Round 3 Slams

by Brian Senior

Round 3 featured a couple of slam deals. Well, sort of slam deals. Take this first one I was brought up to think that it was a bad idea to bid slam off a cashing ace-king. What do I know!

Board 1. Dealer North. None Vul.
	♠ 10 6 ♥ K J 10 8 4 ♦ K Q ♣ K Q 7 2
♠ A 9 7 4 ♥ 5 ♦ 9 6 4 3 ♣ 9 8 4 3		♠ K J 8 5 3 ♥ 7 2 ♦ 8 7 5 2 ♣ 10 5
	♠ Q 2 ♥ A Q 9 6 3 ♦ A J 10 ♣ A J 6

I happened to watching the Venice Cup match between Brazil and Italy and saw the above auction. Italy’s Gabriella Manara led a trump and that meant that Graca Poncioni’s slam was home.

I was also brought up on the idea that one should make attacking leads against small suit slams so I wondered how often this slam had been bid and how successful it had been.

In the Bermuda Bowl the slam was reached 11 times out of 22. Six times the lead was a diamond, once a club and four times a spade, so the two-top-loser slam made seven times and failed four times. Well done Tadashi Teramoto (Japan), Bauke Muller (Netherlands), Jeff Meckstroth (USA2) and Arjuna de Livera (Australia), for finding the spade lead.

In the Venice Cup, slam was bid 12 times and succeeded eight times there were five trump leads and three diamond leads. Maud Khouri (Egypt), Emma Sjoberg (Sweden), Diana Smart (Australia) and Fera Damayanti (Indonesia), led a spade.

Fifteen pairs bid to slam in the Senior Bowl. There were five trump leads, three club leads and two diamond leads, meaning ten successful declarers. The two USA defenders, John Sutherlin and John Solodar, were joined by Denny Sacul (Indonesia) and Jorge Gueglio (Argentina) in leading a spade. Mohamed Yehia Khalil (Egypt) was on lead as West and led ace and another spade.

So in total the slam was bid 38 times and made 25 times a clear profit for bidding a slam off two cashing tricks.

The wildest board of the set was Board 7.

Board 7. Dealer South. All Vul.
	♠ Q 7 ♥ K 10 5 4 2 ♦ 8 7 6 ♣ 10 6 5
♠ 9 ♥ Q ♦ A Q 10 3 2 ♣ A Q J 9 8 2		♠ A K J 10 8 4 2 ♥ A 8 6 3 ♦ 9 ♣ 3
	♠ 6 5 3 ♥ J 9 7 ♦ K J 5 4 ♣ K 7 4

West	North	East	South
Pacheco	Saccavini	Vargas	Paoluzi
			Pass
1♣	Pass	1♠	Pass
2♦	Pass	3♠	Pass
4♦	Pass	6♣	All Pass

West	North	East	South
Ferlazzo	Poncioni	Manara	Castello-B
			Pass
2♣	Pass	3♠	Pass
4♦	Pass	4♥	Pass
4♠	Pass	5♣	Pass
6♣	Pass	6♠	All Pass

It looked as though Brazil had gained a big swing when Juliana Pacheco and Isabella Vargas de Andrade bid to the club slam and made it. That was a brave jump to slam by Vargas, looking at a small singleton in each of partner’s suits, even if Pacheco had reversed then shown extra distribution.

Ilaria Saccavini led a low heart and, with 12 tricks a long way off, Pacheco ran this to her bare queen. A good start but there was still plenty of work to be done. Pacheco led ace and jack of clubs to the king. Simonetta Paoluzi returned a diamond and there was another decision to be made. A successful diamond finesse would still have left declarer requiring three spade tricks, so Pacheco went up with the ace, drew trumps and took the spade finesse. As it happened, that was unnecessary as the queen was doubleton onside. Plus 1370 looked to be a great result.

For Italy, Caterina Ferlazzo opened with a natural 2♣ and Manara forced with 3♠. Four Diamonds was natural and, when Ferlazzo followed up with 4♠, Manara jumped to the spade slam. This contract too needed some good fortune, but probably a little less than had 6♣.

Noemia Castello-Branco led a low diamond. Manara called for dummy’s queen and was relieved to see it hold the trick. She cashed the diamond ace for a heart pitch then ruffed a diamond, played ace of hearts and ruffed a heart, and led a fourth diamond off the table. Poncioni ruffed in with the spade queen, hoping to promote a trump winner for her partner, but it didn’t matter. Manara over-ruffed, drew trumps and led to the ace of clubs to cash the established diamond; 13 tricks for +1460 and 3 IMPs to Italy so much for Brazil’s good board.

Around the room, the Bermuda Bowl saw 6♠ bid four times and 6♣ once, always making. Other contracts were 4♠ 13 times, 5♠ once, 5♣ twice, and 3♠ once. In the Venice Cup, including the match above, there were four 6♠ contracts and one 6♣, always successful, one 5♠ and 16 4♠. Eight pairs of Seniors bid 6♠ but one went down, while two played in 5♠ and 12 in 4♠.