Vugraph Deals #113

In Group A, only three teams remain from the top division in Heat 5, MOSS, BLACK and DONNER. The remainder of the top tier is made up of DE BOTTON, returning after a one-month absence, and two teams promoted from Group B, VINITA (USA, Denmark) and FREDIN (Sweden, South Africa). The format remains unchanged, a double round robin of 16-board matches.

As usual. We begin with some bidding problems, and a bumper crop this week too. We shall see how your choices would work later. Firstly, with just your side vulnerable, you are North with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, again with just your side vulnerable, you hold as South:

What action do you take?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are in the West seat holding:

What action do you take?

Finally, with just your side vulnerable, you are South with:

What do you bid?

While you consider those, we start with the action from Round 1. Board 12 produced a major swing in all three Group A matches. I rarely set two bidding problems from the same hand, but the first two this week both originated on this deal. We start in the battle between the two teams bearing the Flag of St George:

One can hardly dispute the accuracy of Andrew Black’s description (‘Trash Multi’) of his opening bid. However, forcing the opponents to start their auction at a relatively high level did not help the New Orleans Saints (I’ll leave you to figure that one out). Faced with the first of this week’s problem hands, Thor Eric Hoftaniska judged well to guide the Norwegians into a making game. N/S +600.

At the other table, David Bakhshi also opened the West hand, this time showing spades and a minor. Gunnar Hallberg overcalled Three Hearts and Tom Townsend showed a willingness to compete to at least the four-level in his partner’s minor. Simon Hult probably would have collected a decent-sized penalty by doubling, whichever minor West chose as trumps, but he understandably had much loftier ambitions. How, though, should he advance?

One option is to cue-bid 4♠. Do you then continue with 5♦ over partner’s 5♣, though? Another possibility is Blackwood, but more of that later. Hult eventually settled for the pragmatic solution, simply jumping to 6 ♥. Townsend doubled on the way out, and duly made his two aces: N/S -200 and 13 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

In the match between MOSS and VINITA, neither West player opened and both Norths started with a weak two bid in hearts:

Hermant Lall advanced with a 2NT inquiry. Bob Hamman’s jump to 4♣, presumably showing a second suit, did little to improve Lall’s hand, so he signed off in game. No problems here: N/S +650.

In the same position, Sylvia Moss had a toy to play with and she decided to roll it out. Unfortunately, the two key-card response to Blackwood was exactly what she did not want to hear. Now she had to guess whether one of her partner’s two key cards was the useless ♣A. The odds probably favour bidding the slam (although you have four more cards in diamonds than clubs, making the ♣A a bit more likely than the ♦A, if one of partner’s key cards is the ♥A then the contract is likely to be no worse than on a finesse). Not today, though; there were two cashing aces off, so that was N/S -100 and 13 IMPs to VINITA.

Continuing the symmetry of the first two matches, at both table in DONNER vs FREDIN neither West nor North considered their hand worthy of an opening bid.

Bridge is such an easy game! At least, N/S at the all-Swedish table made it look so. Anders Morath opened a nebulous 1♣ in third seat and Per-Ola Cullin started with a takeout double. Johan Sylvan showed his spades, but Marion Michielsen was never likely to be tempted to do anything other than bid 4♥. One of the defensive aces got away here: N/S +680.

Playing a Strong Club system, Gary Donner had to start with a nebulous 1♦ on the East cards and that made it clear for South to start with a 1♠ overcall. When Peter Fredin freely introduced his hearts, though, the South hand had suddenly become enormous and South African Alon Apteker agreed hearts with a 4♣ splinter.

Looking at the North hand, what else could you want to know now other than how many aces partner holds? So, rolling out Blackwood seems like the obvious move, doesn’t it? At least, it does until partner takes you beyond the safety of the five-level in order to show a void you didn’t need him to hold. What could Fredin do? His partner held an odd number of aces. If it was one, they were already too high, so he decided that he might as well gamble on it being three, and bid the grand slam. Gary Donner’s double was declarer’s first indication that the gamble had not paid off. N/S -500 and 15 IMPs to DONNER.

Two of the three matches were close: DONNER beat FREDIN 43-42 and MOSS pipped VINITA 32-28. BLACK therefore found themselves at the top of the table after their 43-21 victory over DE BOTTON.

Something like the Norwegian auction was duplicated at all but one of the other tables in Group A. The resultant 4♥ contract led to a flat board in the other two matches. With a little assistance from the opening lead, Tor Helness quickly made eleven tricks: E/W +650.

At the other table, Polish Bermuda Bowl winner Jacek Kalita had to deal with the third of this week’s bidding problems.

Janet de Botton was the only South player to open, and her natural weak two bid injected just enough momentum into the auction. Jacek Kalita overcalled in his six-card minor, but then had to decide what to do when his partner doubled Artur Malinowski’s raise to game. Passing would have netted +500 for a 4-IMP loss on the deal. When Kalita opted to bid on, the spotlight fell on Malinowski to find a killing opening lead.

I know that readers enjoy see experts with egg on their face, and deals like this illustrate that even the very best players are capable of taking their eye off the ball. If Malinowski could find either a club lead or a trump, the contract would go down legitimately. With a doubleton jack in both of those suits, though, neither offered a particularly attractive option. When Malinowski opted for the ♦9 as his opening salvo he had, theoretically at least, let the contract through. (It was the same lead that permitted Tor Helness to make an overtrick in 4♥ at the other table.)

In the cold light of day, it is clear that nothing can be lost by playing the ♦K from dummy. Of course, no one expects North to have underled the ace, but how can playing the ten ever be better? North certainly has not led the nine from a suit headed by Q-J-9. As the cards lie, when declarer plays the ♦K, it wins and one of his spade losers disappears. Although the trump finesse loses, both hearts and clubs split 2-2 and declarer emerges with eleven tricks. When Kalita played the ♦10 from dummy, though, de Botton covered with the jack and declarer had to ruff. He now needed to find either the ♠A onside or North holding a doubleton ♥K. When neither of those chances materialized, declarer was one down: E/W -100 and 13 IMPS to DE BOTTON.

DE BOTTON defeated MOSS 38-14 to climb back close to average. FREDIN was back to exactly average, beating BLACK 33-32 in their second consecutive 1-IMP match. In the third match, DONNER saw off VINITA 46-19 to move to the top of the table, just a half VP ahead of BLACK.

Board 2 of Round 3 was another that generated a major swing in all three Group A matches. A number of players had to deal with the last of this week’s bidding problems:

Ex-pat Scotsman Andrew McIntosh was the first to face the problem posed at the top of this article. His partner’s 2♣ response had not promised clubs, although his failure to raise spades at his second turn perhaps suggested length in the suit was more likely than not. McIntosh had a conventional bid available, though, and he used it to show at least a six-card spade suit in a hand suitable for notrumps, which I assume means no shortages. Knowing that his partner holds at least a doubleton club, should Tom Paske perhaps make some move to keep clubs in the picture? His jump to 4♠ certainly left McIntosh with nowhere to go. There were two unavoidable trump losers in spades: N/S +650.

In the replay, the MOSS N/S pair did manage to find clubs. However, a misunderstanding over the responses to the queen-ask in a Blackwood sequence meant that they reached the dizzying heights of 7♣. There was an unavoidable trump loser: N/S -100 and a fortunate 13 IMPs to BLACK.

Next up was Alon Apteker. In the same situation, he simply raised to 3NT, ending the auction. There was nothing to the play, declarer making five club tricks and the ace-king of the other three suits: N/S +660.

Hermant Lall disparagingly designates himself as ‘Justin’s Dad’ on his BBO profile, but he is a more-than accomplished player in his own right. He has won the Senior Teams at World Championship events four times, most recently in Orlando in 2018. He solved the problem on this deal by advancing with 3♣ over Bob Hamman’s 2NT. An exchange of red-suit cue-bids followed and Hamman was soon installed in 6♣ . The multiple World Champion was not extended in the play, setting up spades and claiming twelve tricks just for the loss of one trump: N/S +1370 and 12 IMPs to VINITA.

DE BOTTON’s 47-23 victory ended DONNER’s run as the only undefeated team. BLACK beat MOSS 37-28 to move back to the top of the table, and FREDIN handed VINITA a 41-26 loss. After three matches, the standings in Group A were:

Elsewhere, CANTOR (Germany, England, Denmark, Sweden, Bulgaria) led Group B, 10 VPs ahead of JEDI KNIGHTS (England, Wales). PARSLEY (France) headed Group C ahead of BUQQY (China, Pakistan, Bulgaria). Group D was headed by QUARANTEAM (Netherlands, Denmark, Israel) and LION (Spain, Singapore).

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the middle rounds of Heat 6.