This hand was reported by Mark Horton of England in the January Bulletin of the International Bridge Press Association. It was played during a board-a-match team competition in December, 2002 at the North American Bridge Championships in Phoenix, AR.
Horton held the West cards and found himself on lead against what appears to be a very solid contract. His partner was Rabbi Leonard Helman of Sante Fe, NM. Horton led the six of spades and Rabbi Helman was somewhat taken aback when his jack held the trick. He recovered quickly and placed a diamond on the table, trumped by Horton for down one and a score of +100.
The auction at the companion table was different: East South West North Pass Pass 1S Dbl 3S Pass Pass Dbl Pass Pass Pass
If the defense leads a trump at the first opportunity, and continues to lead trumps whenever they can, they should be able to defeat three spades, doubled. Unfortuately, the defenders lost their way and allowed three spades to make for a score of - 730. The hand was lost in spite of the brilliant defense against six clubs.
Board-a-match teams is a form of scoring that many players are not familiar with. In other forms of team competition, the results at the two tables are compared and then converted to International Match Points (IMPs).
For example, if you scored +100 on a particular hand and your teammates were -730 (as above), you would have a total of - 630 which would convert to -12 IMPs. After you have finished playing the required number of hands in the match, you would total the IMPs that you had won and lost to determine who had won the match.
In board-a-match scoring, if your comparison shows that you
have a plus total, you get one point for winning the board. If
you tie the board, you get one/half of a point, and if you lose
the board, you get a zero for that board. So it doesn't matter
if you win the board by 10 points or 1,000 points, you can't get
more than one point for winning the board. What this means is
that over tricks and other match-point oddities come into play
much more than in any other form of team competition. The
"event" winner then becomes the team that wins the most hands.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.