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The Spingold 2013 final faced two teams: Bridge 24 (an incredible team of only 4 players from Poland: Jacek Kalita, Michael Nowosadski, Rafal Jagniewski and Wojciech Gawel) and the Grue team with exquisite players from USA, Canada, France and Sweden: Joe Grue, Les Amoils, Brad Moss, Thomas Bessis, Peter Bertheau and Jacob Morgan. After the 4 sets of 64 boards each the match finished 119-119, so both had to face an 8 boards playoff (Spingold Regulations: Should any head-to-head match end in a tie, a play-off will be played as follows: 32-board match: 6-board play-off 48 or 64 board match: 8-board play-off) . To find out what happened in the first 2 sets Click Here, and to find out what happened in the second 2 sets Click Here.
The first board added 1 IMP to Grue, but the next board was very interesting. The hand was played first in the Grue – Moss table.Â
Play Off Board 2: 
Moss opened his hand with a 1
bid, West competed with spades and Grue showed his club suit, Moss supported his partner suit showing extras, and when Grue closed the 3NT game, showing he didnt want to play slam, South continued with 4
showing he had serious slam interest. They stopped in 6. As you can see the spade lead defeats the contract, but Kalita chose a diamond lead and declarer won the lead, played trumps and pitched a spade loser in the hearts once the K was out.
Everyone believed that this board was Grue team consecration …but at the other table Gawel y Jagniewski chose to play 6NT, with South as declarer, inhibiting an spade lead…finally declarer received a club lead and the board gave 2 IMPs to Bridge24 team.
 It was not until Board 6 that a new swing appeared: Kalita did not feel comfortable playing 3 doubled and chose to play 4
.
 The defense begun with A and K to continue with 
to the K. Declarer won the spade return in his hand, played K and A, the Q didnt appear…At the end he had to give a club and the trump queen for two down. 
 At the other table, in a very similar sequence Bertheau chose to play 3 doubled.
 A diamond or a spade lead defeats the contract, but Bessis chose to lead a trump. The declarer won the lead in his hand and played a club to the J, Bertheau won the trick with hisA. Continued with the A and changed to a trump after watching his partner’s card. Jagniewski won the trick in dummy, pitched a spade loser in the K and claimed 9 tricks: +530 – 200= 8 IMPs for Bridge 24.
 Next Board was the confirmation of the Poland team triumph:
 Board 7: Grue and Moss played 4.
 Lead: West lead the A, and switched to a club. Kalita won with the A and if he switch to a diamond he can defeat the contract, his partner stays with two good diamonds, declarer doesn’t have any place to pitch his diamond losers…
 At the table Kalita continued with another club…Moss won with the K, played a to the A and run 10, winning the trick. Here Moss should have played the J to continue ruffing the 9 in dummy to continue playing trumps, but as he played he stayed in dummy winning with the 10…and couldnt ruff the spade loser…
Later he could not stop losing two diamonds …one down.
At the other table the declarer received a lead that allowed him to win the contract without problems: the J …
After a long thought Gawel played a little diamnod from dummy and won the trick with his Q and didnt have problems to make his very needed 10 tricks…The declarer continued with another diamond to the A and a diamond won by West’s K.
A club return to East’s A and a to South’s K. Heart to the A and run the 10…won the trick, another heart, the Q appears, K..and claim 10 tricks…12 IMPs for Bridge 24 and the Spingold Cup until next year is for 4 Poland young players who beat one of the most powerfull teams in the world … well deserved … and very deserving …
Above all the Playoff boards , click in the hand you want to see the full play, card by card:
Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish