Day 6 of The World Team Championship

Friday 4th September.

Cloudy and warm.

Vince Oddy arrived this afternoon. Barb is happy to see him and we are glad to have one more cheer-leader in our corner.

There are 2 more days and 6 matches to go, we are in 14th place on the leader board. We need over 56 VP per day to give ourselves a chance. Lets put on our game faces and go for it.

With distributional hands, is best to show your suits early in the auction, so that partner can evaluate his/her hand in competition.  

In Match 15. Board 3.  

Dealer: South Vul: E-W		North Joan
		♠	Q94
		♥
		♦	KQJ98632
		♣	63
West				East
♠	K83			♠	J6
♥	AJ108632			♥	K95
♦	3			♦	A7
♣	87			♣	KJ10952
		South Barb
		♠	A10752
		♥	Q74
		♦	104
		♣	AQ4

 This was the auction. 

West	North	East	South
			1NT*
2♦ *	5♦	DBL	Pass
Pass	Pass

1NT was weak. 2♦ 1 major.

East had to guess which major partner held, decided to double for penalty. Joan made 11 tricks for +550.

At the other table, Susan (west) bid her hearts and the partnership was able to save at 5♥ X over 5♦.  Down 1 for -200. We won 8 imps.

Match 16 vs Denmark. Joan-Barb in the open room and Pamela-Karen in the close room. It was a close match, we won 16-14 VP. We moved up one place, we are now 13th.

You hold ♠ K42 ♥ 1076 ♦ J875 ♣ 843 your partner opened 1NT weak, RHO X for penalty. What do you bid?

Barb bid 2♦ showing diamonds and hearts. LHO bid 2♠ went all pass. This time luck is with us, Barb’s bid stole the pot. Karen and Pamela at the other table bid and made 4 ♥ for a big gain.

These are the hands.

Match 16. Board 29. 

Dealer: North Vul: All		North
		♠	A10853
		♥	J94
		♦	96
		♣	J106
West Barb				East Joan
♠	K42			♠	QJ6
♥	1076			♥	32
♦	J875			♦	AK1042
♣	843			♣	Q95
		South
		♠	97
		♥	AKQ85
		♦	Q3
		♣	AK72

Match 17 vs Germany. Kiz-Susan in open room and Joan-Barb in the close room.

Germany had an amazing record in the Venice Cup. Since 1989 they have played in all of them only once failed to make it to the quarter finals. Won gold medal twice and silver medal thrice.

It didn’t go well for us and we lost 21-9 VP. That pretty much ended our chance to qualify for the quarter finals.  

Match 18 vs Venezuela. Kiz-Susan in the close room and Pamela-Karen in the open room. We played bad and lost 22-8 VP.

The day started with such high hope as we were on a roll, but it was not to be. Lets play with heart to-morrow and move up the leader board.

Just an idea, there should be a mercy rule in these championships. At the end of each day during the round robin, the last placed team is allowed to resign. Otherwise forcing them to play meaningless matches would only give them the chance to be king makers.