| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 4 | Bulletin 10 - Tuesday 22 August 2006 |
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Open Teams - Israel v Italy (Round 22) How unlucky can you be? by Jos Jacobs For already a number of days nothing has appeared in the Bulletin about the matches of the Italian team. It looks as if everyone here in Warsaw has already accepted that their seventh successive European Championship is inevitable – and rightly so. They are already more than a match ahead so we can only compliment or the gods of the draw (or the organisers) for having the good sense to let them play Bosnia and Herzegowina on Saturday morning. For those of you who are still putting the 2006 Italian supremacy in doubt here are a few slams from their match against Israel on Sunday evening. Though Italy lost heavily on these boards, they still won the match comfortably enough: 19-11. Here is the first:
Open Room
After Versace’s positive 2NT and Lauria’s maximum-showing 3NT the slam was duly reached by the Italians. On the lead of the ♠A there was nothing declarer could do about his trump loser. Unlucky? Maybe not as the chances of not losing a trump trick are decreasing after the pre-empt. Still a reasonable slam to be in. Israel +100. Closed Room
Without adverse bidding the Israeli EW too, reached the slam. With little to guide him Bocchi came to their rescue with probably the most unfortunate lead of the tournament: a low diamond. This way, the diamond loser was eliminated which meant that two spades could go on the ♣AK. Just made. Israel a tremendous +1430 and 17 IMPs. And, two boards later, another one:
Open Room
Well bid and well played by the Israeli pair. Lauria led a trump, which Birman won in dummy. A low heart went to the jack and queen and back came another trump, won with dummy’s ace. As the ♣AK and the ♦Q were the entries he needed Birman now could ruff two hearts in dummy and get back to his hand to draw the outstanding trumps. When the ♦J appeared in the doubleton, he was home for a fine +1430 to Israel. Closed Room
Apparently, Bocchi devaluated his hand due to the heart duplication and thus, the Italians did not bid the slam and lost another 13 IMPs. As one of their BBO commentators put it: “ Why are our adverse slam swings always vulnerable?” He could not yet know that a third slam would make its appearance, just to underline that his words were maybe a little premature …
Open Room
Something must have gone wrong here as one would certainly expect Lauria-Versace to bid a slam like this quite rapidly. Italy +480. Closed Room
How easy can it be? Israel +980 and the real unlucky ones (?) as this slam swing was only worth 11 IMPs to them. They had taken the lead again, 49-40. For the last 6 remaining boards however, the Italian machine proved as effective as ever as IMPs were scored by Italy on every single one of them. This was the last board, where Israel were among the teams that missed a chance: to make declarer go wrong.
Open Room
With 3NT cold as the cards lie, +200 (one down) looked like a meagre result for Israel. Closed Room
When Bocchi, having no clue as to East holding a seven-card suit, ducked the first trick, Liran could have made life difficult for Bocchi. He knew here was no future in spades so he had to choose a red suit as partner was likely to hold some useful values. When he selected the ♥A rather than a diamond Bocchi had no problems at all and made the required nine tricks in comfort for a swing of 9 IMPs to Italy. They had done it again and won by 67-49 or 19-11 VP. If on the other hand East switches to a diamond declarer has to guess the distribution of that suit and play accordingly. On the actual layout the winning line is to take the ♦Q and immediately take the club finesse. West can win the ♣K sooner or later and return a diamond but with the top hearts equally divided between EW east will be out of diamonds after winning his ♥A. If West holds four diamonds and the ♣K there is little you can do; only if East holds four diamonds you are better off playing hearts first after winning the switch in dummy. |
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