Pro-am events are usually looked upon by pros as a labor of love. They are giving something back to the game that has given them so much. But the winners are always happy. The am is delighted to receive the accolades of peers, and the pro will have several stories with which to entertain friends.
The Greater New York Bridge Association's annual Victor Mitchell Pro-Am was played Friday at the New York Helmsley Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The turnout was terrific, with 52 tables in play. The winners were Peter Bonfanti and Erna Frischer of New York, who narrowly beat Yuri Yurachkivsky and Nathaniel Norman of New York. Third were Michael Polowan of New York and Scott Woolley of Venice, Calif.
The winners did well on the diagramed deal.
After South opened one club and North responded one diamond, East normally made a takeout double to show both majors. But Frischer overcalled one heart, mentioning her stronger major. South rebid one spade, and Bonfanti (West) crowded the auction with a pre-emptive leap to four hearts. North understandably competed with five clubs, and Frischer showed that she was no shrinking am: she doubled.
West led his heart ace, East using the deuce as a suit-preference signal for diamonds, the lower-ranking of the other two side suits. West shifted to the diamond nine, East taking two tricks in the suit before giving her partner a diamond ruff. Down two, plus 300, was a top on the board.
It has been a notable couple of weeks for Frischer. Her grandson, Ilan Hall, won the ''Top Chef'' competition on the Bravo network the week before this event, and the day before she celebrated her birthday. Bonfanti wrote, ''I was too polite to ask, but I suspect that the first digit is an 8.'' Not only that, but the second digit is an 8 also.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E3DE173EF936A25751C0A9619C8B63&n=
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