比赛组委会赛后的公告：

As play wound down, Lauria had already lost two tricks and　still had the trump ace out against him

- plus the losing ]9 in his hand. With a singleton spade in his hand, Lauria had played the king from

dummy“s holding of SK Q to five.

Soloway could have　cashed the H10 to guarantee two down, but he played back a spade instead.

Lauria“s partner had left the table after putting down the dummy, so Lauria was playing the cards himself.

Lauria apparently　expected Soloway to cash his winning heart, so he pulled the　S7 from dummy

- which held only clubs and spades - realizing　too late that a spade had been played.

He tried to change his play to the queen, which would have allowed him to discard the losing heart

and get out for minus 100. Hamman, who had started　with the SJ 10 doubleton,

had played the jack to the first lead of the suit, and he covered the S7 with the 10.

A tournament director was called, and the ruling was that the
S7 was a played card,

resulting in two down for minus 300.That　gave the Americans a 12-IMP gain and a 1-IMP victory.

The Italians appealed the ruling, but the appeals committee, citing rule 45B from the law book,

backed the director.


The rule　states that when a card is touched it is played.
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