“Brazilian Gold Rush” – Sao Paulo, Day 1

After some very long flights (at least for me) we finally made it to Sao Paulo. Not all of us made it though, on Saturday 29: due to some bad weather around Washington, DC, Boris missed his connecting flight to Sao Paulo and arrived early today.

The opening ceremony was very nice however it did not prevent most of us from dozing through a good part of the program. It is hard to keep your eyes open after more than 30 hrs without sleep. Since Boris was in no shape to play today Arno, Marty, JC and Joey played all 3 matches. We started against Argentina with a 2 IMP victory which translated into a tie (15-15VP). The 2nd. match was against Italy and we collected only 12 VP. Our 3rd.  and last match of the day we played Sweden. Although very early in the event, we needed something good to happen in order to get back above average. The boys didn’t disappoint and earned a 47-16 IMP victory (22VP).

Here is a hand that helped our cause: Arno held AKJ10842, A863, 9, 3 and you see your partner 1D opening bid. After your 1S response partner jumps to 3C which shows a good hand on the suits bid (Arno and Marty play a strong 1C with a Canape style). Without exploring any further Arno jumped to 6S!

Dealer: Vul:		North
		♠	Q7
		♥	K10542
		♦	876
		♣	1065
West (MARTY)				East (ARNO)
♠	9			♠	AKJ10842
♥	Q			♥	A863
♦	AQ1032			♦	9
♣	AQJ982			♣	3
		South
		♠	653
		♥	J97
		♦	KJ54
		♣	K74

 Against 6S Arno got the 4D; after some thought he let it ride to his 9 and ended up making 7 for a cool 13 IMP win. Tomorrow we play Turkey, England (a very strong team) and New Zealand. Boris and the Schoe will be in so we will have the entire team.

Tchau!

Dan