The Rosenblum | Michael Yuen

by Michael Yuen on October 5th, 2010

The World Open KO Teams starts to-morrow. There are at press time 147 teams, with 757 players from 48 countries.

I will be playing with Maurice De la Salle on the Todd Team, the other players are Doug Fisher, Bob Todd, Karl Gohl and Neil Kimelman. All friends from Winnipeg.

Teams will be seeded into 16 groups of 9 teams. Each group team will play a complete round robin in the next three days. 64 teams will qualify for the Knockout phase.  

This morning Apolinary Kowalski playing with Susie Miller, took the right view on this hand.

2nd Session Mixed Plate. Board 23. Dealer South. All Vul.

He was North held  ? 6 ? Q5 ? K532 ? J97642

This was the auction.

These were the hands.

North
? 6  
? Q5  
? K532 
? J97642West
? J87 
? J104 
? 84 
? AKQ83 East
? AKQ10954 
? Ak98 
? 9 
? 10South
? 32
? 7632 
? AQJ1076 
? 5 

West led the Ace of club then switched to a trump in time, however in the play East didn’t let West in again to lead the much needed second trump. South went down four for -1100 and with it most of the match points.

The World Mixed Pair won by Donna Compton and Fulvio Fantoni, second went to Kismet Fung and Brian Glubok. Joan Lewis and Robert Hopkins was third.

Donna and Fulvio

Kismet and Brian

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DAY 3 in Philly | Michael Yuen

by Michael Yuen on October 4th, 2010

It is another beautiful sunny day in Philly. We had a fun game to end the 3rd qualifying session. Sadly we qualified only for the Mixed Pair Plate.

Here is an interesting hand.

3rd Session in the Mixed Pair. Board 8. Dealer West. None Vul.  

As East You hold ? 1032 ? K98654 ? K5 ? A9

This was the auction.

What is your lead? Did you listen to the auction? Who has the Spade suit? If you lead 4th best from your hearts you give up most the match points as they made ten tricks in 3NT.

However if you found the spade lead, you earn most of the match points.

North
? J96  
? AJ102  
? Q74
? KJ6 West
? AK854 
?  
? 1092 
? 105432  East
? 1032
? K98654
? K5
? A9 South
? Q7 
? Q73
? AJ863
? Q87 

The talk around here is that many bridge players from other countries are having problems coming to the World Championship in the US. Seems the Department Of Homeland Security is making it impossilbe for them to get the required visa for entry.

David Sabourin member of Canadian Youth Team is also having a hard time with his visa.

Another hot topic is that in the McConnell Cup there are only 31 teams entered. Making it impossible to start the event with round of 32.

Sad news for those of us that knew Jim “Flash” Gordon. He died suddenly of a heart attack in Philly.

Double sad news for us that knew Don Campbell of Saskstoon, he passed away last week of a heart attack while on vaction in Italy.

I will miss them both.

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