I'm gonna cheat and make the 2nd half of the Cayne match my post for today.  I played 16 boards today, but none of them were particularly interesting.  I kibitzed (on and off) Nic and Kamel's practice set against Hamway tonight.  A very close set that ended in an exact tie (down to the hundredth of an IMP.)  The 23 boards of that set are here but I won't be summarizing each one.  Interestingly, I found out that my Red Ribbon partner, Nicolas Hammond, was a minor celebrity in Britain for his Rubik's Cube skilz back in his youth.

So, as I was saying, Canada was down 6 at the half against Cayne.  Here's the 2nd half.

Board 15

Normal push in 3NT making 5.

Board 16

Normal push in 4 Spades making 5.

Board 17

The wheels came off for JZ, who lost track of the Ace of trumps while defending 3 Diamonds.  An easy down 1 turned into -110.

Nic and Kamel were in the not-as-good 3 Spades at the other table in their 6-0 fit (down 2 on best defense) but got out for down 1.

Lose 4

Board 18

Jeff and Charlie had to pick a lead against the uncontested auction 1 Spade - 3 Spades - 4 Spades (Jeff) and 1 Spade - 3 Clubs (Bergen) - 4 Spades (Charlie).

QT3 / KQ42 / Q976 / J2

Anything could be right here.  The King of Hearts looks normal to me (or the Queen, since they play Rusinow.)

K976 / 93 / A42 / Q853

 

Partner plays the nebulous 6 on your Heart lead (udca) and Declarer wins the Ace, plays a Spade to the King, a Spade to the Ace (partner pitching the 7 of Clubs, encouraging (I think they play o/e, anyway) and exits with the Jack of Hearts, partner following with the 7 as you win the Queen (or King if Rusinow leads.)

 

97 / - / A42 / Q853

 

Q / 42 / Q976 / J2

Your Queen of Spades is good.  Pard likes Clubs.  What do you do now?

...

This is an awfully tough problem.  The only play that beats the hand at this point is a Diamond.  If you make the mistake of cashing the Queen of Spades first (which looks so obvious as to be virtually automatic) then Dummy's Diamond loser goes away on Declarer's 3 remaining good Hearts.  Declarer made a very clever falsecard of the J from JT85, which makes it much more difficult for Jeff to visualize.  Does JZ's play of the 6 of Hearts followed by the 7 promise a doubleton? (I don't consider it normal to encourage with a small doubleton here, but maybe I'm missing something.  Did the previous hand influence this one at all?)

As it happens, if Declarer had gone after Hearts at trick 3 (that line looks best) he was always making (after a non-minor opening lead.)

Charlie led a Diamond.  No way to avoid a Diamond loser now.

K976 / 93 / A42 / Q853

 

AJ542 / AJT85 / J3 / 9

Lose 10

Board 19

This was an awkward hand that was a little lucky for Canada.

Favorable 1st, Jeff held

AT765 / 8764 / T3 / Q4

 

JZ opened 1 Diamond in 3rd.  Jeff bid 1 Spade.  Lefty bid 2 Clubs passed around to him.

Hard to justify bidding again here, isn't it?  We don't have a Spade fit (no support double.)  We don't have a Diamond fit (no Diamond rebid.)  About the only nightmare hand is if pard has 2-4-5-2 and a full opener.  Then we've flunked out of LAW school, badly (opps in a 9 card fit and we're selling to 2 Clubs with half the deck and an 8 card Heart fit.)

Of course, JZ was 2-4-5-2 with a fat 16 count.

At the other table, Charlie had a toy for this hand (I've seen that a lot of top experts play something similar, but I've yet to encounter it at the table.)  He jumped to 2 Hearts over 1 Diamond, showing 3-9 points and 5-4 shape.  His pard blasted to 4 (somewhat pushy.)

Lucky for Canada, 4 Hearts had no play when Hearts were 4-1 with K offside.  -90 and +100 added up to:

Push

Board 20

Jeff and JZ defended 3 Hearts on a hand that Nic and Kamel bounced their opps into 3 Spades.  Neither contract makes double dummy, but Nic made a normal lead that let 3 Spades through (Charlie played it well thereafter.)  Jeff and JZ defended well.

Lose 1

Board 21

Jeff and JZ (largely because of the not unreasonable choice of lead) underdefended 1NT a couple of tricks.  -180

Nic and Kamel faced an inspired lead in 3NT (which is a great spot ordinarily.)

I'd have made the same lead as JZ (low from Axxx in unbid suit instead of Q from QJ9 of Dummy's suit.)

Lose 6

Board 22

Nic and Kamel shot a 31 High 6NT (with a semi-solid 5 bagger in there) which was cold.

The other guys didn't.

The Cayne declarer played 5 tricks before claiming, apparently to practice his motor skills.  Fergani claimed as soon as the opening lead hit the table.  (Different opening leads, but opening lead was irrelevant.)

Win 13

Board 23

Jeff tried to show off his elegant technique in 3NT by declining a finesse and playing for a squeeze.  The opponents would have none of it and conceded. 

Cayne's declarer took the finesse.  It lost.

Win 1

Board 24

Jeff got a bit confused and pitched an overtrick in the endgame against 1NT.  Nic induced a defensive mistake earlier in his hand.

Push

With 4 boards to go, Canada was down 13.  But right at this moment, Jeff and JZ picked up what looked like a 13 IMP plus position on 28, after seemingly normal results on 25, 26 and 27.  So the match felt like it was tied (or thereabouts.)

Board 25

Nic picked up in 4th at unfavorable:

T64 / KT8752 / KT / Q2

Lefty bid 1 Spade.  Pard doubled.  Righty bid 2 Spades (later described as 0-6, but no alert.)  He bid 4 Hearts.

Lefty bid 4 Spades passed around to him (by now he had the description of 2 Spades, I believe.)

He whipped.  Declarer could have made 5 but ended up +590.

His Cayne counterpart bid 3 Hearts, and then 4 Hearts when 3 Spades was passed around to him.  When JZ, who had been walking the dog, bid 4 Spades, he passed and took his -450.

Lose 4  Canada trailed by 17

Board 26

Jeff and JZ got to a silly 2 Heart contract after another transfer overcall auction gone bad.  Their Heart suit was KJ832 opposite stiff 7.  Miraculously, 2 Hearts made.  Their counterparts were in the sensible 3 Clubs making 4.

Lose 1  Canada trailed by 18

Board 27

We needed something good to happen here.  Canada had a likely win 13 on 28, but I didn't see any way that could turn into win 18.

Jeff and JZ played in 3NT making 4 on these cards.

KT32 / - / AK542 / AKQT

QJ7 / QJT7 / QJ7 / 876

Would their counterparts get to 6 Diamonds on this Lucky 7's hand?  Would you want to be there?

Diamonds were 5-0.  But the Cayne squad stayed low as well.

Push

Board 28

I'll write this one up tomorrow.  But rather than leave you in suspense, Canada got 16 IMPs back on this board and lost the match by 2.