope (right) with this week’s bidding problem. It is hard not to take another bid with this North hand, and Cope duly competed in his second suit. However, there are three defensive tricks against East’s club contract and the five-level appears to be way too high for your side, so bidding seems to be the wrong decision on this layout. Indeed, Kevin Rosenberg’s decision to play in diamonds was perhaps influenced by the fact that there had been no double yet.

Taking a heart ruff and then cashing two spades ending in the West hand would enable the defenders to uppercut with a third round of hearts to promote a trump trick for the ♦9, beating the contract by three. Even a trump lead holds declarer to ten tricks. The only disastrous start for the defence is a club. 

Cope ruffed the ♣A opening lead, crossed to the ♦Q, and pitched a spade loser on the ♣K. It was then then a simple matter of drawing trumps and knocking out the ♥A. N/S a massive +600.

The defensive bidding was less effective in the second room, with the result that N/S managed to reach a contract that might actually enable them to gain IMPs on the deal. However…

Finn Kolesnik preferred a 2♣ overcall to the jump made at the first table, with the result that Ishmael Del’monte (left) looked for game in notrump rather than the minor. L’Ecuyer did not bid his diamonds at his second turn but, instead, preferred to repeat his moderate six-card major. Only when East’s 3NT came back to him did the Canadian introduce his diamonds, so Street was never tempted to do anything than give preference to the major.

Despite Del’monte’s double, 4♥ looks like a much better spot, and Kolesnik’s opening lead of the ♣A did declarer’s chances no harm. L’Ecuyer ruffed, crossed to the ♦Q, but then failed to cash the ♣K to get rid of a spade loser. Instead, he played dummy’s low trump and, mindful of West’s 2NT bid and his subsequent double of 4♥, put in the ♥9 from his hand. 

Now the roof fell in, as East won with the ♥10 and three rounds of spades then forced declarer down to the same trump length as West. After a heart to dummy’s king was allowed to win, the VuGraph play records go awry, suggesting that declarer cashed the ♣K, lost control, and emerged with only seven tricks. However, L'Ecuyer’s claim for eight tricks was accepted: N/S -500 and 15 IMPs to COPE.

That deal kept things relatively close, STREET winning the second stanza 40-33 to lead by 20 IMPs at the midway point of the match. Back came COPE in the third stanza, winning 33-19 to trail by just 6 IMPs (91-85) with 15 boards remaining. All to play for!

STREET got the better of the early exchanges and, with just two deals left in the match, led by 17 IMPs, 120-103. On Board 29, both West players played 3NT, with seven top tricks and all of the major-suit honours lying well for them. Looks like a flat board? It turned out to be a discarding problem: let’s see what happened.

Zatorski led the ♦10. Declarer has seven top tricks in the minors and both major-suit aces are well-placed for him. The problem is how to get to dummy to play the majors. Kevin Rosenberg (right) won with the ♦A and immediately led a heart to his king. When he then cashed his clubs, the spotlight fell on Zatorski. He threw two diamonds and a spade. When declarer then exited with a heart to Zatorski’s queen, he had either to give declarer access to dummy with the ♦K or to open the spades. He played a spade to the ace and Patchman returned the ♠Q (by then a singleton). Now declarer had ten tricks. E/W +430.

A similar auction ended in the same contract, and Finn Kolesnik (left) also led the ♦10. Here, too, declarer won the diamond, led a heart to his king, and ran the clubs. However, Kolesnik worked out the hand: he discarded three spades and kept all of his diamonds. When declarer exited with a heart to his queen, Kolesnik played a second round of diamonds to dummy’s ace. Declarer played a spade, but Del’Monte won with the ace and played a third round of diamonds for North to take the remaining three tricks in that suit. E/W +50 and 12 IMPs to COPE.

The score was now 120-115 with one deal to play.

Events were normal enough at the first table:

Encouraged by his five-card suit and two 10s, Del’Monte upgraded the South hand to a 15-17 1NT. Kolesnik’s jump to 3♠ showed a game-forcing hand with both minors, at most one spade, and exactly three hearts. Del’Monte was not hard-pressed to choose which game he wanted to play.

Manno’s trump lead did declarer no harm, and Del’Monte drew three rounds before starting on diamonds. On the run of the diamonds, Manno discarded the ♣J, so declarer claimed eleven tricks, just conceding the ♣A. A painless N/S +450, but how could COPE pick up 5 (or more) IMPs on this apparently flat board?

Patchman opened 1♥, so Rosenberg entered with a weak jump to 2♠ on the West cards. Zatorski advanced with a fit-showing jump to 4♦, showing diamonds with a heart fit (although for most partnership this would usually show four-card heart support). Cope then joined in with 4♠, leaving Patchman with the first critical decision on the deal. 

As it happens, defending 4♠-X would have produced N/S +300. That would have been 4 IMPs to COPE, which would still have left the comeback short by 1 IMP. Perhaps because he was expecting four hearts opposite, Patchman chose to press on to 5♥.

Rosenberg led the ♠K and then switched to the ♣J, Cope winning with the ace and returning a club. The destination of the trophy therefore came down to finding the ♥Q. When declarer cashed the ♥A and then ran the jack, Cope won with the ♥Q to put the contract one down. N/S -50 and 11 IMPs to COPE, who had come all the way back to win a thrilling victory at the death by a margin of just 6 IMPs, 126-120.

Congratulations to the COPE team, pictured left to right: Simon Cope, Kevin Rosenberg, Ishmael Del’Monte and Finn Kolesnik.

We will be back in Phoenix next week with the best of the action from the semi-final stage of the prestigious Reisinger Board-a-Match Teams.