Tertiary Pairs Session 3

By: Mr. I. Nan Liu
Tournament Director

1st Mind Sports Olympiad in Singapore

September 2000

Board 5. N / Game all

BG: The designation of tertiary is defined simply as being third in place, order, degree, or rank .... or coming next after the second and just before the fourth in position. In the game of bridge there is a winner and a second winner. The first winner generally receives the Gold medal, the second winner generally receives the Silver medal.

But the manner of how the third winner is selected may differ, especially in other countries and bridge zones. In some countries this selection is arrived at under the heading of Tertiary - (sponsoring organization designation). The decision to present and award Gold, Silver and Bronze medals is a completely arbitrary feature and need not be employed by every bridge-playing country.

In this example, Mr. I. Nan Liu, the Tournament Director, presents an example from such a tertiary pairs session. This example, among others, was first reported by Mind Sports Zine and is only archived and preserved on this site for future reference.

In the selection of the third place or rank of any bridge event such sessions may be conducted and designated accordingly.

	A4 9542 KJ43 Q74
J1062 J6 Q965 862		983 Q83 872 AJ95
	KQ75 AK107 A10 K103

North passed as dealer, East passed and South opened 1; West passed. North, after a long day making numerous bridge decisions at the table, chose to bid 1NT instead of showing the porous heart suit with 1.

Partner, not unreasonably, jumped to 3NT after that. East led the five of clubs, North played the trey of clubs from South and West's eight forced North's queen. North played a low hearts to the ten and West won the jack. West played back a low spade. At this stage North had 9 tricks (assuming that the defenders' hearts were originally split 3-2) and he could make sure of the 10 trick and a score of +630 by winning the A and played a diamond to the ten.

In matchpoints competition however, that would be poor play. North should be able to tell that majority of the other competitors would not be 'inventive' as he did and would make the response of 1 instead of 1NT. Those competitors would be playing in 4 instead of 3NT. Playing in 4 those declarers would make 11 tricks - 3 trump tricks, 3 spade tricks, 2 diamond tricks, 1 club trick and 2 diamond ruffs by South; a score of +650. It is important, in matchpoints, to cultivate oneself to consider what would be the likely results on the other tables. Here, North could tell that he would end up losing if he made only 10 tricks. He must therefore strive for 11 tricks (+660) in order to have a better score. Thus the better play in matchpoints is for North to lead a club to the king instead.

Of course that is risky play and may result in going off in a cold contract, the risk must be accepted. Come to think of it, there's no risk really, since a score of -100 (going one off) is as bad as a score of +630 (they are both inferior to other players' score of +650). Assuming that this play works (East takes his ace or East follows low and the king from South wins the trick) North continues by cashing two top hearts and two top spades. Now he has a pretty good count of opponents' hands.

East's opening lead of 5 is usually 4th best from a long suit - so East has 4 clubs and West has 3. West could only follow hearts twice, East has 3. They both follows spades all the way (3 rounds). Thus, 10 of East's 13 cards are known. Only 3 cards are unknown. 8 of West cards are known and 5 are unknown. The odds therefore favours West holding the Q (5 to 3) so North should finesse West for it and score up +660 for his efforts.

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