Tenerife hands

Tenerife hands (2) - A hole in the system?

Poland and Italy are arguably the best two European (and world) teams currently, but their pairs were among the very few to miss a slam in this board from the 2nd round in Tenerife:

Board 7, South dealer, Game all


                              8
                              K 10 8 7 6 3 2
                              A
                              Q 10 7 3

Q 6 5 2                                K 10 9 3
Q                                         9 5
K Q J 10 2                           9 8 7 5 4 3
J 9 5                                    6

                             A J 7 4
                             A J 4
                             6
                             A K 8 4 2

The auction in Bulgaria vs Poland was:

South         West           North           East
Zmudzinski Mihov         Balicki          Nanev
1C              1D             1H                4D
4H              all pass

1C was Polish, i.e. either a weak notrump or a strong hand (among other things?) The excellent 4D bid by East didn't leave South room to show strength, but I am not well versed in the system to judge who is to blame for the disaster.

At the other table, South opened 2C and after six rounds of uncontested bidding they reached 7C, for a gain of 16 IMPs. At that moment Bulgaria led 35-0, but Poland fought back to lose only by 3, 46 to 43.

Most pairs reached 6H. Unsurprisingly, no EW pair tried the sacrifice at 7D which gains a lot against the grand slam at 7C (but NS may go on at 7H which also makes). Against Greece, the Romanians found a much less profitable sacrifice: 6S, which went for a cool 2300.

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