Marcelo Castelo Branco explains a Scissors Coup

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BsAs 2015 logo  The 2015 South American Bridge Teams Championships 2015 were played from 9 to May 16 in Buenos Aires Argentina. In addition to the South American Champion Teams title in the: Open, Ladies and Senior categoriesthe champions and runners-up won the right to represent the WBF Zone 3 in the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup y d’Orsi Cup in the World Bridge Championships to be played in Chennai, India from September 26 to October 10.

Diego Brenner
Diego Brenner

Chile was leading the Round Robin when he faced Brazil in the final match. Winning the RR was very important because the winner would gain the privilege of choosing his semi-final opponent. Brazil needed to win this confrontation for more than 27 IMPs to advance to the first RR place. In board 12 Brazil had achieved the miracle of being beating Chile by more than the difference he needed two boards later Brazil confirmed the result …

Board 2 was the first double swing of the match: in one of the tables Brazil played a game while at the other table Brazil was down in a partscoreba2015 Chile Brasil Tab 2

After two Pass, Branco (BRZ) opened his hand with a 1NT bid, Brenner started with a heart transfer and afterwards continued with 2spade: showing a two color hand: 5 hearts and 5 cards in another suit. Branco looking at his spade doubleton and as the opponents didnt mention the spade suit assumed that Diego should have 5-5 in the majors and as his best values were in hearts and spades closed the heart game.

 Lead: heart suitJba2015 Chile Brasil Tab 2 a

The declarer won the heart lead and played spadeA and spade. Pacareu won with his spadeQ and returned the diamond suitK. Branco won with the diamond suitA and played a club to the clubQ. North won with his clubK, played the diamond suitQ and another diamond. Branco won in his hand with the diamond suitJ, ruffed a club, returned to his hand ruffing a spade with his heart suitK, continued with the heart suit9… and let it run when North played a small trump, after winning the trick he ruffed a club in dummy with the heart suit8, played the heart suitQ and claimed his contract.

At the other table, Garcia opened 1NT, and Caracci started with the spade transfer. Chagas doubled the 2spade response and after East’s Pass, Villas Boas said 3diamond suit, pass, pass, pass. South was one down, but added the first 8 IMPs for Brazil.

Watch the video where Marcelo CB explains his Scissors Coup. A World Grand Master explaining his master play: