Let’s jump to the semifinal the next day when Cayne plays Lavazza. What would you lead with the East hand here (Board 5, Closed room):
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Again, my guess is that 99 out of 100 experts would lead a heart as you normally need something good to happen to beat the contract when they have stopped in 2 NT after an invitational sequence. (The jack of hearts being first choice for many, but personally I would have gone with a low heart in case there is a stiff queen of hearts in dummy and partner has Ax.)
Ron Schwartz selected a small diamond. Again, if Lotan Fisher would have had a heart honour I would think Ron was number 69 in that expert line and just found a sexy lead. This time around Lotan was void in hearts.
Back to the third segment of the quarter final where this hand (Board 12, Closed room) caught my eye:
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Alfredo Versace led a spade against me to Lauria’s ace. I won the spade return, cashed ace-king of clubs, played a diamond to the ace, ruffed a diamond, went to dummy with the 8 of spades and ruffed another diamond. On my last trump I pitched a heart in dummy so that an opponent with queen-jack of hearts and the fourth diamond would be squeezed. Versace shows me his hand and says no squeeze. He already knows my hand for this play – bridge is a logic game.
At the other table Allan Graves leads a low club which Lotan wins in his hand. Having only one side loser Lotan decides to play the queen of spades from his hand (he can afford two trump losers). The jack pops from Allan and Richie wins the trick with the ace. Richie continues with the deuce of spades, and Lotan (after some consideration I believe) decides to go with restricted choice so he plays low from his hand.
When Allan gets in on his ten of spades, an apparently frustrated Mr. Fisher slams his cards back in the board pocket at the table. He doesn’t show any cards, nor does he make a statement of how many tricks he is making. Allan now asks Lotan how many tricks he made, and Lotan says “All”. I guess Allan’s body language expresses that he would like to see declarer’s cards as Allan has a couple of red honours in his hand. Lotan takes his cards out of the pocket and shows the hand to Allan. It’s a very simple hand – there is one more loser – so the BBO operator writes 10 tricks, plus 620 to the Cayne team and 1 IMP to the Schwartz team.