Last Board
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday December 31, 2003
More information has come to hand about the celebrated last board of the 2003 Bermuda Bowl.
West dealer; E-W vulnerable.
NORTH
' 2
? AJ93
? KQ109865
? 5
WEST EAST
' J10 ' A6543
? 542 ? KQ1086
? A7 ? 42
? K107642 ? A
SOUTH
' KQ987
? 7
? J3
? QJ983
At one table it began:
West North East South
Pass 1D 2D (1) Pass
2H 3D Pass Pass
?
(1) Michaels, both majors
The other table was the same except that South doubled 2D. What should West do?
Answer to yesterday's problem:
Both Duboin and Hamman bid 3H, but with only 3-card support, West should pass 3D. Bid 3-over-3 only if your side has 9+ trumps.
Bocci, East, went on to 4H, which failed by four tricks. Italy -400. Passing 3D would have won the title for Italy.
At the other table, Lauria, North bid 5D over 3H and East, Soloway, doubled. Soloway led the CA, West playing C7, and switched to the HQ: seven - two - ace. Lauria played the HJ next: king - ruff - H4. The C8 was led from dummy: C6 - D8 - H6. The H3 was ruffed with the DJ, but the H10 did not drop. Next came the SK from dummy: jack - two - ace.
At this point Soloway could have cashed the H10 for two down, but he played a spade. Lauria could have played the SQ to hold the loss to one down and produce a tie, but he played low, went two down and the USA became world champions.
Patrick Jourdain writes: 'At the final dinner Boye Brogeland told me that Lauria had admitted that in the stress of the moment he was thinking all dummy's spades were equal in value. What the audience could clearly see on Viewgraph was that the absence of Versace (who therefore must be deemed a significant contributing cause of the error) forced Lauria to stretch through the gap in the screen to reach the spade suit, and that the seven of spades was within easy reach, whereas the queen was not. It may be the first case of a world title being decided by the physical distance between declarer and the card he needed to play!'
The Daily Bulletin at the USA Fall Nationals had this report: Why did Soloway lead a spade instead of the good heart? There were clues suggesting the spade lead. First of all, his partner had bid hearts twice, which made it likely that Hamman had four hearts, in which case Lauria would have no more. Second, Hamman followed to the opening club lead with the 7. Soloway was sure that Hamman knew that they couldn't cash the second club, so the 7 could have been a suit preference signal asking for spades. Also, in playing hearts Hamman played the 2, then the 4 and then the 5. He might have played 2-5-4 with three.
Soloway had a very tough choice to make. Did his partner have four hearts and therefore a singleton spade, or did he have just three hearts along with two spades?
'I saw the C7 and it looked like a signal for spades,' said Paul. 'In the heart suit, our first play is attitude, and the second shows present count. Bob played the 4 second, and in our methods that showed an even number originally, so it seemed that Bob had started with four hearts and a singleton spade.'
'But then there was the auction. Bob bid only 2H the first time. If he had four hearts, very likely he would have jumped to 3H.'
Soloway eventually made the wrong choice - he relied on the play rather than the auction and played partner for a singleton spade. But because Lauria didn't realize that Soloway had made the wrong choice, the Americans still got their two-trick set - and the gold medal in the closest Bermuda Bowl in history.
'At the table I thought I had it right,' said Paul. 'In retrospect, I feel I should have given stronger consideration to the bidding. Bob didn't bid 3H, so he probably didn't have four hearts. So in retrospect I feel I should have led a heart, not the spade.'
A Happy Bridging New Year to all our column readers and may your decisions in 2004 be happier than Lauria's.
Tomorrow's problem:
West dealer : East-West vulnerable
West North East South
1H 1S 2C 3S
?
' --
? AKQ7543
? A1053
? K7
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald