West North East South Y. Egozi B. Egozi Pass 1♦* 1♠ Dbl Pass 1NT 2♣ 2♦ 2♠ 4NT Pass 5♦ Pass 6♦ Pass Pass Pass * Precision. 11-15 HCP, 2+ diamonds, no 5-card major The bidding looks a bit strange. At first West was willing to play a lowly 1NT contract, but then his partner bid 2♦. In natural bidding this is a weak bid in support of diamonds, but in the Precision system the one diamond opening does not show a real suit, so two diamonds by the responder is a forcing new suit bid showing 5+ diamonds and 10+ HCP. In view of this information, West's hand was sharply upgraded, and Yoram Egozi did not waste any time with cuebids. He went straight to Roman Keycard Blackwood and reached six diamonds – a great slam with merely 25 HCP. The play is easy once trumps break 2-1: East's two heart losers disappear on the ace-king of spades and three clubs are ruffed in West's hand regardless of the whereabouts of the club ace. About one month later, Samoelov - Moshkovits became European Champions under 16 together with Ofek Sabbah - Daniel Msika and Noam Berger – Lavi Batzia Greenberg. All three pairs used the Tel Aviv Festival as a good opportunity for training. Inmy opinion, theboldest slamwhich I witnessed during the event was bid by the eventual winners Amir Etzion – Lior Urman which were also preparing for the same European Championship at Oslo as members of Israel's U26 Junior Team. Their unhappy "victims" (-15 IMPs) sitting N/S were the Czech internationals Milan Macura – Lukas Kolek. Dealer East. Vul E/W T762 KT42 9 QT95 985 - 53 AQ987 AKQJT3 7654 A7 J632 AKQJ43 J6 82 K84 West North East South Etzion Macura Urman Kolek Pass 1♠ 3♠* 4♠ 4NT Pass 5♦ Pass 6♦ All Pass * Asking partner to bid 3NT with a spade stopper, usually based on a long minor West's jump to 3♠ proved far more effective than a simple overcall of two diamonds. East had support for both minors, so it was quite easy to go for five in a minor over four spades, asking for partner's minor with 4NT. However, Lior Urman was not content with bidding and making a game, perhaps due to the nature of this tournament, and he went "all-in" with six diamonds. Maybe this is not the greatest slam ever bid, but it worked. In case of a non-club lead, declarer has chances even when the heart finesse fails. Admittedly, in view of the bidding the chances of the heart finesse were considerably lower than fifty percent. At the table Milan Macura led the heart four. Declarer asked for dummy's queen, and when this card held the trick, the rest was easy. A simple crossruff provided declarer with twelve tricks. When the smoke cleared, it turned out that Etzion-Urman amassed 117 IMPs in 48 boards, winning the IMP Pairs ahead of Ophir Reshef – Eran Assaraf 112 IMPs and Tracy Capal – Warner Solomon (Great Britain) 106.9 IMPs.
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