Once Again…Agustín and his Magical Wand…
by Ana Roth & Fernando Lema
Buenos Aires, June 6th 2012.
Ybob in BBO
From 26 May to 3 June 2012, in Montevideo, Uruguay was disputed the South American Transnational Bridge Festival. As is usual after every major event, some hands keep circling. Yesterday afternoon on Skype, we had the opportunity to discuss some of the Southamerican Championship boards with Roberto Martinez one of the best Southamerican players (ROU) and we rescued this hand.
Teams : Dealer East All Vulnerable
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|
West |
North |
East |
South |
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— |
— |
1 |
Pass |
|
Pass |
1 |
Pass | 2NT |
| Pass | 3 |
Pass | 4 |
| Pass | Pass | Pass | |
Contract: 4 ; North declarer
Lead: 
Q
Ybob told us: In most tables the lead was as in mine the Q. I won with the A and continued with the 
J to the A and a diamond to the 
Q, winning the third trick. Now K and another club, West pitched a diamond and I ruffed with the 2.
I continued ruffing a spade with dummy’s 3 and another club, now West made the only intent he could to defeat the contract; he ruffed with the K (I pitched a diamond, to be able to ruff a diamond return in my hand, and now dummy was good) but he played a heart, East won with his A and switched to a club, trying to defend his 9, but I had 11 tricks and scored 650.
Many declarers won the board with different plays, but nobody could won the hand with a trump lead, except the wizard!.
Lets see…Contract: 4 ; North declarer
Lead: 7
The table was a mute witness to the clash between two heavyweight teams: the Silva Neto team versus the Chagas team, in the closed room in North/South were Agustín Madala & Diego Brenner (playing for Silva Neto) and in East/West the Argentine pair: Alejandro Bianchedi & Ernesto Muzzio, playing for Chagas.
Agustín in North, was the heart game declarer and Muzzio made the almost mortal lead of the 7, Alejandro won the first trick with his K and returned another heart to Muzzio’s A, who also returned a heart, West pitched a diamond and North won the third trick with dummy’s 10.
In the fourth trick Agustin rubbed his magical wand and played a little club!, East won the trick with the 9 and played his Q, dummy’s A won the trick.
Agustín continued with a spade to the A, next came the K and ruffed a spade with the last trump in dummy, in the third spade East played the Q. Agustin cashed the K, arriving to this four cards end position:
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Now, when Agustín played the 7 as West couldnt pitch the 10, because of the 9, Muzzio decided to pitch the 7, Agustín ruffed with his Q, and played the J, East the K and West surrendered.
¿How could the magician win the hand ?
The answer is:…Counting!!!.
After the lead, when West showed the K, declarer knew that all the other honors were in East hand, we must not forget that West passed over his partner’s 1 opening bid.
Furthermore Agustin knew the exact distribution of the hidden hands: he could count on East, 5 clubs cards, 3 spades, 3 hearts, so East’s diamonds were: K x.
By default West originally had 4 spades, 2 hearts, 5 diamonds and 2 clubs, knowing this was like playing with all the cards face up, but he included an elegant play at trick four, which allowed declarer to reinsure everything .