This is our final visit to ’The Home of the Braves’ and the 2023 Fall NABC. On our last visit, we saw the highlights of the first session of the Reisinger BAM Teams final. We will now take a look at the best of the action from the second half of the final.

There is no such thing as a big swing board in BAM Teams, as it is effectively matchpoint scoring, with teams playing head-to-head matches. The best score on each deal scores 1 point, with each team scoring 0.5 points on a pushed board. Although only a single point is available on each deal, there were still plenty to thrill and perhaps educate those watching live on BBO VuGraph.

Repeating the format from earlier in the day, in this second half of the final each team will again play a 3-board match against each of the other nine teams.

As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, a lead problem, perhaps. With only your opponents vulnerable, you are West holding:

Do you bid again? If not, what do you lead?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the East seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you mull those over, we start with the Round 1 match between NICKELL and GERLI. After two flat boards, the layout on the final deal suggested perhaps more of the same, and events at the first table did nothing to dispel that notion.

Although still in his teens at the time, Alessandro Gandoglia (left) made his first international appearance as a member of the Italian team at the 2009 European Universities Championships. After numerous appearances for his country, his career in youth bridge ended with a gold medal in the Junior Teams at the 2015 World Youth Championships. The following year, Gandoglia made his debut on the Italian Open team, at the European Championships. Last year, he collected bronze medals in the Mixed Teams at both the World Championships on home soil in Salsomaggiore and at the Europeans in Madeira.

On this deal, Gandoglia got his side off to a good start by opening with three rounds of clubs. Steve Weinstein won in dummy with the ♣Q and played a diamond to the jack, but then had no good move. He tried the ♥Q, Gandoglia winning and switching to a spade, ducked to declarers bare ace. Endplayed again, Weinstein forced an entry to dummy by playing a heart towards the ten, but the defenders now had seven tricks. N/S -50.

The auction in the replay became rather more exciting…

Leonardo Fruscoloni had to start with a negative double on the North hand (1♠ would have denied as many as four spades), but the auction was essentially the same as the first table until Geoff Hampson (right) backed in with a double on the East cards. Looking at an indifferent 5-count, Fruscoloni did not like this development at all, so he attempted to escape via a redouble. That began a nightmarish journey on a merry-go-round that seemed likely to stop only if the Americans ran out of double cards. In the end, having decided that he did not want to play 2♦-doubled earlier in the auction, Fruscoloni found himself having to give preference to diamonds at the three-level. Yuk!

Eric Greco opened with a trump, Hampson winning with the♦A and switching to his heart. Declarer is always likely to go two down, but Greco offered him a chance to get out for one off. The downside was that if he missed the chance offered, he would go three down… Winning with the ♥J, Greco switched to a devilish ♣8 at trick three. If declarer rises with dummy’s ♣Q, he would be able to take a diamond finesse and escape with eight tricks (which would of course still have been a loss at BAM). When Gerli played low from dummy, Hampson won with the ♣J and returned a club. The defenders now took two heart ruffs. Declarer was left with the last six tricks: N/S -500 and the point on the board to NICKELL.

As is often the case when both sides have a big fit, this deal from Round 3 had plenty of potential for creating swings. We start in the match between ANDRESEN and RIPPEY.

Stian Evenstad’s bantamweight 1♥ overcall injected momentum into the auction. The Poles competed vulnerable to the five-level but Grzegorz Narkiewicz understandably decided that enough was enough when the Norwegian protégé Nikolai Heiberg-Evenstad (left) bid a five-over-five 5♥.

Kamil Nowak cashed a top diamond and then switched to a club. Winning with the ♣K, Narkiewicz switched to the ♥6, but young Nikolai was not to be deflected from the winning option. He took the trump finesse are was soon claiming his contract: E/W +650.

At the other table in this match, the Polish brothers, Jakub and Patryk Patreuha, also made +650 in 5♥-doubled to split the point on the deal.

Some East/West pairs had to work harder… In the match between GROSSACK and FLEISHER, Zack Grossack and Michael Rosenberg had to bid a slam to buy the contract. The defenders duly collected their two tricks against 6♥-doubled, so that was E/W -100. Which way the point on the board went in this match depended on the answer to the first of this week’s problems…

Alfredo Versace (right) also came in with a 1♥ overcall on the West cards. At this table, Antonio Sementa advanced the auction with a splinter bid of 4♣ to show his heart support. Having bid his diamonds at his first turn, Dennis Bilde then showed club support with 4NT after the Italians had bid to 4♥. When Agustin Madala did not double 5♥, Bilde chose to try his luck in slam, doubled by Sementa.

Versace would probably have flattened the board to split the point had to retreated to 6♥, but he chose to take his chances on defence, and everything depended on his choice of opening lead. (At IMP scoring this would have been a 25-IMP decision but, at BAM, it simply decided the destination of the one point available on the board.)

There was only one winning option, and Versace duly tabled the ♠4. Madala duly took two winners in the suit and gave his partner a ruff: E/W +300 and the point on the deal thus went to FLEISHER. On any other lead, declarer would have an easy ride to 13 tricks. This deal from the match between FLEISHER and GERLI became a battle of the weak no-trump openings.

Chip Martel competed to 3♠ on the North hand, but Alessandro Gandoglia was not prepared to sell out at this level. Norberto Bocchi (left) knew which suit he preferred as trumps, and Gandoglia might perhaps have just raised. When he offered 4♥ as an alternative, Martel was tempted into a double on the bad trump break. Now, when Gandoglia reconsidered, Marty Fleisher was persuaded that his side had more defensive values than was the case.

The defenders cashed their top spades, but there was no third trick for them with diamonds as trumps. E/W +550.

Playing in hearts, the defenders can play a club from the North hand after cashing one or two spades. North will then be able to ruff in with his long trump before declarer can get a discard on the diamonds. I have no doubt that Martel would only double 4♥ at BAM scoring, but it proved to be a fatal decision. Of course, playing a strong no-trump, getting to a making game (diamonds or no-trumps) is much easier after a 1♦ opening by East.

The Italians at the other table were also playing a weak 1NT, so East was left with the second of this week’s problems…

Aldo Gerli (right) made his first international appearance at the 2003 World Junior Pairs Championships in New York. After an identical start to the auction on this deal, his free raise to 4♠ presented his countrymen with a more difficult situation to unravel. It is hard to see what Versace might do other than double at his second turn, and it is hard to criticize Sementa for not removing to his poor suit at the five-level.

Gerli managed to scramble eight tricks in 4♠-doubled: E/W +300 and the point on the deal goes to GERLI.

Our final deal again features the Italians, this time in their match against GOLDBERG. At the first table, the Swedish Strong Club system bid 1♣-(Pass)-1♦-(Pass)-1♠-All Pass. Looking at the North/South hands below, do you want to get higher? Declarer made eight tricks: N/S +110. The Italians were more adventurous in the replay…

Leonardo Fruscoloni (left) made his international debut as a member of the Italian Schools team at the 2006 World Youth Championships. On this deal, he dredged up a raise to 3NT on his 4-count.

The one good thing about this contract is that whatever West leads is likely to assist you. Hua Poon tried the ♦6 at trick one which, whilst not actually giving declarer anything tangible, does still assist by answering his questions in that suit.

Capturing the ♦Q with the ace, declarer now has two diamond entries to dummy if he wants them. Should he use them to establish a second club trick, perhaps, or to play hearts?

Gerli chose to attack spades, playing the ♠2 from his hand at trick two. I tell my students that you give away half a trick every time you open a new suit. Winning with the ♠9, the line of defence that offers the best chance here is perhaps to simply continue diamonds, but Connie Goldberg switched to the ♥5. Declarer put up the king, taken by the ♥A, and Poon returned a heart. Again, declarer can always make two heart tricks, but his life was certainly made easier by this active defence.

Now Gerli played the ♠A and a third round of spades to West’s ten. Poon cleared the hearts but, when declarer played a fourth round of spades to her king, Poon did not have a heart winner to cash. Declarer had four diamonds, the ♣A and two tricks in each of the majors for a total of nine. N/S +600 and the point on the deal goes to GERLI.

After two sessions and 56-boards of intensely competitive bridge, the four teams at the top were separated by little more than a single point. The final rankings in the 2023 Reisinger BAM Teams looked like this:

GERLI                        31.17

NICKELL                   30.64

RIPPEY                      30.48

FLEISHER                 30.00

GROSSACK              29.16

GOLDBERG              28.00

ZIMMERMANN        27.22

PLATNICK                26.11

ANDRESEN              24.56

DYSON                      22.25

Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 Reisinger BAM Teams, GERLI.
(l-to-r: Alessandro Gandoglia, Rome Italy; Aldo Gerli, Padova Italy; Norberto Bocchi, Barcelona Spain; and, missing from the presentation, Leonardo Fruscoloni, Brooklyn NY)

That’s it from Atlanta. We are headed back across the Atlantic now in order to bring you the best of the action from the final of the Italian ’Cup for Men’.