Having hot-tailed it across the Pacific from Western Australia, we have arrived at the 2023 U.S. Summer Nationals in Chicago, Illinois in time for the latter stages of the Grand National Teams.

In one semi-final, it is District 9, Florida, WOLFSON (Jeffrey Wolfson, Jack Zhao, Jerry Stamatov, David Berkowitz, Kevin Bathurst, Jeff Meckstroth) against District 16, Texas, DINKIN (Sam Dinkin, Finn Kolesnik, Bart Bramley, Eric Greco, Greg Hinze). The other semi-final is between District 25, New England, STIEFEL (John Stiefel, Franklin ‘Frank’ Merblum, Mark Aquino, Geoffrey Brod, Douglas Doub, Allan Graves) and District 14, Minnesota, BECKMAN (Terry Beckman, John Koch, Tom Grue, Bob Balderson Jr, Cynthia Balderson).

The format is 60-board matches divided into four 15-board stanzas.

Only one problem for you this week. With only your opponents vulnerable, you are South holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

We begin our coverage in the opening set of the match between STIEFEL and BECKMAN. The question on this deal was “Do you pre-empt, or not?”

Douglas Doub (left) represented the USA in the Bermuda Bowl in 2003 and 2009, collecting a bronze medal in Monte Carlo on the first of those occasions.

Frank Merblum’s natural, pre-emptive 4♣ opening was doubled by East, leaving Doub with the tactical problem posed above. Do you stay silent, hiding the information that you have a big fit from the opponents? Alternatively, do you increase the pre-empt and, if so, to what level? Or, perhaps you try a clever alternative such as a natural 4♥ or Blackwood? Perhaps we will see what the BBO expert panel make of this situation in a future month.

Doub opted to make his opponents guess at the highest level by jumping to 7♣. Cynthia Balderson found herself with a remarkably good hand facing a four-level takeout double, but she could hardly guess to bid a grand slam on this shape, so she had little choice but to take whatever money was available.

The defence could get two spades and one heart. E/W +500. How good did that rate to be? With neither red suit breaking, what can E/W make? 6♠, on a trump guess that declarer is likely to get wrong after North’s pre-emptive opening, perhaps? What’s more, you need to play it from the short side or South can beat it with a diamond ruff at trick one. Perhaps +500 is not such a bad return on these E/W cards after all. Let’s see…

Terry Beckman chose not to pre-empt in first seat at green (surely not just because he held a weak four-card major?) Whatever the reason, it turned out to be a very astute decision. He later backed in with a 4♣ overcall at his second turn (to help declarer subsequently mis-guess the spade suit, perhaps), but his opponents were already well on their way to a doomed slam contract by then.

E/W flirted with spades, which might have gotten through if South didn’t find the diamond lead, but they eventually settled in 6♥. A black suit lead would have let the contract make, and I know plenty of players who would have been tempted to lead their ace, but Beckman accurately opened a trump.

John Stiefel won in dummy and immediately played a spade to the ten, losing to North’s ♠Q. Beckman continued with a second trump, revealing the 4-1 break. Declarer could not afford to draw all of North’s trumps, so he won in hand and played the ♦J. North’s discard was bad news, but it would not help declarer to win with the ace. He conceded the trick to the ♦K and John Koch duly gave his partner a ruff for two down. E/W -200 and 12 IMPs to BECKMAN, who led 29-24 at the end of the first set.

The other semi-final was even closer. They were tied at 32-32 after 15 boards, so let’s take a look at second-stanza action from that match.

Jeffrey Wolfson started with an inverted raise of Kevin Bathurst’s 1♣ opening. When Bathurst showed a balanced, minimum opening bid with his 2NT rebid, Wolfson made a quantitative raise to 4NT. With nothing to spare, Bathurst had no reason to bid again.

In no-trumps, declarer needs either to bring in the clubs for five tricks or to drop a doubleton ♠Q to make 12 tricks. With clubs 2-2, that was easy enough: E/W +490.

Bart Bramley (right) began an illustrious international career way back in the 1986 Rosenblum Cup. He became a World champion with victory in the World Seniors Teams in 2007. Widely acknowledged as an world-class technician, he finished second by a tiny margin behind Michael Rosenberg in the Open Par Contest at the 1998 World Championships.

On this deal, Eric Greco opened with a Precision-style 1♦ and then raised Bramley’s 2♣ response. Bramley then showed his slam interest with a jump to 4♦ . Although Greco showed no interest, Bramley thought he had enough to bid the slam anyway.

The club slam is marginally better than 6NT. If trumps break 3-1, you have the option of eliminating the red suits and attempting to endplay the defender with the trump winner to lead away from the ♠Q. Of course, with trumps 2-2, Bramley had an easy ride: E/W +920 and 10 IMPs to DINKIN.

DINKIN won the second stanza 35-33 and therefore led by 2 IMPs at the midway point of the match. In the other semi-final, STIEFEL won the second stanza handily and led 71-43.

Terry Beckman opened a Strong Club and John Koch’s 2♣ was a transfer showing a positive response with diamonds. Beckman then relayed to find out his partner’s shape before picking the contract.

Whilst 5♦ was almost 100% safe with the long trump hand declaring, the quirks of system meant that it was played from the wrong side here. Doug Doub led a heart in response to his partner’s double and Frank Merblum won with the ♥J. Had he then cashed the ♥A, Beckman would have needed to guess the trumps correctly to make his game. However, when Beckman switched to a spade at trick two, declarer was off the hook. He won, cashed two high trumps, and then played his top clubs, discarding hearts from dummy. The contract was safe as long as the defender with the ♦Q had not started with an unlikely singleton club.  N/S +600.

At the other table, declarer was required to guess the diamonds, and the stakes were even higher.

Mark Aquino started with a strong/artificial 2♣ on the North hand. Geoffrey Brod (left) responded with 2♥, showing two Neapolitan controls (A=2, K=1), and Cynthia Balderson doubled to show hearts. North’s pass then allowed Brod to show his long suit, making him declarer in any diamond contract. Aquino continued with a 3♥ cue-bid, ostensibly asking for a heart control although, of course, he already knew his partner must hold the ace or king, but he wanted to transfer the declarership in no-trumps to the South hand. Having achieved that goal, Aquino then raised quantitively to 4NT. Brod like his good-looking suit, so he carried on to slam.

Balderson led the ♣10 and it was clear to everyone in the large crowd watching live on BBO VuGraph that declarer was faced with a 27-IMP guess. He won the club lead, cashed a couple of spade winners and another club, then started diamonds. West had doubled to show hearts and led the ♣10. Was that enough information to play her for short diamonds? Apparently not, as declarer cashed the ♦A and then played a second round to his king. When West discarded, declarer could do no more than cash his remaining black-suit winners and concede the last four tricks. N/S -300 and 14 IMPs to BECKMAN.

Had declarer cashed all of his black-suit winners before making his diamond guess, might he not have obtained at least an inferential count of the hand? It would all have depended on whether he believed East’s ♣J on the third round. A top-class defender might have played the ♣J on the third round when his hand was xxxx/Qxx/xx/Jxxx, but would everyone?

BECKMAN won a close third stanza 47-41, so STIEFEL still led by 22 IMPs, 112-90, going into the final set. That was as close as BECKMAN was to get, as STIEFEL dominated the final set, winning it 48-15 to claim their place in the final with a 55-IMP victory. The other semi-final was much closer, with neither side having led by more than single-figures throughout the contest. WOLFSON won the third set 18-16 to tie the match at 83-83 with 15 boards to play.

Early in the set, Kolesnik/Hinze bid 6NT on a finesse. When the king showed up offside for declarer, that was ‘Advantage Wolfson’. A couple of deals later, came this…

Jeff Meckstroth opened a quasi-natural 1♣ and David Berkowitz (right) started with an inverted raise on his monster. Meckstroth showed a minimum and Berkowitz forced to game, showing 15+. When Berkowitz then showed short hearts, Meckstroth bid 3NT, and now Berkowitz had to decide whether to bid on facing a minimum opening bid with heart values. Passing was perhaps right in that there were only 11 tricks in no-trumps (although there was a heart finesse for 12). E/W +660.

Greg Hinze (left) became a World Championship on his international debut, with victory in the Mixed Teams at the 2010 World Championships in Philadelphia.

Here, too, East showed a minimum balanced opening and then bid 3NT when his partner showed a heart shortage. However, Hinze decided he was worth one more try. He then jumped to slam when Finn Kolesnik cue-bid a spade control.

There was nothing to the play as, with clubs trumps, a diamond ruff augments declarer’s 11 top tricks: E/W +1390. 12 IMPs to DINKIN – ‘Deuce’, the match was virtually level again. 

In a match that had been nip-and-tuck throughout, I suppose it should have been no surprise that the scores were tied at 103-103 with just four deals remaining. When WOLFSON picked up a pair of 5-IMP swings on those final deals, they emerged with an 8-IMP victory, 113-105.

It will therefore be WOLFSON v STIEFEL in the final. We will be back soon with the best of the action from that final.