Lai, Vance win 10K IMP Pairs
Winners of the NABC 0–10,000 IMP Pairs: Jessica Lai and Grant Vance.
Jessica Lai and Grant Vance of Oakland CA won the NABC 0–10,000 IMP Pairs by a mile on Tuesday. Their final score of 122.31 was a margin of 47 IMPs, the equivalent of four boards.
The pair went plus in every session, scoring 13.5 IMPs in the first session and 3.5 in the second to qualify in 20th place out of 36 finalists with a carryover of 5.43. They catapulted into the lead in the third session, putting up 70.06 IMPs, 22 more than anyone else that morning. They continued to pile on in the fourth session, gaining distance on the field with 46.72 more IMPs.
It was the first limited NABC win for both.
“We were very nervous when we bid a lot of slams that went down,” Vance said. “But the key is to not give up when you get bad results. You just got to keep going.”
“I’m very happy,” Lai said. “We’ve been plugging away at these 10K events a long time.”
Runners-up in the NABC 0–10,000 IMP Pairs: Lily Andre and James Andre
Lily Andre and James Andre of Allyn WA scored 75.23 to place second, pulling ahead of Michael Schrage and Keith Heckley in the last round.