| 39th World Team Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 14 - Saturday 12 September 2009 |
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Italy - USA2 (Bermuda Bowl Final 3) Keep away from children - by Phillip Alder The last Vugraph show on Thursday featured some surprisingly poor play, so do not let young children and the impressionable read this article. First, though, a defensive problem:
(a) At least a game-invitational heart raise Your partner (North) leads the club queen. After declarer plays low from the dummy, you ruff and ... do what? The session began with Italy leading by 21.33 IMPs. Giorgio Duboin tried to go down in three diamonds on the first board. When he realized the error he had made, he looked very cross with himself. But when he made it anyway, he breathed a big sigh of relief and took off his sweater! After seven deals, the score was 2-1 to the United States. Then there was some action:
Both tables were in six diamonds, Duboin after an uncontested auction and Jeff Meckstroth after East had overcalled in hearts and doubled a five-club Roman Key Card Blackwood response. The bidding made it clear for Meckstroth to start by cashing his diamond ace, so he made the slam. But Duboin won the first trick with his spade king and led a diamond to dummy's king. He could not recover. Plus 1370 and plus 100 gave 16 IMPs to USA 2. Then...
(a) Maximum pass with heart support
(a) Heart raise If Zia had been psychic, he would have led the diamond nine against four diamonds doubled. Three rounds of trumps followed even by a low-heart shift would have taken the contract down four. But Zia not surprisingly led the heart three. Duboin won with dummy's jack, cashed his ace and king to pitch dummy's spade, then crossruffed to get out for down one. At the other table, Meckwell demonstrated that even three hearts was too high. Meckstroth led his singleton club. Eric Rodwell won with his ace and shifted to his singleton spade. Then Meckstroth grabbed the first trump trick, gave his partner a spade ruff, and received a club ruff in return. The heart ace was the fifth defensive trick. Plus 100 and plus 50 gave 4 IMPs to USA 2. This was the very next deal:
(a) Extra values
(a) Two-plus diamonds, 11-15 points It is not readily apparent why Antonio Sementa removed his partner's penalty double of two spades. And that contract would not have been cheap. South would probably have led the diamond ten. North would have won with his ace and shifted to his trump. South would have taken two rounds and exited with a heart. Declarer would have cashed the diamond queen to pitch his club, ruffed a diamond, and drawn trumps, but he would have then lost three heart tricks for down two, minus 500. (An initial heart lead results in down four!) Against two notrump, Zia led the spade six. (This is often the winning lead when righty has tenaces over partner. It may allow partner to return the suit safely.) Declarer took the king with his ace and played a heart. Zia won and shifted to the diamond queen, ducked to East's king. Bob Hamman returned a low spade, South's nine losing to West's jack. Now came another diamond, won in the dummy. Declarer played a heart to his ten, cashed the spade queen, and took dummy's hearts, bringing everyone down to four cards. A diamond from dummy endplayed West to lead away from the club king at trick 12. Nicely done! Against one notrump, Alfredo Versace led the spade jack. Meckstroth won with his queen and played a heart to establish seven tricks: two spades, three hearts, one diamond and one club. That gained Italy 1 IMP, but it could have much more. On Board 11, both Souths were in two hearts. Meckstroth got a favorable trump lead, and a later misdefense by Versace resulted in 10 tricks for declarer. Duboin adopted a strange line of play. His trump suit was ♥ 6 3 2 opposite ♥ A J 7 5 4. When he came to play the suit, he led a low one from his hand. This went to Hamman's ten on declarer's right. Hamman then cashed the club ace, played a club to his partner's king, and ruffed the third club with the heart queen. Now came a diamond, declarer having to ruff with ♥ A J 7 left. He chose the seven and was overruffed by the nine to go down one. If he had ruffed with the jack, it would have held and the ace would have dropped the nine and king. Plus 170 and plus 50 gained 6 IMPs for USA 2. Then...
(a) At least a game-invitational heart raise
(a) Limit raise with four-plus trumps Meckstroth won 12 tricks, of course. Although Sementa had made a light two-club overcall, it looks wrong to pass over four hearts. Then, to make matters only slightly worse, Duboin misdefended five hearts doubled. Sementa did well to find the club lead, which gave the defense a chance. But after ruffing the first trick, Duboin cashed his spade. Then he shifted to a diamond, but it was too late. Zia won with his ace, ruffed his second spade on the board, and ran his trump suit to squeeze North in this ending:
North succumbs to the last heart. To Zia's credit, he speeded up play by claiming after trick four! Plus 1050 and plus 650 gave USA 2 a huge 17 IMPs and the lead in the match by 22.33. At the other ten tables that played this deal, six were in five spades doubled, two in four spades doubled, one in five hearts making, and one in five hearts failing by a trick. The winning club lead was found by Julian Stephanov and the immediate diamond shift produced by Victor Aronov, for Bulgaria in the third-place playoff. They gained 14 IMPs for plus 50 and plus 1050 en route to their emphatic victory over China Long Zhu by 102 IMPs. Two overtrick IMPs to USA 2 and a flat game were followed by...
(a) A limit raise in partner's suit
Against three hearts, Duboin led a diamond. Hamman, after winning with his ace, might have played a spade, trying to find out who had what. It was clear that South would have three spades (no negative double over one heart) and North would have four (no one-spade opening, if he had five). Then declarer might have divined the trump position. (The risk would be that South had four clubs and North, say, doubleton-honor in hearts, gaining a trump promotion on the fourth club. So perhaps declarer should have ducked the first trick.) However, East immediately played a heart to the jack and king, then he ran dummy's heart seven. South scooped up his queen and shifted to the club jack (necessary if East had had the ten). Thus the defense took two spades, one heart, one diamond and three clubs for down three. A typically aggressive Meckwell three notrump did not work so well this time, because they lost the first six tricks after a heart lead. Plus 150 and plus 200 gave Italy 8 IMPs. This was the final deal:
At both tables, North led a club (Sementa an attitude three, Rodwell a fourth-highest seven). Versace ducked the first trick, won the next club with dummy's king, and played a heart to his jack. North won and cleared clubs. West led a heart to dummy's queen, then called for a diamond. South rose with his ace and shifted to the spade queen, but declarer now had one spade, three hearts, one diamond and two clubs. Zia strangely took the first trick in his hand, then led the spade ten! North rose with his king and played another club. Now declarer took a heart finesse, but North won and cashed four clubs, which squeezed West. North accurately led back his last spade. Zia took that and the heart ace, but lost the last three tricks to North's high heart, South's diamond ace and South's spade queen: down two. Plus 90 and plus 200 gave Italy another 7 IMPs. But USA 2 had won the session by 47 IMPs to 17 to open up a 9.33-point lead. |
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