Import 9F12 Main

‘Dee-Fense’ Can Mean Everything

by Charles Whitebrook

Fort Lauderdale News & Sun-Sentinel — August, 1978

The ACBL Summer Nationals ended a few weeks ago in Toronto, after setting a new attendance record of some 18,000 tables in play — nearly 2,000 more than the previous record set a couple of years ago in Washington, D.C.

The highlight was the annual Spingold Knockout Teams, which attracted over 200 teams for four, five or six players, and has been the most prestigious event of its type since its inception over 40 years ago. Virtually every famous name in bridge lore is engraved on the Silver Trophy — many more than once — and our neighbor Richard Pavlicek missed by a hair having his own added, when his team lost out in the final round.

One of Pavlicek’s closest matches was in the quarterfinals when his team (Bill Root, Edgar Kaplan, Norman Kay, Tom Smith, Steven Altman) met the Dallas Aces (Bob Hamman, Bobby Wolff, Curtis Smith, Ed Wold, Dick Freeman, Cliff Russell). Pavlicek’s team trailed by 19 IMPs going into the final quarter (16 boards) and this deal was very decisive in their come-from-behind victory.

At the other table, Kaplan and Kay reached four spades, and Norman played the hand superbly, endplaying East in diamonds to make his contract. Against Root and Pavlicek, however, the bidding went as shown, with North suppressing his excellent spade support for reasons he never divulged.

South deals	A K 4		West	North	East	South
Both vul	A 9 6 3		Root		Pavlicek
	K J 9 5					1
	4 3		Pass	2	Pass	2
3		J 10 8 6	Pass	3	Pass	3 NT
K 8 2		Q 10 7 4	Pass	Pass	Pass
10 8 7		Q 4 3
J 10 9 8 6 2		A 5
	Q 9 7 5 2
	J 5
Lead: J	A 6 2
3 NT South	K Q 7

Root quite naturally led the club jack and Pavlicek ducked, reasoning South must have king-queen from the bidding and not wanting to give him two fast tricks, and also creating the impression that West held the ace.

Declarer immediately attacked spades, playing ace, king, queen and conceding a trick to the jack. Continuing the deception, Pavlicek returned a low heart to the jack and king, ducked, and the continuation was won by the ace. Declarer then crossed to his hand with the diamond ace, leaving this five-card end position:

NT win 3/5	—		Trick	Lead	2nd	3rd	4th
	9		9. S	9	8	9	4
	K J 9		10. S	2	10	J	Q
	4			down 2
—		—
—		Q 10
10 8		Q 4
10 9 8		A
	9
	—
	6 2
South leads	Q 7

Declarer cashed his good spade, throwing the heart from dummy. Pavlicek was well aware that the contract could be made if declarer guessed correctly, so with the nonchalance of an Adolph Menjou (my fellow septuagenarians will recognize the style) he threw his small diamond, blanking the queen. Why? Because Pavlicek was sure that if he discarded a good heart, the expert declarer would have guessed to endplay him.

Sure enough, after long thought, declarer took the diamond finesse. Pavlicek won the rest of the tricks for down two, a gain of 820 points and 13 IMPs. Since their comeback enabled Pavlicek’s team to win by the narrow margin of 8 IMPs, this was the decisive deal.

The moral: Like the Miami Dolphins, ‘Dee-Fense’ is often the name of the game.

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© 1978 Charles Whitebrook