| 36th World Team Championships, Monte Carlo, Monaco | Saturday Evening, 15 November 2003 |
The March of Time Session 5 The fifth session of the Bermuda Bowl final gave the teams no pause for breath, as they were confronted by several tricky deals, with plenty of potential for swings.
This must be a rare example of an eight card fit proving to be superior (perhaps we should say luckier?) than a ten card one. Four Hearts cannot be defeated, as there is no defensive ruff. +620 for USA 1.
Nickell’s weak two meant that hearts were never in the picture. East led a diamond, West took the king and ace and switched to the ten of hearts. East took the ace and delivered the ruff, -100 and 12 IMPs.
On this layout 3NT would have made easily enough, but Four Spades had chances. When East led a trump declarer eventually discarded a losing diamond on a club, +420.
Here East led the queen of diamonds, and declarer won and played a spade to dummy followed by a club to the king. When that held he drew trumps ending in dummy. He will get home if he now plays a club, but when he played a heart West went in with the ace and played a diamond, establishing a fourth defensive trick. 10 IMPs for USA 1.
An easy eleven tricks, +650.
A slam on a finesse through the opening bidder is always a reasonable proposition, but this time the all important card was wrong. 13 IMPs for Italy, who certainly needed them.
East led the king of spades and declarer won with the ace, and immediately played a diamond. East took the ace and played a spade. In due course the defenders had to make a heart trick for one down, +50.
Here East led the king of hearts. That meant that declarer had time to lead towards the king of diamonds to establish a discard for his losing spade. +400 and 10 more IMPs to aid the Italian’s cause. Session 6 Triumph and Disaster
The last session of day two of the Bermuda Bowl final contained one of the most dramatic deals in the history of this event. Before we see it, here is a deal where a contract played much better from one side than the other.
South led the five of spades (the nine avoids some unblocing problems, but might be difficult to read). Declarer put up the king and attacked diamonds. North took his ace on the second round and played a spade. South won with the queen and switched to a club. Declarer was going nowhere from here, and finished two down, -200.
Played by West, 3NT is almost certain to make, as it can only be defeated by two impossible leads, the jack of spades or the singleton heart. North led a low spade and declarer took the queen with the king and attacked diamonds. North won the third round and played the jack of spades. Declarer held up the ace, won the next spade and played a heart. Now he had ten tricks, +630 and 13 IMPs.
Declarer ruffed the opening club lead and played ace of hearts and a heart, claiming twelve tricks. However, that was adjusted to eleven when West pointed out that if he now played the king of hearts declarer would undoubtedly ruff high and lose a trump trick.
This was a huge opportunity for Italy. West led the ten of diamonds and declarer won the ace and without cashing a high spade in dummy played a heart. The commentators were expecting a finesse, but declarer put up the ace and played a second heart. West won with the jack and immediately put the king of hearts on the table. Declarer ruffed with the jack and played the ace of spades. You can imagine how he felt when East produced the two of clubs, and he conceded one down, losing twelve IMPs when he could have gained 16.
There was no stopping this, +400.
There was no making this, -100. 11 IMPs to Italy. |
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