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Bridge Report from Salt Lake City - a Canadian
Point of View
WE DID IT!
By Linda Lee
For the very first time ever, Canada has won a gold
medal in International Team Competition. Although we can boast
a number of silver and bronze, the only other Canadian WBF gold
medal was won in the World Mixed Pairs by Dianna Gordon and George
Mittelman in 1982.
You should have been there. The small but very vociferous
group of Canadian spectators cheered, waved their flag and willed
their courageous MenĖs team to victory as they defeated the Olympiad
Champion Italian team in the semi-finals and the perhaps even
stronger Polish team in a nail-biting conclusion. For Canadian
bridge players, watching this set of boards was every bit as exciting
as watching the Superbowl the previous Sunday.
While this event was much shorter and less gruelling
than most World Bridge Federation events, the positive effect
of that was that the bridge in the final was top notch. There
were a very small number of IMPS exchanged despite many tough
deals; there were fine plays and pressure bids made by every player
on the two teams.
The final began on Tuesday evening with a 13 IMP
to 7 IMP set for Canada but with a carryover of 2.5 IMPS for Poland
the actual score after the first segment was Canada 13 Poland
9.5. The low score illustrates the quality of the tight intense
bridge that was played. After 6 push boards, Canada gained its
13 IMPS on Board 7.
North
S J984
H 82
D J1084
C QJ6
West East
S A63 S K1072
H 104 H QJ7653
D 97 D KQ6
C AK10875 C ---
South
S Q5
H AK9
D A532
C 9432
Both tables reached 4H by East after South had opened the bidding
and the SQ was led at both tables. Both declarers won the SK in
hand. The play to trick 2 was critical. In the closed room Gord
Campbell for Canada led the DQ and PolandĖs Kwiecen ducked. This
was enough for Gord. . He crossed to dummy on the SA and discarded
2 diamonds on the club ace and king. When he led a spade from
dummy the defence was helpless and he soon claimed his contract.
At the other table, PolandĖs Adam Zmudzinski played the H3 from
hand towards dummy. Peter Jones rose with the HA and was now in
command. He cashed the HK and returned a spade. Zmudzinski now
had to hope the opening lead had been made from the spade QJ and
ducked. North, Nick Gartaganis, won the SJ, and returned a spade
for Peter to ruff. Peter cashed the DA for two down and a 13 IMP
pickup for Canada.
Segment 2 was one of the finest episodes in CanadaĖs bridge history.
They demolished Poland by 44 IMPS to 0 to take the lead by 46.5
IMPs at the halfway point. Although there was no swing on the
first board, Board 13, it was a fascinating hand on Vugraph.
North
S 98
H AJ2
D AQ6
C AQJ82
West East
S J S AKQ1065
H 98432 H ---
D 8743 D K105
C 1095 C K763
South
S 7432
H KQ1076
D K92
C 4
In the closed room, Jacek Pszczola of Poland had played in 2S East-West,
making for 110. In the open room the auction took a different turn
with both sides vulnerable.
West North East South
Gitelman Balicki Silver Zmudzinski
1C 1S Dbl
Pass 2S Dbl 3H
Pass 4H All Pass
Fred led the SJ and Joey played the S10 asking for a diamond
shift. Silver won the DQ with the DK and cashed the SA. He continued
with another high spade as Zmudzinski ruffed in dummy with the
H2, Gitelman making the critical discards of two small diamonds.
Why was this critical? Wait and see. At this point Zmudzinski
could make the hand if he took the right view. Can you see the
right line?
He started off well by cashing the HA, noting the 5-0 split.
He cashed the HJ and had now reached the critical point in the
hand. If he believes that Silver has the CK he can squeeze him
in spades and clubs. He must finesse the D9, run all the hearts
throwing the DA from dummy, and cash the DK. In the two-card end
position Joey cannot hold the guarded CK and a high spade so declarer
makes his tenth trick with a black suit winner. On the actual
hand, Zmudzinski, influenced by FredĖs early diamond discards,
played Fred for the CK and played for the club finesse rather
than the squeeze. That is why the diamond discards were crucial.
Board 16 (E-W vulnerable) produced the next big swing.
North
S A10
H KJ1072
D 764
C 632
West East
S KQJ2 S 7653
H A63 H 5
D A102 D K983
C 985 C KQ104
South
S 984
H Q984
D QJ5
C AJ7
In the closed room, Jones and Gartaganis had bought the hand
in 3H doubled, down one. In the open room Gitelman and Silver
reached the thin vulnerable game.
Closed Room
West North East South
Kwiecen Gartaganis Pszczola Jones
1C 1H 1S 2C
2S Pass Pass 3H
Dbl All Pass
Open Room
West North East South
Gitelman Balicki Silver Zmudzinski
1C 2H Dbl Pass
2S Pass 3S Pass
4S All Pass
Balicki led the D6. This was a revealing lead since the Poles
lead low from a doubleton, Gitelman was able to deduce that Balicki
had more than two diamonds, and this was to prove useful later
in the hand. Fred won ZmudzinskiĖs DJ with the DA, cashed the
HA, ruffed a heart and played a spade to the king. Ducking would
probably have been better, but Balicki won the SA and returned
the S10 to the SQ. Fred ruffed his last heart and made the critical
play of a small diamond from dummy. Zmudzinski won the DQ but
Fred was now in control. Fred ruffed the heart return and claimed
10 tricks, conceding the CA to win 11 IMPs for Canada.
The third quarter started off badly for Canada when Poland won
the first board making a lucky vulnerable game which was not bid
by Gartaganis and Jones. The rest of the set did not go well either
and when the smoke cleared, the Poles had gained back 30 IMPs.
The Canadian lead had shrunk to 18 IMPs.
The last set started off with four essentially flat boards, Canada
losing 2 IMPs on overtricks. This was to set the tone for the
entire set, which was very low scoring. The fifth board, Board
20 was the first swing hand when Canada went minus in both rooms
on a partscore hand to lose 7 IMPS. The Canadian lead had shrunk
to 9 IMPs. Three more pushes and a 2 IMP loss left Canada with
only a 7 IMP advantage and three boards left. Hoping for flat
boards, the Canadian fans were not pleased to see Board 22 pop
up on the screen.
North
S AQJ742
H J73
D 93
C 54
West East
S K8 S 10
H AKQ942 H 6
D 10 D K865
C J1096 C AKQ8732
South
S 9652
H 1085
D AQJ8742
C ---
Closed Room
West North East South
Kwiecen Campbell Pszczola Balcombe
1C 1D
1H 1S 2C 5S
6C 6S Dbl All Pass
Open Room
West North East South
Gitelman Balicki Silver Zmudzinski
1C 1D
2H 2S 5C 5S
6C Pass Pass 6S
Dbl All Pass
This was one of those hands where the last one to bid loses.
In the closed room after Balcombe had made the bold 5S bid, Campbell
had no choice but to take the ÏsaveÓ in 6S. In the open room Gitelman
must have suspected that 5S was going down since there was no
reason to believe that two hearts would not cash but he reasonably
took out insurance by bidding 6C. Now Zmudzinski had a decision
to make and he chose the aggressive one. We held our breath, but
Silver found the heart lead, and there was no swing. The Canadian
fans let out a collective sigh.
The second last board, Board 23, was also not the flat board
the Canadian fans had hoped for. In the Open Room Gitelman-Silver
had arrived in 3NT, which seemed inevitable, and had gone three
down vulnerable for į300 on an unlucky lie of the cards. We had
to wait some time for the closed room result, but when Kwiecen
and Pszczola playing the hand from the other side got a more favourable
lead and escaped for į100 the Canadian lead had shrunk to 2 IMPs
(actually 1.5 IMPS when the exact carry-over was factored in)
with one more board to play.
Board 24
North
S AJ97
H K9
D AQ6
C AQ75
West East
S A8 S 1052
H AQ1043 H 62
D K98532 D J104
C --- C K8643
South
S K643
H J87
D 7
C J1092
Closed Room
West North East South
Kwiecen Campbell Pszczola Balcombe
1H Dbl Pass 1S
2D Pass 2H 3C
Pass 4S All Pass
Open Room
West North East South
Gitelman Balicki Silver Zmudzinski
1H Dbl Pass 1S
2D Pass 2H 3C
Pass 4S All Pass
When the last board came up it seemed that Canada was at last
sure of victory. Word came that Balcombe and Campbell had arrived
in 4S, making 420. When Balicki and Zmudzinski reached 4S too,
it did not seem possible for them to score the two overtricks
they needed to win the match. Still, a one or two IMP lead seemed
too close for comfort for the Canadian spectators, since during
the event the Vu-Graph score had not always proved to be completely
accurate. So both the Poles and Canadians sat tensely watching
the play of the hand. Gitelman started with the HA and another
heart, won by Kwiecen in the dummy. The auction had suggested
that Gitelman had a lot of red cards so Kwiecen decided to play
Silver for spade length and continued with the SA and the SJ ducking
to Gitelman. Now if Fred played another heart Silver would get
a trump promotion and score the S10 for the setting trick. Fred
fingered the heart, started to play it, stopped and started to
think again. After a few more anxious moments for the Canadian
fans he finally played the heart. The contract was down and we
could finally relax and savour the win.
At this point, Ray Lee, the President of the CBF, was embraced
by the Radek Kielbasinski, President of the Polish Bridge Federation
in a show of great sportsmanship and cameraderie. The highlight
of the evening was the moment when in a typical Olympic ceremony
the Canadian team with shining faces held the Maple Leaf aloft
on the victory podium and 'O Canada' was played and sung. At the
Victory Banquet, the Canadian and Polish tables congratulated
and toasted each other and the Polish Bridge Federation presented
Canada with a medal commemorating the 45th anniversary of PBF.
The media coverage has been terrific, and as we write this (Friday,
Feb 8) we have just watched Gordon and Nick being interviewed
on CBC Newsworld in full uniform, and proudly wearing their gold
medals. Bridge has never had this kind of publicity in more than
thirty years; what a thrill if we really could be part of the
Winter Olympics in 2006!
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