[olegru]

Just curious,
In eurobridge.org site result of match between Barel and Lavazza is 18:0 looks very suspision. http://www.eurobridge.org/competitions/05T...=521&qroundno=6
Score on swangames.com is different.
http://www.swangames.com/rama/traveller.ph...406&direction=X

Do you know what happened?

[Gerben42]

Onno Eskes' post on rec.games.bridge says this:

Quote

Lavazza played team Barel, both struggling for qualification.
Buratti-Lanzarotti bid to a vulnerable 6D, missing one ace, with a
trump suit of AK9x opposite J8xxx. Buratti ran dJ... which happened to
be winning since his LHO had Q10x. All other declarers in 6D went down.
Team Barel called the director.
A special committee was formed to look into the case, and they decided
to barr Buratti-Lanzarotti from the teams event and adjust the match
score from 25-2 to 0-18. Jens Auken, who was a member of the committee,
appears to have said afterwards that Lanzarotti (dummy) had looked in
his opponents cards and then tapped a few times with three fingers on
his arm.
The Italians defended by saying they needed a big match score to
qualify, and therefore took a swingy play. However, Norberto Bocchi
called the action "Stupido" and suspected that Buratti must have heard
something in the noisy playing area on this trump position.

www.imp-bridge.nl (in Dutch)

Running the Jack wins 44% of the time, cashing AK wins 52% of the time.

Gerben

[Aberlour10]

Hi @ll

According to the information from the site of Polish Bridge Union,
the Apeal Committe disqualified the pair Buratti-Lanzarotti
and team Lavazza after a very strong incident on board #23...

One of the polish TD discriebes details of this situation on the site,
but unfortunately I am not able to translate it to english
(my english is rather poor)


http://www.pzbs.pl/wyniki/2005/zagranica/t.../relacje/03.htm

EDIT: Gerben gave the explaination in the same time, I wrote this posting

[inquiry]

If the story related here is true, this is an outrageous travesty of justice (unless there is soooo much more than what is shown). This was the next to the last hand on a qualifying event. And even if allowed their 16 imps they won this board, team Lavazza would have only won by 4 imps. And if they pushed this board they would have lost by more than 10. To quailfy, they not only needed a win, they needed a fairly high win. 11 VP would just not be enough.

The slam was surely to be bid at the other table (it was), and trailing in the match the CORRECT match strategy is to take this inferior line. To be accused of cheating under such circumstances is horrible. This is BRIDGE, where we all know, condition of contest, state of match, can dictate taking an inferior line from time to time.

[scoob]

does anyone have the full hands to post?

[inquiry]

scoob, on Jun 27 2005, 10:13 AM, said:

does anyone have the full hands to post?

Swan bridge has the traveller for this hand from all tables...
http://www.swangames.com/rama/boardreview....no=6&boardno=23

As you can see, 6♦ was bid 12 times, and 6NT twice, in group A the hand was played a total of 44 times. So this was slam 14/44 times. 6♦ was also bid 12 times is group B.

Unfotunately, swan was covering the event, and while they have the results, and the opening lead, they don't have the hands displayed from the qualifying rounds here, like they did for earlier events at Teleride.

Ben

[whereagles]

Taking an anti-percentage line when in need of a swing is definitely GOOD strategy.

I remember in the match "Scientists vs Naturals", Chagas/Branco, playing for the Naturals team and needing a big swing, bid 6♣ where everything depended on bringing home this suit:

Axx

KJ9

Judging his opponents (Meckwell) to also be in slam, declarer ran the jack, hoping for an off-side queen, so as to finesse the 9 later. A 25% line, opposite the better 50% line of finessing the jack. This play is against the odds in isolation, but odds-on in a situation where you're trailing behind.

The finesse lost, by the way. Meckstroth took the usual jack finesse on the other room and.. it held

[hrothgar]

inquiry, on Jun 27 2005, 05:11 PM, said:

If the story related here is true, this is an outrageous travesty of justice (unless there is soooo much more than what is shown). This was the next to the last hand on a qualifying event. And even if allowed their 16 imps they won this board, team Lavazza would have only won by 4 imps. And if they pushed this board they would have lost by more than 10. To quailfy, they not only needed a win, they needed a fairly high win. 11 VP would just not be enough.

The slam was surely to be bid at the other table (it was), and trailing in the match the CORRECT match strategy is to take this inferior line. To be accused of cheating under such circumstances is horrible. This is BRIDGE, where we all know, condition of contest, state of match, can dictate taking an inferior line from time to time.

All fine and dandy, however, there are a couple problems with this analysis

1. This discussion pre-supposes that Buratti-Lanzarotti have sufficient information to judge whether or not its appropriate to adopt a different line than the one employed at the other table.

2. There are a lot game theoretic aspects to this problem... Assume for the moment that both declarers know the "state of the match". Furthermore, both declarers are 100% sure that the other table is playing the same contract from the same direction. In this case, we have an interesting problem. The declarer of the side who is ahead wants to ensure that he adopts an identical strategy to the declarer of the "losing" side. The declarer of the side who is behind wants to ensure that he adopt a different line of play. The only way to do so is to adopt a mixed strategy. Both declarers need to randomize which line they take. The weighting depends on the degree to which one line is noticable superior (or inferior) as well as probability density function describing the relative scores of the two teams.

In short, its great to talk about such strategies, its much more difficult to apply them. More importantly, its very difficult to apply them in anything resembling an intelligent manner.

[Gerben42]

As it was, Lavazza was 29 IMPs ahead in the 8-board match when the board came and losing 16 IMPs would have endangered qualification where a flat board would not have.

[hrothgar]

Jlall, on Jun 27 2005, 06:01 PM, said:

How can we call this a travesty of justice when we don't even know the facts? I think the relevant part of the RGB post was Jens Auken (who was on the committee and knows the facts) saying dummy looked at the opps hand and tapped his arm with three fingers. Please. I'm not saying this is right or wrong, I'm saying we have no idea and those "in the know" are in a much better position to make a decision than we are. There is obviously more to it than this, do you think they will just leak all of the details to the public? come on.

Here is the most detailed information that I've run across
It was posted to the BLML by Konrad Ciborowksi

A sensational story has just appeared
on the site of Polish Bridge Union
by Slawomir Latala about
the disqualification of
the Buratti - Lanzarotti pair.
(I cannot find anything on the
Tenerife official website).
Here is my translation.

+==

The teams of Beral (Isreal)
and Lavazza (Italy) met
in the final round of Swiss teams.
Both teams needed big wins
to advance to the KO phase.
Deals 21-30 were played.
The first two deals were
gains for the Israeli
team and were followed deal #23:


Round 5, deal 23, both sides VUL,
South dealer

Quote

    Massimo Lanzarotti

        A3
        J10
        J8543
        KJ62
Jossi Roll          Ilan Bareket
87                  Q6542
A765                9843
7                  Q106
Q97543              8

        Andrea Buratti
        KJ109
        KQ2
        AK92
        A10

N S
--- 2D // multi
2H 2NT // 20-22 BAL
3S // minors
4D // D fit
4S // cue
5C // cue showing an odd number of KC
6D
pass

West cashed the HA and switched to a club. Buratti
won in dummy and played the DJ. Speaks the
Isreali defender, sitting East:

- Having spread the dummy Lanzarotti tilted
to have a peak into my hand. Though I never
intended to show him my cards I didn't make
any attempt to hide them. What struck me,
however, was that Lanzarotti, having seen
my cards touched his left forearm with three
middle fingers of his right hand. It was
a very unnatural gesture. Buratti
called for the DJ to which I played
low in my normal tempo. Buratti went
into a short tank, played small from
his hand, and claimed.

After this incident Bareket excused himself from the
table and talked to one of the floor
directors telling him the whole story.
This started an avalanche. The TD
informed the CTD who waited until
the end of the match and lodged
an official announcemet to the AC
(TDs are not allowed to make decisions
in cases like that). After hearings
lasting more than an hour the AC members
spent additional two hours discussing
the matter between them and
then came up with the following rulling:

a) the Lavazza team is expelled from
futher Team Competition during these
Championship;
Buratti – Lanzarotti are disqualified
from team competition (further sanctions
can only be taken by EBL Credential Committee)
c) adjust the final score of the match
to 18 : 0 VP for Israel.


Slawomir Latala

==+


I am not sure what means - this
statement is as unclear in Polish
as in my translation.

[inquiry]

Jlall, on Jun 27 2005, 11:01 AM, said:

How can we call this a travesty of justice when we don't even know the facts? I think the relevant part of the RGB post was Jens Auken (who was on the committee and knows the facts) saying dummy looked at the opps hand and tapped his arm with three fingers. Please. I'm not saying this is right or wrong, I'm saying we have no idea and those "in the know" are in a much better position to make a decision than we are. There is obviously more to it than this, do you think they will just leak all of the details to the public? come on.

Well. of course there could be more to the story. Which is why I added the caution .... unless there is soooo much more than what is shown.

But this "tap with three fingers" on his arm? Why not look to his Left, why not look to his right. Why not scratch his noise, why not look at his watch, why not turn a played card slightly off kilter. Why not, why not, why not.

Look, I don't know if anyone was cheating, but this is outrageous as stated if this is all there is. A devils advocate might say it wasn't the accused pair but the accusers who cheated. What? How is that possible? Consider this, first, after partner cashes the heart ace, show the dummy your cards (yes I see where he said dummy leaned over to look). Then if the contract makes, call the director and claim cheating. Some might say this way, EAST was using a safety play to make sure the contract didn't make. IF it goes down, nothing said, if it makes, call the director and say the dummy touched his cheeck, he coughed, he keep looking at WEST (or east), he scratched the top left hand side of his head.. He breathed too fast, he closed his eyes as if an trance... whatever, even touching himself with three fingers.

Now, I don't think the accusers cheated, this was just to show what assumptions and speculations people can make. If someone has been watching this pair, and this tapping of three fingers (and two, and four) happens and each time a winning line against the odds is found, ok, that is a .... soooooo much more. But what is written is simply too normal of a play late in close match. I see the match might not have been close (if it was going to have been 25-2 VP) that is more than 40 imps, in that case, if it was clear they were way ahead, the play makes no sense. It looked like it was 72 to 71 imps going into the last segment, but maybe i am missreading the scoring page.

Anyway, before peoples livelhood and reputations are damaged, it is good to find out the facts. One thing for sure, if I was on a jury and this was it, the total evidence, even if 100% agree he tapped fingers, I would find not guilty. People often drum their fingers. There has to be sooooo much more, or this is unbelievably shortsighted.

[inquiry]

Well, reading the post with the hand from above, I am even more discouraged that justice was wronged. It looks like one guy noticed this and called it to the attention of the TD. No doubt kibitzers were around, who may have noticed the "unatural" act. But I thought, maybe, these guys were under investigation befroe this, and a spotter was amonst the kibitzers watching for something like this. The report seems fairly detailed of who did what and when.

What was left out, was who was called to the hearing? If just the four players, come on... this looks like a one hand accussation of cheating, where the winning line has at least a couple of logical reasons to support picking it.

[luis]

This is so strange that I really don't know what to say...
I don't think a comitee can declare a pair cheated and ban them and eliminate the whole team for just one hand, that doesn't make any sense. Can they?
To understand this we, the people following the incident, need more information, maybe they were already being watched for previous accusations if there wasn't a previous incident I think that the only thing a comitee can do is declare the board foul and register the incident for a follow up investigation...

[whereagles]

Buratti-Lanzarotti do have stories of cheating accusations. None was proven, though.

[inquiry]

luis, on Jun 27 2005, 12:33 PM, said:

This is so strange that I really don't know what to say...
I don't think a comitee can declare a pair cheated and ban them and eliminate the whole team for just one hand, that doesn't make any sense. Can they?

Luis is right as usual... .this just doesn't make sense. My point too...

Of course, other details may be missing. Wait and see.. seems a good approach. But then, I may be the only american that worries that Reese and Shapiro got a raw deal.

[mike777]

With screens
1) How does dummy see both opp hands or know how many diamonds are outstanding?
2) How does partner see arm tapping?

[wojela]

Polish TD wrote about disqualification of Buratti – Lanzarotti. You can read
Open www.bridgebase.pl and press English version
or
http://www.bridgebas...index.php?l=eng