World Championship Surprises
As the bridge championships started in Lille and even after the first few days I had a few expectations and some hopes. I expected Monaco to dominate. This was a hand picked team of some of the greatest players in the world. Paid mercenaries they were there not to be the pride of Monaco but to establish a bridge dynasty in the footsteps of the Dallas Aces and the Italian Blue Teams. I thought that the Canadian Open Team was a strong representative and that they would do well. I hoped that the Nickell Team would do well representing the USA. The team was changing after this year and it would probably be Bob Hamman’s last chance to play in the Open World Championship. We spent some time with Phillip Alder in Lille He was captain of the USA Seniors and they hung in so well. I always cheer for the North American teams across the board. I also cheer for the underdogs most of the time in other matches. Go Irish.
And in the end as the results came in they were surprising. The Canada Open Team certainly met my expectations but it was heart breaking to see them lose to Monaco in the Round of 16. They led going into the last segment. And then it was as if they just couldn’t find that last little bit of something that would see them through to the finish line. This is a team with promise for the future.
But in the end Sweden surprised me by winning the Open. Beating first Monaco and then Sweden. England was the expected winner in the Womens beating Russia. And Philip, you must be quite proud to be the only non European team on the medal stand with a second place in the Seniors behind the winner Hungary. Well done.
And Canada had something to cheer about too. A Mixed Team including Judy and Nick Gartaganis, surely one of Canada’s best mixed pairs, the mother-son team of Gavin and Hazel Wolpert and Linda Wynston and Danny Korbel (the latter four players on the Canadian Open and Womens teams) came second just missing first place on the last couple of boards in the Transnational Mixed Teams. The winner was Milner:
- Petra HAMMAN (U.S.A.)
- Hemant LALL (U.S.A.)
- Reese MILNER (U.S.A.)
- Gabriella OLIVIERI (Italy)
- Jacek PSZCZOLA (U.S.A.)
- Meike WORTEL (Netherlands)
Going into Board 27 of the last the sixth last board of the Transnational Final Team Canada led Team Milner by the slimmest of margins 152 to 150. Board 27 was the start of the Milner drive to the finish. It was a test of bidding and play.
Lall held this hand
And heard this auction.
Hamman’s double showed three spades. What now? Lall decided to bid keycard (yes with a void). Now when partner showed two keycards without the spade queen with a 5♥ bid he decided to trust that the opponents held the diamond ace and so he was not off two aces. Perhaps not the most scientific auction. He was rewarded when the opening lead was the ♦ A. Now all he had to do was make it.
Lall ruffed the diamond lead and played a heart to dummy. Both followed. He played a club from dummy to the ♣K and the ♣ A. Judy returned a trump which was best and Lall won the ♠ K and led the ♥ J covered by the ♥ K as Nick Gartaganis followed with the ♥ 5. At this point the missing hearts were the ♥ 10 and the ♥ 7. Lall drew the last trump with the ♠ A and led the ♥ 9 off dummy as Nick followed with the seven. Who held the last heart? If it was Judy (East) then Lall could ruff the heart ruff a club and the hearts in dummy would be high for club discards and the contract. If it was Nick (West) then Lall needed to let the ♥ 9 run. From the auction it looks like the diamonds are 5-4 with East holding the extra one. East also has two spades to West’s one. So either West is 1-3-4-5 or 1-4-4-4. I can’t think of a good reason to go one way or the other. At this point it is table feel. This guess was a 22 imp swing and the match. And Hermant Lall came up with the right answer. He ruffed the heart. This was the whole hand.
That ruff was worth its weight in gold.
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I played against Hemant at the NABC in Philadelphia in the finals of the Roth Open Swiss where he declared 3 hands and didn’t touch a wrong card there as well. He can still play a mean game of bridge. Team Canada did more than acquit themselves…they were fantastic! Congrats to them all 🙂
if the ruffing finesse was going to work, E would have been 2254 with QH, AKQ diamonds and Ace of clubs (at least) – surely a takeout double and not a 2D overcall – perhaps counting and inference -taking more than table feel! But still a very fine play.
I think – but I’m not sure – that West played the 8 of clubs on the first club, and that the opening diamond lead perhaps asked for count. If EW were playing UDCA, then Hemant might have worked out the entire distribution from the EW carding.
Did East miss a chance by covering the heart Jack with the Queen? If she had smoothly followed with the 10, even Hemant would have made the wrong guess.
I agree with Toine that the smooth HT on the second round is a great play.
If you assume the spades are fixed 1=2 and the diamonds are fixed 4=5 then the 1-3-4-5 pattern is slightly more likely than the 1=4=4=4 pattern. At least that’s what I remember from the MPP book Bridge, Probability & Information.
3-3 H and 5-3 C is a .8 reduction (from 4-4 to 5-3 is 4/5)
4-2 H and 4-4 C is a .75 reduction (from 3-3 to 4-2 is 3/4)
of course a 16-15 edge in an estimated a priori odds is very likely to be trumped by table feel and other clues (like signals in other suits).