2010’s Europeans: Italy vs Lebanon reported by Gluck ( fourth match)

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The fourth round we are committed against Lebanon, despite the lack of tradition in the field of bridge, has only a few points less than us (49 us and 43 them, in practice 2 under media). 

Our fourth round match is against Lebanon.  Despite their lack of pedigree they are sitting on a score of 43, only six points behind us.

 The leading team at the moment is Iceland, which gives some sharp relief to our narrow victory over them in the first round, followed by Serbia who defeated us in our last match yesterday afternoon.

 Back to the first match of the day which has Lauria and Versace in open room and Bocchi Madala in the closed.  The first few boards were closely fought and the bridge was uniformely good, though the lebonese defenders dropped a trick against a doomed 5D contract.
 
The fun began when they bid 5H over 4S which was doubled, here is a defensive situation that is worth considering;  Your partner, and is this case you have the good fortune to be playing with Lauria who leads the AS, dummy goes down with:

x
Qxxx
10xxxx
KQx
 
You hold;
 
10xxx
AJ10x
K
J10xx
 
What card would you play and why?  Alfredo played the 10S, and consequently played the AD…  This cost a trick and held the defensive gain to 10 imps, a swing in the bidding as opposed to our brilliant defense!
 
Shortly after the opponents allowed an unmakeable 5D to get home which failed as a matter of course in the other room due to poor discarding.
 
Other swings began to pile up in our favour.  One was down to an overcall that had little merit other than allowing declarer to pick his way through a difficult contract because of the information he recieved via the bidding.  The contract failed in the other room, declarer not having supernatural powers.
 
A further game swing followed by a slam swing against us, when Lauria and Versace failed to bid 6NT, the Lebonese played in 6D with this combination;
 
AKQ10x opposite xx, you either need need the suit to break 3-3, 36%, or the Jack to be doubleton if the suite breaks 4-2, 48% chance, all other splits defeat the contract out of hand.  This brings the odds of making 52%…
 
The relative new boys, Agustin and Bocchi continued to play well and continued to score against our opponents in a steady fashion, not a massacre, but a full blooded win at 24-6…
 
Next match is at 13:00 Vs Lithuania

 

Gluckenval, official commentator Vugraph BBO

Translated by Mr. John Wilmott

 

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