Vugraph Deals #146

We return to Salsomaggiore in northern Italy, the venue for the COVID-delayed World Championships, the first major post-Pandemic meeting of the world’s top players. In these early rounds of the 23-match round robin, we see teams trying to find form, jostling for places in that all-important top eight who will qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament. This week, we will take a look at four teams who harbour hopes of sticking around for the final days of the event. 

As usual, we begin with some problems. First, with just your side vulnerable, you hold in the South seat: 

What action, if any, do you take? 

Next, with just your side vulnerable, you are West holding:

What action do you take? 

Finally, with just the opponents vulnerable, you are sitting North with these cards: 

What action, if any, do you take?  

While you consider those, this week’s action starts in Round 5 of the Bermuda Bowl, with Switzerland vs. Australia. The match began with a flat board when both E/W pairs played in a major-suit slam with a club suit of Q9x opposite J10x. Indeed, at one table, North had even opened 1♣. Two down at both tables and a flat board, but a chance missed, which seemed to be a theme of this match. Then came a 12-top-trick slam hand for N/S: 

Nabil Edgtton’s 3♥ bid was alerted, but there are no explanations in the hand records, so my best guess is that it asked for a heart stopper for no-trumps. Of course, on this occasion, Edgtton was just obfuscating, trying to portray the illusion of strength, fairly certain that the hand belonged to the opponents. Bas Drijver was not to be persuaded that he was not looking at a good hand, and bid to the four-level on his own. Sjoert Brink’s raise to 5♥ appears to have been simply asking for a club control, but Drijver’s pass makes it apparent that he thought it was more of a general try. With little to spare for his bidding thus far, he decided that he did not have enough. Twelve tricks were easy: N/S +680 and a chance for the Australians… 

It is hard to see how North could do any more in this auction. He has potentially stuck out his neck by bidding over 3NT, and the South hand could still be relatively weak. What, though, could South have bid other than 4♥? 4♣, perhaps, but that really only asks partner to pick a major and, when North then bids 4♥, are you any further forward? N/S +680 was a flat board and another chance missed. 

Another N/S bidding challenge arrived early in the second half, with the match still finely balanced: 

Sjoert Brink opened a strong/artificial 2♣ and, although Edgtton intervened to use up one level of bidding, the auction was under control and spades were quickly agreed. After a couple of cue-bids, Drijver rolled out Blackwood, discovered the ♠A-K-Q, the ♥A and the ♦K opposite, and confidently bid the grand slam. An efficient N/S +2210. 

The Australian auction felt much more frenetic, and that showed in the result. N/S +1460 and 13 IMPs to SWITZERLAND on a deal that you would really expect to be flat at this level.  

With the match wending its way towards a narrow victory for the Swiss, one of the Australians then decided it was time to commit hara-kiri. 

Gill got into the auction with a really skinny 1NT overcall, but Piedra’s raise to 2♠ left Sartaj Hans with a guess. Getting to the making 5♣ on these cards is just about impossible, and not a single pair in the 24-table Bermuda Bowl field managed to do so. Having started with a Lebensohl 2NT, Hans had then to guess whether to compete in clubs or hearts. In the vague hope that he might find a fit and hear a raise of 3♥, he chose the major. It was not a great contract but the cards lie just about well enough and declarer managed to scramble nine tricks: N/S +140.  

Whilst events in this room were eminently sensible, the exact opposite was happening at the other table: 

I agree with Brink’s disciplined pass on this trickless 15-count. After all, it is said that good things come to those who wait. I have never really understood the logic behind pre-empting when partner opens the bidding and there is nothing to suggest that the hand does not belong to your side. However, I know that jumps to 3♠ on hands such as this West collection are popular with some.  

When the raise to 3♠ came back to Brink, he backed in with a double which, I assume, Drijver fully understood was a strong penalty suggestion. To make matters worse, Edgtton now thought that his hand was worth a redouble, whatever that was supposed to mean. Was he, perhaps, letting partner know that he wasn’t as bad as he might have been? What useful information for partner, who will find out what you have when your put the hand down in dummy! 

The Swiss simply sat there and collected the bounty. With declarer managing to accrue just six tricks, that was a cool N/S +1000 and 14 IMPs to SWITZERLAND, who ran out 52-31 winners in a match where they had not played particularly well. 

Early on the third day, two more heavyweight contenders met head on: this was USA-2 vs NORWAY. This was a Norwegian side who had been a player short for their opening matches, with Boye Brogeland stuck in Rome awaiting a negative COVID test. Now their talisman had arrived on site and they were looking to move up from their position just outside the qualifying places.  

Playing three or four matches a day, it is very easy to get careless, and a simple lapse of concentration cost the Norwegians 11 IMPs on this deal: 

John Hurd’s double was responsive, showing both minors and also suggesting heart tolerance. Kevin Bathurst might have pulled to what was likely to be a 6-2 heart fit but, wary of poor breaks after West’s pre-empt, he chose instead to defend.  

A diamond lead might have beaten the contract by three, but Bathurst opened a heart, Hurd winning and switching to the ♦Q. Declarer won with the ♦A and played a trump to the king. Bathurst won with the ♠A, cashed the ♥K and the ♣A, then played a diamond to his partner’s king and received a diamond ruff to put the contract two down. N/S +300. Which way the swing went would depend on whether the Norwegians could score up their game. 

Demuy did not open the West hand, so the Norwegians had the auction to themselves. Bakke might have bid 3♦ at his third turn, allowing Brogeland to show delayed heart support: certainly looking at just the N/S cards you would surely rather be in 4♥ than 3NT. However, the defensive cards lie well for declarer. 

Kranyak led the ♠3 to the ten, king and ace. Bakke played a diamond to dummy’s king and then ran the ♣Q. Winning with the ♣K, Kranyak now played queen and another spade, declarer winning with the ♠J. With three tricks in the bag, declarer now claimed six more tricks via two hearts and four clubs. However, with the remaining clubs splitting 4-0, he does not have four club tricks. Of course, declarer should have made sure by cashing the ♣A before making his claim. When the bad split came to light he would then have been able to lead a diamond towards dummy’s queen for his ninth trick. With the ♦A onside and East having started with only three spades, the defenders cannot stop him making nine tricks. Having made the bad claim, though, declarer had to settle for one down. N/S -50 and 8 IMPs to USA2 rather than a 3-IMP swing to the Scandinavians. And things were about to get worse for the Norwegians as their West player had to deal with the second of this week's bidding problems. 

The Americans really stuck it to Geir Helgemo here. Procuring the only available plus score by doubling 5♦ would, perhaps, be fairly low on many people’s list of options. The good news, was that John Hurd could not risk a double, as that might have been construed as Lightner, asking for a spade lead (which would concede a very large number to E/W). 

Even 4♥/4♠ go down if the defenders find their club ruff. That was made more difficult here when Bathurst led an imaginative ♣5 against 6♥. Hurd won with the ♣A and understandably cashed his ♦A before leading a second round of clubs. So, no ruff, but still two down: N/S +200. 

Christian Bakke potentially got the Norwegians off to an even better start. However, Boye Brogeland chose to investigate his own side’s prospects and thus failed to exert maximum pressure on West. Indeed, it was Brogeland himself who ended up making the last and fatal guess. Declarer had four obvious losers in the majors so that was three down: N/S -500 and 12 IMPs to USA2. 

Gaining a small swing on the next deal put the Americans ahead by 30-19 with five deals remaining. Then, though, the worm turned. A couple of small swings reduced the deficit to 30-26, and then came: 

The optimum contract is 6♦ played from the West side, but after 2♣-2♦ that was not possible. With the strong hand on his left, could John Hurd find the very-likely killing low heart lead? No, he laid down the ♥A at trick one and moments later Tor Helness was claiming twelve tricks. E/W +920 

With the imaginative Boye Brogeland in the South seat at the other table, there were still hopes for a swing from the Norwegian supporters amongst the more than 3500 watching the match live on BBO VuGraph. As it turned out, they didn’t need any Boye magic. 

Vincent Demuy alerted his 3♣ bid as showing diamonds, and it appeared to all those watching that the auction was progressing swimmingly as the American pair cue-bid their way towards slam. It was only when John Kranyak jumped to 7♣ that it became clear that something had gone wrong. Exactly what, I cannot tell you. Perhaps Kranyak had forgotten that 3♣ was a transfer, perhaps it wasn’t, or maybe someone thought one of these cue-bids was actually RKCB. Suffice it to say that E/W -100 and 14 IMPs to NORWAY was something of an own goal. And there was more to come too, when both North players were faced with the last of this week’s bidding problems... 

This deal was a classic major-suit battle. The Norwegians did well to get to game with only a combined 18 HCP. Having competed to the two-level in response to his partner’s takeout double, Kevin Bathurst then reassessed when Tor Helness jumped to game. His decision to sacrifice was right in that the penalty was only N/S -300 against a vulnerable game. The most important question, though, was whether it was phantom? 

The auction was identical up until North’s final decision. With three top losers, many of those watching on VuGraph might have thought it was just a question of whether declarer could get the trumps right in 4♥. Boye Brogeland quickly demonstrated that it was not necessary to rely on a mis-guess from the opponents.  

Brogeland led the ♦A and got the ten (upside down) from Bakke. Knowing that declarer must have at least one more diamond, he then cashed the ♦K in case his partner had started with a singleton. When everyone followed, Brogeland switched to the ♠K. The bidding had told him that declarer would not hold a second spade, so there was only one more chance remaining: Brogeland now played a third round of diamonds, enabling his partner to score the ♥Q via a ruff to put the contract one down. N/S +100 and 9 more IMPs to NORWAY. 

The Norwegians won the match 49-30 to climb back into the top eight, whilst the Americans slipped down a couple of places to fourth. It is still early days, though, with two-thirds of the round robin still to be played. 

We will be back next week with the best of the action as the round robin moves into its second half.