Vugraph Deals #106

At the end of Heat 4, SALVO was relegated from Group A, replaced by Group B winners BLACK (England, Sweden). DE BOTTON is also absent this month, and they are replaced by an all-USA team, NICKELLL. VINITA (USA, Denmark) won Group C and were promoted, whilst RIPPEY (USA, Poland) and JEDI KNIGHTS (England, Wales) were promoted from Group D. The format, as usual, is a double round robin of ten 16-board matches.

Just one bidding problem for you this week. We will find out later how your choice would have worked. With both sides vulnerable, you are South holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

MOSS have won Group A in the last three heats of the Alt New-Co, so they have to be considered odd-on favourites, and we start with their opening match, against EDMONDS. Board 7 was a bidding test for the North/South pairs:

Bidding minor-suit slams after a 2NT opening is often tricky. Joel Wooldridge decided that his 9-count was not worthy of a venture beyond the likely certain 3NT. N/S +660.

The hands fit well this time, and 6♦ is a fine contract, despite the 4-0 trump break, needing at worst either hearts 3-3 or the spade finesse, or perhaps a major-suit squeeze. As it happens, everything apart from trumps lie well for declarer, so there are no problems making twelve tricks.

The auction started the same way at the all-Polish table, but Michal Nowosadzki advanced with a natural 4♦ at his second turn. That was enough to persuade Jacek Kalita to roll out RKC. Indeed, he even made a grand slam try on the way to 6♦.

Kalita won the club lead and immediately played the ♠A and the ♠Q. He ruffed the club continuation in dummy, and ruffed a third round of spades with the ♦10. When spades split, he claimed twelve tricks: N/S +1370 and 12 IMPs to MOSS on the way to an emphatic 63-28 victory.

Nick Nickell and Ralph Katz demonstrated that there are alternative routes to the top spot:

Katz opened 1♦ and reversed into hearts at his second turn, so Nickell forced to game with 3♦, agreeing the suit. A couple of cue-bids later, and Katz used kickback to check on key cards, then bid the slam.

Katz won the club lead, cashed one high trump from his hand, and then ruffed his club loser in dummy. He then drew the remaining trumps and followed with the ♠A and ♠Q. He ruffed the club continuation with his last trump and then played either for hearts 3-3 or the hand with four hearts to also hold the ♠J. N/S +1370.

Strong Club systems are excellent for bidding close slams, right? They were, perhaps, before people realized the best defence to them…

Bobby Levin really stuck it to the Belgians, and Steve Weinstein compounded the problem for them. Good luck finding the best spot when you have to begin your auction at the five-level. Indeed, Steve de Roos judged well to bid diamonds rather than spades (although you can make 5♠ too as the cards lie, it is not where you’d want to play this coombination). N/S +620 and 12 IMPs to NICKELL, who kick off their Alt campaign with a 26-19 win.

The biggest win of the round was recorded by DONNER, who welcomed BLACK to Group A by stomping on them 55-19. DONNER thus led MOSS at the top of the table by 1 IMP (or 0.14 VPs) after the first round.

Many South players were faced with this week’s problem in Round 2:

I had this hand at the table and, like Gunnar Hallberg and many others, did not seriously consider anything but a Pass. Obvious, perhaps, but not right today: N/S +110.

In six of the 14 matches, this was a flat board after identical auctions. However, there were exceptions:

In the same position, Sylvia Moss chose to advance with 2NT and struck gold when her partner rebid his second suit. Of course, she happily raised to game. Roger Lee won the heart lead with dummy’s ace and immediately started trumps. Andrew Black won with the ♠A and switched to clubs, David Gold winning the second round to switch back to hearts through dummy. Declarer ruffed, cashed the ♠K, then played the two top diamonds and ruffed the third round of diamonds with the ♠Q. He could then cross back to hand, drawing the last trump in the process, to cash the rest of the diamond suit. N/S +620 and 11 IMPs to MOSS.

Despite that result, BLACK won the match 26-20. DONNER widened the gap at the top with a 19-14 win over NICKELL, whilst RED DEVILS defeated EDMONDS to move up into third place. Having beaten the reigning champions in Round 2, wheels began to fall off the BLACK wagon in Round 3 against NICKELL:

An efficient auction from Nick Nickell and Ralph Katz. On the diamond lead, Nickell played low from dummy and ruffed in his hand. You can make all 13 tricks now by taking a second diamond ruff, but that requires spades 2-2 (or the hand with three spades to also hold three trumps). Playing in only six, Nickell understandably took the simple like of drawing trumps and taking the club finesse for the overtrick. When East showed up with the ♣K, that was N/S +1430, which would have been either flat or lose 1 IMP against every other North/South pair in the 14-table event except for one:

Simon Hult’s 2♦ response showed a good four-card raise. West doubled showing diamonds and, when Gunnar Hallberg splintered, the Swedes were locked into spades. In a strange reversal of the normal process, they first checked on key cards via RKC and then began cue-bidding. Hult’s final leap to the grand slam sounds like he was expecting the same hand opposite but with the ♣K rather than the ♣Q. As we have seen, he was right in that you can make 13 tricks, but only playing in hearts (which were never in the picture in their auction).

In 7♠, Hult had no choice but to rely on the club finesse. When that failed, he was one down: N/S -100 and 17 IMPs to NICKELL.

This auction was not made any easier by the transfer methods in use by the English pair after the double of Andrew Black’s 1♣ opening. The result was that they never mentioned the suit in which they can make slam, a contract that is made much better by the knowledge provided by North’s double. Declarer won the third round of hearts, crossed to dummy and successfully picked up the diamonds. By the time he came to play on clubs, South had discarded enough of them that the queen appeared: E/W +460.

With North remaining silent at this table, and thus the ♦K and the club position not marked, slam is not as good a proposition. When you are playing well, though, you tend also to get the rub of the green. After a natural start to the auction, Bobby Levin completed the description of his shape after Steve Weinstein’s fourth-suit 2♥. Some cue-bids and Blackwood then allowed Levin to jump to the slam.

Simon Hult’s lead of the ♠8 was not as threatening as a heart would have been. Weinstein won in dummy, ran first the ♦8, then the ♦Q, and picked up the trumps with a third finesse. Weinstein drew North’s last trump and, with the presence of ♥A as insurance, he could afford the luxury of cashing the ♣K and playing a club to the jack. North showed out, meaning that declarer was still left with a loser at the end, but twelve tricks were his: E/W +920 and 10 IMPs to NICKELL.

Facing a 2NT opening, Nickell elected to start with Stayman and, when his partner showed four hearts, he showed a slam try agreeing hearts via an artificial 3♠ bid. Katz alerted his 3NT bid as ‘I do not think this is an alternative game’, suggesting that the agreement was not certain, but it looks as if Nickell also took it as a forward-going move with hearts agreed as he rolled out Blackwood. Quite what the 5♥ bid meant after Katz showed four key cards I cannot say, but Nickell presumably took 5NT as offering an alternative strain, hence his raise to slam in notrumps rather than the previously-agreed major.

Hearts is marginally better, as you can pick up a 4-1 spade break if trumps split 3-2, but declarer’s worries on that score were solved by West’s opening lead of the ♠7, and Katz was soon claiming twelve tricks. N/S +990 was not far from a universal flat board, with all but three of the 28 N/S pairs successfully reaching one of the three making slams. Fortunately for NICKELL, though, one of those three was at the other table in their match:

Hult opened a 2♣  variation and revealed it as a balanced 20-21 at his second turn. Hallberg advanced with 3♣, alerted as ‘Baron, slam interest’. I remember people playing Baron (bid suits up the line) over 2NT when I started playing in the 1970s, but have not seen it since the last century, and perhaps this deal illustrates why!

Hult showed his four-card heart suit and Hallberg, having already shown slam interest, decided he now had a minimum, so he just raised to confirm the suit. Hult had both the worst possible shape and no values to spare for his original opening bid, so he decided he had nothing else to say if his partner could not force to slam. Declarer made the obvious twelve tricks: N/S +480 and another 11 IMPs to NICKELL.

When the dust cleared, the score in the match finished at 85-8 after 16 boards. MOSS also restricted their opponents to single-figures, defeating the Belgians 37-3, whilst DONNER beat EDMONDS 44-35. With three matches in the book, it was already looking like a three-horse race for the title, with the rest fighting to avoid relegation. These were the standings:

In Group B, ORCA (England) held a healthy lead over VINITA (USA, Denmark). In Group C, JEDI KNIGHTS (England, Wales) led narrowly from LEBOWITZ (USA, Denmark, Sweden, Italy). In Group D, MIXED NUTS (USA) led BUQQY (China, Pakistan, Bulgaria).

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the middle matches of this heat.