Match 6 - Israel

Despite the 2 small losses, we managed to stay in third spot with 92 VPs behind Poland with 96 and Israel with 106. After the initial matches, many people were surprised that we are staying near the top of the leaderboard. The vugraph commentators were understandably skeptical about our real abilities as the teams that we faced in the first day were all placed in the bottom half of the field.

Thus, to many respects, the match against Israel is very critcal. Israel youth team is very impressive and boast the likes of Eldad Ginossar , part of the thrid place team in the recent Rosemblum Cup in Verona and Yuval Yener, champion of World Junior Pairs in 2003. The Israeli schools team were even more dominating. In the knockout stages of the event, they forced their semis and final opponents into withdrawing by taking an unbeatable lead into the last segment. One can only admire the supplyline of talent emerging.

Kelvin/Liyu were back in the playing lineup together with my pair and we all entered the match, knowing this is the one that would determine whether we are pretenders or contenders. As we came to the table to get ready for battle, my partner soon found out his screenmate would be Ginossar. The way we started, it certainly looked like the critics were proven right.

On board one, I held:

♠ 8 7 6
♥ A T
♦ Q 9 8 7 3
♣ 9 5 4

my partner opened 1NT (14-17) and after 2 passes, my LHO balanced with a X: showing a single suiter.

Partner removed to 2C showing 5+ clubs passed to LHO who showed his suit with 2H. After 2 passes, do you bid?

Well, perhaps wrongly, I was there with 3C. LHO continued with 3D and was raised to 4H. I doubled smartly only to find the contract cannot be defeated:

♠ K 9 4 -------------♠ A Q T 2
♥ K 9 8 7 6 4 -------♥ Q J 5
♦ K J 5 4 -----------♦ T 2
♣ void --------------♣J T 3 2

When our teammates stopped in 2H, it meant the damage was 10 imps.

Next board:

Vul against not, you deal and held:

♠ K J T 8 7 6 4
♥ 9 6 2
♦ 7 5 2
♣ -

What do you open?

Again I felt the hand was unsuitable for a first hand unfavourable preempt. Thus, I decided to pass and the bidding proceeded:

You
Pass (1NT) Pass (Pass)
2S (3C) X (Pass)
3S (Pass) Pass! (Pass)

When a club was led and partner put down:
♠ A 9 3
♥ K 8 5 4
♦ Q T 3
♣ A K 6

I wasn't happy. Although game is not cold (indeed with the J D offside, it can be defeated) , I feel partner owed me a raise to 4S.

I proceeded to take 10 tricks. Another game swing? That's the way it felt but my teammates took the insurance in 5Cx for -300 to reduce the damage to 4 imps.

On the next board:

♠ A Q 9 6 3
♥ K 9 7
♦ 8 4
♣ K 8 4

I opened 1S, heard a 2C overcall and partner jumped to 3D. In our system this showed an intermediate hand with 5+ D. I saw nothing to do and passed it out. When Gino led a S, I sensed something was wrong and so it was. We just had our first (and thankfully, only) systemic misunderstanding for the tournament. Partner remembered it as a fit jump and held:

♠ K J 7 4
♥ 8 5
♦ K J T 7 2
♣ Q 7

3D drifted one off and with everything on my left, 4S is cold! (Luckily, the opps misplayed it and went down)

I was bemused. Not only do we have to cope with tough opps, we are even shooting ourselves in the foot. 3 boards and it seemed like 30 imps away against world class opponents. It does seem like an impossible task. Are we really here to make up the numbers? It certainly looked that way. In my opinion, what I did next was the critcal point for the tournament. It was also the best lesson I took away from the whole WYC.

I has always been the one recording scores for my side. Up till then, I had always placed my scoresheet in front of me. I've always felt that with the scoresheet available, the state of the match would be clear and I would know what adjustments to make to my game.

Frustrated with the proceedings, I chucked my scoresheet under the table. I thought: To hell with the scores, I'm not going to be humiliated, even if we do lose, I'll try to put up my best fight and concentrate on every card/bid. Thanks to the Bridgemates(more on that later), this could be done and I didn't record any scores until the end of the match.

Well, as it was, we regained a bit of luck:
♠ J 8 5 4
♥ A T 8 5
♦ K T 9 2
♣ 3


♠ A K T 9 6
♥ K 3
♦ J 3
♣ 9 7 6 4

I held the South hand and heard Gino (East) open 1H, I overcalled 1S, West bidded 2D (forcing) and partner judged very well to bid game directly. Gino dbled and that ended the proceeding.

On a trump lead, I could see our hands fitted perfectly and proceeded to take an easy 11 tricks (trumps were 2-2) +990. Our opps stopped in 3S so we got 13 imps back.

Immediately on the next board, I have to make another difficult decision:

♠ 5 2
♥ K 8 4
♦ K 4 2
♣ A K T 5 2

After Gino (RHO) opened the bidding, it went:

1NT 2C
2D 3H (5S+4H)
4S

ace of club lead was obvious and I saw the dummy:

♠ A J 9 7 4
♥ Q J 9 3
♦ Q T 9
♣ 4

What next?

Given the strong dummy, you do not expect pd to help much. What is important is that your tricks do not get away. At the table I switched to a D, the obvious choice between the red suits on the bidding.

When partner turned up with:

♠ Q T 6
♥ T 6 5
♦ 6 5
♣ J 9 7 6 3

We took a trick in each suit and defeated 4S. At the other table, the defender in my seat elected to continue with a small club and when in with the D K, another club. That was fatal and Kelvin swiftly discarded all his H losers for 10 tricks. another 13 imps in.

Well, that kick-started an avalanche when we tried to play as well as we could and opponents were unlucky in some cases and took some wrong views. After it ended, Poon Hua and me were confident it was not a thrashing. I scrambled to enter all the scores into my ditched scoresheet. It turned out our teammates had a terrific set after the sluggish start and got everything absolutely right. In any event, after the first 3 boards, Israel scored only on 1 board, 4 imps.. while we scored 83 imps!

The final score was 83 -19 in imps (25 - 3 in VPs). We were greeted with smiles and praises from our third pair who were not playing and our NPCs when we came out. Suddenly, we are back in the running and was second on the leaderboard, just behind Poland.

Exhausted after the long day, we couldnt wait to finish dinner and rest. It feels doubly sweet to overcome such a bad start. Sometimes, we just try our best and leave it to fate to see how things turn out. Hopefully, we'll continue this good streak the next day when we play Thailand, Egypt and Norway, the last match to be on vugraph...