Import 9F72 Main
Junior Shines
by Brent ManleyImport 9F72 Main |
| by Brent Manley |
When Richard Pavlicek and Rich Pavlicek Jr. won the Nail Life Master Open Pairs, they became the first father-son duo ever to achieve the feat.
When asked for some key deals from the event, Dad focused on his son. Here are two examples of fine play by the younger Pavlicek that contributed to the victory.
| East deals |  K J | West | North | East | South | |
| Both vul |  A 10 7 5 3 | Richard | Rich | |||
 Q 8 4 3 | Pass | 1 NT | ||||
 6 4 | Pass | 2 | Pass | 2
| ||
| Q 6 4 2 |  | 9 8 5 | Pass | 3 NT | Pass | Pass |
| 9 6 2 | Q J 8 | Pass | ||||
| — | K 10 7 5 2
| |||||
| A J 9 8 5 2 | Q 7
| |||||
| A 10 7 3
| ||||||
| K 4
| ||||||
| Lead: 2 | A J 9 6
| |||||
| 3 NT South | K 10 3 | |||||
West’s lead was attitude, and Rich took the Q with the king. At trick two, he played a spade to dummy’s jack, then called for the Q, covered by the king and ace as West tossed a low heart. A spade to the king was followed by the 8; 10, jack, 5. Now came the K, a heart to the ace, and a diamond to the six as West, clearly in trouble, tossed another club.
On Rich’s last diamond winner, West threw yet another club. Reading the situation accurately, Rich exited with the 10 to West’s jack. After cashing the A, West had to lead from Q-6 into Rich’s A-10. Plus 660 was a tie for top.
On this deal [rotated to South declarer] Rich had a chance to shine on defense — and he took it.
North-South can make a slam in clubs, diamonds or notrump (the last by South only to tame a heart lead), but the play is not trivial. At the table, South ended up in 6 . Rich made a play that caused declarer to take his eye off the ball, with fatal consequences.
| North deals | A Q 6 2 | West | North | East | South | |
| E-W vul | Q | Rich | Richard | |||
| 6 5 | 1 | Pass | 1
| |||
| A K Q 8 3 2 | Pass | 1 | Pass | 3
| ||
| 8 5 4 |  | J 9 7 3 | Pass | 4 | Pass | 4
|
| K 10 5 | 9 8 6 4 | Pass | 4 NT | Pass | 5
| |
| K 7 3 | 10 9 2 | Pass | 6 | All Pass | ||
| 10 9 6 5 | J 4
| |||||
| K 10
| ||||||
| A J 7 3 2
| ||||||
| Lead: 6 | A Q J 8 4
| |||||
| 6 South | 7 | |||||
Rich led the 6, taken in dummy with the ace. Declarer immediately played a diamond to the queen — and Rich ducked. With a peek at all the cards, declarer would simply have cashed the A and exited with a third round of the suit. He would then have been able to ruff a club to set up 12 tricks.
When the Q held, declarer reentered dummy by playing the 10 to the queen, and played a diamond to the jack. Now Rich won the king and returned a spade to completely mess up communication. The best declarer could do from there was down two.
| Import 9F72 Main | | Top Junior Shines |
© 2004 Brent Manley