The Italian Stallion
By WBF In 46th World Bridge Teams Championships On 2nd September 2023
By: Mark Horton and Zia Mahmood
Despite being in the middle of a battle for the bronze medals in the Bermuda Bowl, Zia found the time to report a deal from the play-off between USA2 and Italy. On the evidence of this event, the Italians are back with a team that is a mixture of experience and youth. Zia describes Giovanni Donati as a rare talent (he calls him Mafioso as he can find plays to kill any opponent). Here he delivered a Rocky Balboa style knockout blow to declarer:
In the other room Di Franco and Manno stopped in 3
and took 10 tricks for +170.
Expecting EW to have five diamond tricks, maybe a couple of spades and a couple of others, Zia decided to bid 4 (note that if South leads a small spade against the notrump game declarer has every chance of securing nine tricks) appreciating that partner would be likely to have a singleton spade.
West led the 
8 and East won with the queen and switched to the 
2, which looked like a singleton. Declarer took the A, ruffed a diamond in dummy and played a spade for the queen and ace, pleased to see West follow with the 10. A second diamond ruff was followed by a spade and East took the king and returned the 
5. From declarer’s point of view, ducking this will allow West to win and play the Q which should ensure two down, so declarer took the ace and drew the outstanding trump, accepting one down.
When Zia discovered that East’s hearts were KQ65 he realised he could have made 4x by withholding the A, dummy’s J becoming the tenth trick.
If East had exited with the K, declarer could win, draw the outstanding trump and then play a heart for the nine, jack and queen. Declare ruffs the red suit return and the last trump squeezes West in the round suits.
As Zia put it, East made him an offer he couldn’t refuse – but he did – and woke up with a horse’s head in his bed!
What a great play…so beware, the next time you see a youngster with a charming smile he might just be the Mafioso.
The legitimate way to defeat 4x after the diamond lead is for East to duck the second round of spades. Declarer wins and exits with a spade but has no good discard from dummy. Pitching a heart allows East to exit with the K, while throwing a club can be countered by a diamond return.
