Part 3 of the great Canada-Italy match in the World Sport Mind Games

At the end of the last post Canada and Italy were about to play boards 30-32.  George Mittleman had on his rally hat.

Coming into board 30 Canada was down by 12 imps.  Fantoni holds

Without opposition bidding Fantoni opens 1♣ and arrives in 4♥.  This is his hand and dummy.

Nunes

♠ A832

♥ J873

◊ 10864

♣ K

 

Fantoni

♠ K976

♥ AK106

◊ AQ

♣ 976

Even not vulnerable you are pretty happy to be in this game which was missed in the closed room.  But now you need to make it.

The opening lead is the ♣4.  They play third and fifth if that helps you.  North, Dan Jacobs, wins the ♣A and returns the ♠Q.  What is your plan?

I think there are a number of ways to go about this hand.  You have a spade loser, a club loser for sure.  You may have a heart loser and a diamond loser too.

One way might be to ruff a club and take the diamond finesse.  If that wins than cash the ♥Am ruff the last club and take the heart finesse.  Even if it loses you are in good shape.  If the hearts are 4-1 onside then then you still make it.  There are probably better lines than this but this one isn’t too bad.  (Of course I am half asleep so I may be missing something in my analysis).

Fantoni however strayed a bit and went down.  Here is the whole hand (rotated)

	Nunes
	♠ A832
	♥ J873
Lebi	◊ 10864	Jacob
♠ 54		♠ QJ10
♥ 9		♥ Q542
◊ 97532		◊ KJ
♣ Q10864		♣ AJ53
	Fantoni
	♠ K976
	♥ AK106
	◊ AQ
	♣ 976

Even looking at the hand now it seems hard to see exactly how Fantoni went down.  After winning the ♠K Fantoni ruffed a club, played a heart to ace and ruffed another club with the ♥J.  Fantoni then decided to take the diamond finesse and Jacob (learning perhaps from Eddie Kantar who famously played the jack with this holding) falsecarded with the king.  Here is the position at after trick six.

	Nunes
	♠ A83
	♥ 8
Lebi	◊ 1086	Jacob
♠ 4		♠ J10
♥ —		♥ Q54
◊ 9732		◊ J
♣ Q8		♣ J
	Fantoni
	♠ 976
	♥ K106
	◊ A
	♣ —

Now Nunes was worried about taking the heart finesse losing to the doubleton queen offside and getting a diamond ruffed on the way back.  So he played three rounds of spades to set up his spade winner.  I suppose hoping that if there was a ruff now he would have no trump loser.  Jacob won the ♠ J and returned a diamond.

	Nunes
	♠ 8
	♥ 8
Lebi	◊ 108	Jacob
♠ —		♠ —
♥ —		♥ Q54
◊ 97		◊ —
♣ Q8		♣ J
	Fantoni
	♠ 6
	♥ K106
	◊ —
	♣ —

This is now a critical moment, the last chance to make the hand.  Fantoni has to guess the ending.  If he works it out he can still make it by playing a spade.  If Jacob ruffs then he is endplayed and if he doesn’t Fantoni can lead a heart from dummy and finesse the ♥10 to make the contract. 

He has a few clues.  He knows that Lebi started with five clubs so Jacob has one.  It does look suspiciously like Jacob started with the doubleton ◊KJ.  But Fantoni erred and went down.

It turned out that this hand was challenging after all and +140 in the other room for making 3♥ was a decent score.  That was 5 imps to Canada who were now behind by 7 imps.

Board 31 was to be the last swing board.  One East-West pair got to a good 6◊ and one didn’t.  Care to guess who got to the slam and won the match?

North-South vulnerable

Fantoni/Fergani

♠ K2

♥ AJ743

◊ A753

♣ 65

 

Nunes/L’Ecuyer

♠ A864

♥ —

◊ KQJ964

♣ KQ10

It all starts with the opening bid.  South the dealer passed and it is up the Fantoni/Fergani.  Both are within their notrump ranges.  Bit I think this hand should be opened 1♥ and so did Fergani.

Here was the Fergani auction playing 2/1

Fergani	Sementa	L’Ecuyer	Duboin
			pass
1♥	pass	2◊	pass
2♥	pass	2♠	pass
3◊	pass	3♠	pass
4◊	pass	5♣	pass
6◊	all pass

Once L’Ecuyer bid 2◊ the Canadians were headed to 6◊.  Fergani raised diamonds, L’Ecuyer cue bid and Fergani was eventually able to bid the slam.

However if you open 1NT things are a bit tougher.

Nunes	Jacob	Fantoni	Lebi
			pass
1NT	pass	2♣	pass
2♥	pass	2♠	pass
2NT	pass	3♣	pass
3♥	pass	3NT

I don’t know all the intricacies of their notrump system but it appears that Nunes showed five hearts and no spades fit nad Fantoni was concerned that he had too much wasted in hearts.

All I know is that opening 1NT makes the auction more difficult and that this day the Italians did not get to the excellent slam and that cost them 10 imps and the match.

The Canadians were now up 3 imps 25-22.  Maybe it was just a winning tie but it was a great confidence builder.