New York Times
By ALAN TRUSCOTT
May 31, 2003

One of the world's most experienced groups headed the
Women's Trials in Orlando, Fla., this week and will
represent the United States in world championship play in
Monte Carlo in November.

Kathie Wei-Sender, Betty Ann Kennedy, Jill Levin, Sue
Picus, Tobi Sokolow and Janice Seamon-Molson won the final
by 67 imps. All are world champions except Seamon-Molson,
who missed by a hair in 2000, thanks to a slow-play
penalty. Now she will have another chance to polish her
résumé. This trials result made Levin a World Grand Master.

The United States is entitled to two teams in Monte Carlo,
and Renee Mancuso Cheri Bjerkan, Sue Weinstein, Stasha
Cohen, Pam Wittes, and Becky Rogers will also make the trip.
They defeated the losing finalists, Lynn Baker, Karen
McCallum, Debbie Rosenberg and Dise Eythorsdottir, by 7
imps. Earlier they won a playoff between the losing
semifinalists.

A complex deal from the final, shown in the diagram, was
noted by Kent Massie, the nonplaying captain of the winning
team. At both tables East opened three clubs, South
overcalled three spades, and North raised to game.

The contract hinged on the play of the spade suit, in which
South could afford to lose one trick but not two. In the
abstract, the right play is to lead the spade jack from
dummy, but here there were complications.

First, South had to decide whether to win the first trick
in the dummy. Doing so would be an advantage with the
actual layout, since East would not have an opportunity to
shift to her singleton diamond. But taking the ace would
not work well if West had K 10 x of spades. Then, if South
played the spade jack and finessed, West would be able to
win with the king, after which club plays would promote a
trick for the spade 10.

Both declarers chose to play low from the dummy, and East
won with the king. A diamond shift would have guaranteed
the defeat of the game, but a club was returned to dummy's
ace at both tables. There was little chance that West could
ruff this, because the declarer would not have ducked in
dummy holding a tripleton club.

Now both South players had a chance. In one case, McCallum
decided to play West for K 10 x x or K 10 x in trumps. She
came to her hand with the diamond king and led a low spade.
West had no reason to know that the play of the spade king
followed by a diamond would succeed so she played low. Now
rising with the jack would have worked, but South was true
to her plan and finessed the eight. She finished two down,
for East won with the 10, led a heart to her partner's ace
and scored a diamond ruff.

In the other room, Kennedy led a spade to the queen. She
succeeded when West chose to duck, for the ace was cashed
with a third round to follow. In theory, thanks to the
spade blockage, the defense would have prevailed if West
had taken the king and led a diamond, but West had no
reason to try that play. She presumably assumed that East
would have found a diamond shift holding a singleton.

So the Massie team gained 13 imps en route to victory and
eventually to Monte Carlo.

Entries are to close tomorrow for the Big Apple Summer
Knockout Teams, a new event. Groups of eight teams will
play monthly matches. Information is available on the
Greater New York Bridge Association's Web site:
www.gnyba.org.

This column on Thursday misstated the number of points the
declarer would have earned by exactly making the redoubled
four-no-trump contract under discussion. The score would
have been 920, not 870.

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