Marc Smith visits the Dutch Teams Championship final

Last week, we saw the action from the first three sets of the 2020 Dutch Teams Championship final. We left things with BC t’Onstein 1 (Bauke Muller, Simon de Wijs, Ricco van Prooijen and Louk Verhees) holding a 66-IMP lead (106-40) with 40 deals remaining. Trailing by such a margin against a team of World Champions is a daunting position. For BC t’Onstein 2 (Tim Verbeek, Joris van Lankveld, Bart Nab, Bob Drijver, Danny Molenaar and Berend van den Bos), though, the rotund female had not even started warming her vocal chords.

As usual, we begin with some teasers for you to consider. We will find out later how your choices would have turned out. We start this week with a competitive bidding problem. With just your side vulnerable, you hold as West:

What action, if any, do you take? 

If you double again, partner bids 2NT. What now?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, your hand as North is:

Partner opened a Strong Club and your One Diamond response showed any hand with 0-8 HCPs. Two Hearts was non-forcing. What action, if any, do you take now?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you hold as East:

1NT is 15-17 and North’s 2NT is a puppet that forces Three Clubs. What action, if any, do you take?

While you mull those problems over, let’s dive straight into what turned out to be a spectacular fourth stanza.

N/S Vul - Dealer East

Bob Drijver opened with a three-way Multi Two Diamonds (weak with either major, strong with diamonds or 25+ balanced). Louk Verhees doubled (either a weak notrump type or various very strong hands) and Bart Nab redoubled to show willingness to compete in either major. Drijver revealed his major, and perhaps showed a minimum when he bid only Two Hearts. Verhees now doubled for takeout and Van Prooijen showed values with his Three Club response in a Lebensohl situation. When Verhees raised to Four Clubs, he announced it as forcing on his side of the screen, so Five Clubs was the least North could do.

We have seen all too often recently how even the moderate pre-emption of a weak two can make things considerably more difficult for opponents. Van Prooijen/Verhees thus did well to reach a contract that was at least playable on this layout.

Five Clubs is destined to fail as long as East can avoid a heart lead. When Drijver began with the ♥A, though, declarer was in with a chance. East switched to a spade at trick two, and in order to keep his chances alive declarer must win this in dummy. When he played the ♠8, covered by ♠9 and queen, declarer was again booked for one down. He ruffed a heart, cashed dummy’s high clubs, crossed to the ♠Q and ruffed his last heart. When declarer now cashed the high spades, though, West was able to ruff low and although declarer could overruff he was still left with a diamond loser in addition to the ♣Q. N/S -100 and a chance missed perhaps.

Why does it make a difference where declarer wins the first spade? Suppose he wins in dummy with the ♠10 and leads a low club. What can the defense do? 

Let’s say East goes in with the ♣Q and returns a second trump. Declarer rises with the ♣J and ruffs a heart with the ♣K. He then returns to the ♠Q and ruffs his last heart with the ♣A. The ♠K will now provide an entry to draw East’s remaining trumps. Dummy takes the last three tricks with high diamonds and the thirteenth spade. 

West - De Wijs North - v.den Bos East - Muller South - v.Lankveld

When you live by the sword, inevitably you sometimes also die by the sword. In keeping with current trends, Muller upgraded what would have been a routine weak two opening just a couple of years ago to a three-level pre-empt. I have questioned the wisdom of sacrificing of balanced hands numerous times in these pages, and this West hand is another illustration of that folly. If West passes, the worst that can happen is that South’s double ends the auction. When De Wijs raised hearts, he just increased the likelihood that North/South would choose to defend, which is exactly what they did.

The defense started with a high club and then three rounds of diamonds. Muller now ruffed a club and played a heart to the king. To get out for three down, he must now play a trump to pick up North’s queen. When he ruffed another club, he could come to only six tricks. N/S +800 and 14 IMPs to BCO2. After two deals of this set, a quarter of the deficit had been wiped out: they now trailed by just 48 IMPs.

E/W Vul - Dealer East

North’s 1NT bid after the takeout double was a transfer to clubs. When South then rebid his spades, Bart Nab decided that, with his ♣K likely worthless, his 18-count was not worth a second effort. And quite right he was. 

He led a top diamond and switched to a trump. Declarer promptly drew trumps and cashed five club tricks with the aid of the finesse and break. N/S +200 is not such a poor score as it might first appear, as Four Spades can easily be beaten by playing three rounds of diamonds. Dummy can ruff, but is then endplayed so that West must score either two heart tricks or the ♣K and ♥A.

In the replay, North’s first-round silence tempted West back in with disastrous result:

West - De Wijs North - v.den Bos East - Muller South - v.Lankveld

What do you think of the 2NT bid? The usual principle with a completely worthless hand is that you rebid your suit. Admittedly, Three Clubs is not very attractive here. If it goes Pass-Pass-Double, though, redouble should be fairly safe – partner didn’t raise clubs, so he is likely to be 1-4-5-3 or 1-5-4-3, and an S.O.S. Redouble should get you to a 5-3 fit. Not that Three Diamonds Doubled is any picnic, but at least the penalty is not an international telephone number.

As you can see, the defense can take the first eleven tricks (for N/S +2000), with six spades and five clubs, but van Lenkveld let East off relatively lightly. After cashing his six spade tricks, dummy was down to four diamonds, two clubs and the singleton ♥A. Remembering East’s Two Club bid, East exited with a heart, ensuring two more tricks for the defense when his partner’s clubs were headed only by the ace. (Surely, if he held the ♣Q, would declarer not have bared the ♣K and kept either then fifth diamond or the ♥Q?

Declarer managed to ‘escape’ with five tricks, but that was still N/S +1100 and another 14 IMPs to BCO2. Now just 32 IMPs behind.

This was the very next deal:

Both Vul - Dealer South

With East holding all of the defensive high cards, the ♠J means that 3NT cannot be beaten with North as declarer. East led the ♦A and then switched to the ♠K. Berend van den Bos took the ♠A, crossed to the ♥10 and advanced the ♦J. When Muller covered, declarer claimed his nine tricks. N/S +600.

In the replay, Ricco van Prooijen also got to 3NT from the right side. However…

West - Nab North - v.Prooijen East - Drijver South - Verhees

South opened with a Strong Club and One Diamond was negative (any 0-8 HCP). Two Hearts was non-forcing. This is the second of the problems posed earlier, and I have to say that Three Clubs looks rather obvious to me. Yes, we have a balanced hand, but we have no diamonds stopper and most of our high cards are in clubs, so bidding them seems the most descriptive action. Of course, on this layout, partner is likely to bid 3NT over Three Clubs. Whether Bart Nab would then have found the killing spade lead is something we will never know. 

As we have seen, 3NT played by North is a comfortable make, so in a way van Prooijen’s 2NT bid has worked very well: he can pass out 3NT-Doubled and collect +750. However, in this auction it is he that has shown (or, at least suggested) a diamond stopper. Does East’s double not sound like cashing diamonds as well as some outside cards?

Van Prooijen decided that passing was too likely to be disastrous, so he ran to Four Clubs. Louk Verhees corrected to Four Hearts, and Bob Drijver doubled that on the way out. The defense was deadly: a diamond to the ace and a diamond ruff, a club to the ace, a second diamond ruff and a club ruff. N/S -500 and another 15 IMPs to BCO2. With only seven of the 20 deals in this stanza played, BCO2 had reduced the deficit from 66 IMPs to just 17.

BCO2 continued to make advances through the rest of the fourth set, eventually winning it 87-9. This gave them a lead of 12 IMPs (127-115) going into the final 20-board stanza. This early deal looked like a routine game:

E/W Vul - Dealer North

North’s One Spade opening was limited to a maximum of 15 HCP and the 1NT was a game-forcing relay. Two Diamonds was natural and Two Hearts another relay, over which Three Clubs showed exactly 5-2-4-2 shape. De Wijs could still have the perfect hand (eg AKxxx/xx/AKxx/xx, but even then slam would need trumps 3-2 and there was still the problem of the third club to deal with, so perhaps no trump lead too. Four Hearts looks like the practical bid, and so it proved. There was a loser in each black suit: N/S +450 and a mini-triumph for the limited One Spade opening perhaps.

West - Verhees North - Verbeek East - v.Prooijen South - Molenaar

Two Spades was the system default bid with all hands that had nothing else to say. When Molenaar rebid his hearts, Verbeek decided that he was too good for just a raise, so he cue-bid his diamond control. When Molenaar then responded with a club cue-bid the partnership was committed to slam: before bidding Five Diamonds, Verbeek wrote a note to his screenmate saying that he was raising to Six Hearts no matter what. This avoided potential ethical problems if partner bid a slow Five Hearts, which he did. 

Only an unlikely ♦J lead lets this contract through. Verhees’ club lead probably speeded up proceedings as declarer’s spade loser was never going anywhere. N/S -50 and 11 IMPs to BCO1, which reduced their deficit to just 2 IMPs with 15 deals left.

After a low-scoring set, BCO2 clung to a 9-IMP lead with two deals to play, This was the penultimate board of the match:

Both Vul - Dealer South

South opened a strong 1NT and North’s Two Clubs was a Stayman variation that might also include a weak takeout into one of the minors. South’s Three Club response showed two four-card majors and quickly got the partnership to the contract North was always intending to reach.

The hands couldn’t fit much worse, and the defense was easiest with North the declarer. East led a top heart and switched to a diamond at trick two. Declarer ducked, won the diamond continuation, and then played the ♣K. When the ten dropped from East, he played a club to the ace. Declarer now took the losing spade finesse, and the defense cashed out their winners: N/S -200 but perhaps a fairly normal result as the cards lie.

West - Molenaar North - de Wijs East - Verbeek South - Muller

Here, 2NT was a puppet, forcing Three Clubs from opener. When North passes, do you reopen on this East hand/?

Had Tim Verbeek passed out Three Clubs, the board would probably have been flat and BCO2 would have won the title with a 9-IMP victory. If the defense dropped a trick, BCO1 would have gained only 3 IMPs and even if the contract was somehow allowed to make, they would have gained only 7 IMPs.

When Verbeek reopened, Danny Molenaar was left with a tricky decision. We can all see that converting the double to penalties is the winning action, but doing so seems far from obvious to me. When Molenaar pulled to Three Diamonds, East/West were in trouble. At least no one doubled. The defense got off to a good start when de Wijs led the ♠10 around to declarer’s king. Molenaar played a club next, taken by North with the jack, and the defense played three rounds of spades, declarer ruffing with the ♦J whilst North discarded both of his hearts. When South gained the lead with the ace of trumps, he dealt North a heart ruff to defeat the contract by two. N/S +200 and 9 IMPs to BCO1. 

The match was tied at 152-152 with one deal to play. The final board was a dull 3NT with ten top tricks, so the match finished in a draw. You may recall that BCO1 had the better record in the qualifying round robin, and that factor (which seemed meaningless at the start of the match) determined which team claimed the championship. Congratulations to Bauke Muller, Simon de Wijs, Ricco van Prooijen and Louk Verhees, who had played four-handed throughout this arduous competition. Commiserations to BCO2, whose magnificent fight back in the second half of the final came oh so close to upsetting the favorites.

Next week, we will hop back across the English Channel to London, for the trial to select the England Senior team for the 2020 European Championships in Madeira.