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The Hands from Brazil |
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Click here for information about this article and the team |
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In the Round-Robin stage, I missed Round 1 against USA-II, but played in the second against C.T. (Chinese Taipei), which we won 98 Imps to 19. We generally were among the leaders in the RR stage, never far off the pace. In Round 5 we met Thailand, whom we were to play in the Semifinals. After an early slip-up we were down 12 IMPs when this hand turned things around. My Partner was Joel Wooldridge from NY. Our teammates went plus 100 against 4H, but at our table, the opponents were more frisky.
We went plus 500. Notice only 3NT has play and makes with no club shift. On this next hand, at the other table, our opponents stopped in 3D, but we got to a 22-point slam by not counting points.
The 4D bid was Leaping Michaels (Editors Note: Also called "Roman Jumps"; used for many years from the 60s by the famous Italian Blue Team) showing diamonds and the other major, hearts. On this last hand from the Thailand match, we lost 20 IMPs, our team’s biggest loss. The opponent with my hand overcalled 1C with 2C to show spades and another suit. Our teammates got to 4H, 1 down. Our opponents bid higher, to the Grand, and found the spade finesse working.
In Round 8, against Israel, we got up 38-1 on the first 9 boards, but they battled back, and we only won 43-31. One of our gainers occurred when I opened light. I held xx, xx, Axxx, KQJTx and opened 1C. The opponents eventually got to 3D. Our teammates bid and made 4H. for an 8-IMP gain. We lost a close match in Round 9 to a strong Netherlands team who missed one of the top four places on the last day. We were about 8th, but first place Canada was only about one match (25 Victory Points) ahead of us, and we had yet to play them. We moved up with our bye, and beat Norway 54-27 in Round 12. Here was a big hand for us. I held J9876, AQx, Axx, xx. Our bidding went:
I raised Joel’s pre-empt and the opponents had a tough guess at the 5-level. I knew what to do when they landed in my best suit. We went plus 1100 and gained 14 IMPs, My LHO held AQTxx, 9xxxx,---,xxx. He had a real problem but, at the 5-level, there was no solution. In Round 13 versus China we were down 32-0 after 5 boards. We bid a slam on a hook to gain 13 IMPs back, and a close game brought another 11. We had a good auction despite a big pre-empt to reach a nice Grand:
We came back to win by 81-42 IMPs. Finally we played Canada, a critical round. We knew the players well, and we were 1st and they were 3rd. There was an early double game swing, a slam they bid that went down, then this slam: another bidding success which also required the best play.
There are lots of inferences here. Joel’s first double shows a interest in doubling them, My double shows strength (a game force) so the later 3D was forcing, Joel cue-bid 3H and then he raised to 4S – all suggesting top honors with spaces, not a hand like xx, AJTx, Qxx, Kxxx, say. He cooperated in cue-bidding after 5C (we usually bid 1st or 2nd round controls) which suggested a diamond honor. I cuebid again then went on to slam. I made it by playing his left hand opponent for spade shortness – I finessed my spade 7 on the first trump lead. The same slam was defeated in the other room. This won 17 IMPs. We won 101-2, a score of 25-0 in VP.
We could pick our Semifinal opponent and choose Thailand although they had finished second in the Round-Robin. Our view was that they were a bit wild and were less dangerous than Israel. We jumped out to a big lead as their unsound competitive bidding and judgment in constructive situations showed up very strongly in a long match. Here is one nice hand:
Plus 1390, winning 12 IMPs when the opponents only bid game. We achieved a huge early lead against Israel aided by a delicate grand slam they bid but went down in, and a doubled game that made in the first set. Although many competitive decisions went wrong for them, they kept chopping away at our lead. Here is a dramatic Grand bid by my teammates Kent and John K. We doubled 6S, which made. They bid 7C on the same cards.
The 6H sacrifice would have been down only 1100, since Kent’s RHO has a spade void. Six spades is the obvious call, but Kent believed the pass of 6H showed first round control so he bid 7C. The opening lead was a diamond – Kent won, led a trump to dummy, all the while complaining about John’s bidding, and ruffed a diamond. He led a trump backed to dummy, pulled trumps, led a spade and pitched his only heart on the 5th spade. Had the opening lead been a spade (down 2 when the spade is ruffed), a heart (down at least one), or even a trump (down one – there is no way back to hand to pull trumps after a diamond is ruffed), the Grand is defeated. When you’re hot you’re hot. Our auction on the same cards:
*The 3H bid was a transfer to spades so the 5S bid on 4 small is not so strange. Net: 2370-1660 = 710. Israel struggled back from over 100 IMPs down to only 41 down, but had a disastrous final 16 boards. Here are two hands from that set.
The 3S bid showed shortness in spades with club support, and 4NT was not Blackwood but shows good trumps (2 of top 3). I thought we were off the A or K of clubs it turned out Joel had cue-bid his QJ of hearts. Here is our cue-bid marathon. 3NT is "serious 3NT", a slam try with no intention of playing 3NT. All the other bids are cue bids except 7S.
I thought Joel needed the Q of spades. In retrospect, 7D was one cue-bid too many. He should have gone on to 7S, but he wanted to give me a chance to bid 7NT since he thought I had the king of hearts. I took FOREVER to bid 7S. I had to consider whether the bidding suggested Joel had 5-4-4-0 with AQJx in diamonds, in which case 7D is okay. This one gave us 2210 and 17 IMPs. Our opponents on View-Graph had caught up to us and knew that this hand had taken lots of extra time. They tried to create a swing by NOT bidding a slam, hoping we had gotten too high. This is a known but dangerous tactic. The final margin was back up to the 100 IMP level. |
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