| 3rd European Open Bridge Championships | Page 4 | Bulletin 5 - Wednesday 20 June 2007 |
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The Power of the Poplilovs by Jan van Cleeff Except for an English and a Dutch pair, Dhondy versus Herbst was an Israeli affair in the Round of 16 of the mixed teams. In this article the focus will be on Matilda and Lilo Poplilov from Tel Aviv, playing for Dhondy. Take this one. You have: ♠ 9 3 2 ♥ K 10 9 6 3 ♦ K 9 4 ♣ Q 2 Green against red your partner opens One Spade in first chair. RHO overcalls Three Clubs diamonds and hearts (Ghestem). Your bid please. Suppose you double, showing defensive values. It goes on: LHO Three Diamonds, Pass, Pass. What do you do now? Matilda Poplilov decided to double again. There it rested, the full layout being:
Lilo led a trump. Declarer played low, Matilda took the king, returned the suit and declarer went two light: N/S +500. At the other table N/S went down two in Four Spades. On Board 12 it was Lilo’s turn to shine.
But let’s first have a look in the open room. East led the ten of hearts against 3NT played by North, Michael Barel. Declarer, who played low from dummy, won the ace, played a diamond to the ace and ran the ten of clubs. East won the queen, continued with the heart deuce for the king and West continued the suit. Declarer pitched a spade from his hand and played a club to his king, ducked by East. At this point Barel read the position well. He cashed his remaining high diamonds and exited with a club. East won, cashed the fourth heart and now declarer pitched his last diamond. East, who was end-played, had to lead from his spades. Even so, Barel still had to guess that suit. And he did. A well deserved 600. Good, but good enough? In the closed room once again East led a high heart against 3NT. Everybody covered. Lilo crossed to dummy with a diamond and played a low club to the jack. East won the queen and played a heart back, ducked by declarer. The heart deuce went to the jack, Lilo pitching a spade. Another round of clubs went to the king and ace. East cashed her last heart on which declarer bared his ace of spades. East duly returned a spade for the 8, 3 and ace. This was the five-card ending:
Lilo entered dummy by overtaking the seven of clubs with the ten, West pitching a low spade. On the three of clubs however, West had to surrender. In fact he discarded the king of spades, not that it mattered much. A brilliant push on a rare squeeze. |
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