Vugraph Deals #157

Last week, we looked at the action from the opening four matches of Heat 1 of the Alt-’22 competition, which will be staged over eight heats and a finale event during the course of the year. The format for this opening heat is a 24-team, eight-match Swiss, with the top eight teams earning eligibility for a place in Group A of Heat 2.  

At the midway point of this heat, the top of the leader-board looked like this: 

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are East holding: 

What action, if any, do you take?  

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are South with: 

What do you bid? 

Finally, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting South with this magnificent collection: 

What action do you take? Does your answer depend on whether partner’s double shows or denies values? 

Round 5 matched up two teams packed with world class players, who had regularly faced off in Group A of last year’s competition, MOSS and LEBOWITZ. The very first deal presented a bidding challenge for E/W and, although a few pairs were allowed to make game, at only four of the 24 tables did they reach a contract that could not be beaten. Neither pair in the top match managed to stop in time: 

For the Scandinavians, Fredrik Nystrom jumped to 3♠ after the game-forcing 2/1 response, showing a good suit and extra values. Geir Helgemo’s jump to 5♥ then ended the brief auction. Simon de Wijs kicked off with the ♦A and switched to a club at trick two. When trumps failed to break, declarer was one down: E/W -50. 

The Polish Bermuda Bowl winners started in the same way, but Jacek Kalita bid a natural 4♥ at his second turn. That was the last legitimately making contract so, when Michal Nowosadzki continued with 4♠ they, too, were overboard. 

However, with a choice of minors to lead, Larry Lebowitz opted fatally for the ♣A, and continued with a second club at trick two. Declarer won and exited with the ♦10, taken by Lebowitz with the ♦J. North ruffed the club continuation and then switched to a trump, but it was too late. Declarer won, ruffed a diamond in dummy, and discarded his remaining diamond on the ♥A. He then ruffed a heart high, drew trumps, and claimed ten tricks. An unfortunate opening lead, after which there was no recovery: E/W +420 and 10 IMPs to MOSS, who continued their dominating start with a 72-31 win.  

BLACK defeated another English team, JUPITER, 71-9 to climb into second place, but they were still almost 25 VPs behind the leaders. SELIGMAN defeated MACAVITY (Netherlands) to move into third place. With the two chasing teams having already played the leaders, next up for MOSS was another team with serious expectations for the event, fourth-placed SWEDEN. 

Board 7 was a bidding test for the E/W pairs, with exactly half the field reaching the top spot, although most of them from the wrong side. In BLACK vs SELIGMAN, it was a flat board at E/W +690. Could the Swedish Venice Cup winners do better? Sanna Clementsson faced the first of this week’s bidding problems: 

Emma Ovelius opened 1♠, showed her club fit and diamond shortage with a 3♦ splinter, and then made a quantitative raise of her partner’s 3NT. With a singleton in her partner’s main suit and much of her hand wasted opposite the diamond shortage, Sanna Clementsson did not like how the hands were fitting. And, indeed, she was right in that the club slam would be no more than a 50-50 proposition on a heart lead. That was partly a systemic problem, though, as 6♣ from the West side is just about ironclad. With the ♥K onside, 4NT had 12 tricks: E/W +690 but, of course, 6♣ will make from both sides of the table. 

The Dutch Bermuda Bowl finalists demonstrated how it could be done: 

Simon deWijs opened a Strong ‘Tarzan’ Club and, after hearing a positive response, he then relayed to discover than his partner held a 1-3-4-5 shape with the ♣A and the ♦K-Q. That was enough for him to decide that 6♣ would be at least a decent proposition. There was little to the play: declarer won the heart lead, drew trumps, pitched dummy’s third heart on his high spade, and ruffed the losing diamond in his hand. E/W +1370 and 12 IMPs to MOSS as they beat the Scandinavians 37-27. The other top match was also close, SELIGMAN winning 33-29 to edge past their opponents into second place. 

In Round 7, it was MOSS against RIPPEY (USA, Poland), LEBOWITZ vs SELIGMAN, and BLACK-v-ULI. With eight teams vying to gain a place in Group A for the next heat, it was still very tight, with the twelve teams trailing the runaway leaders separated by less than 16 VPs. 

This match featured two deals on which N/S had slam potential in clubs. The first came down to the opening lead. In MOSS vs RIPPEY, Muller/de Wijs stopped in 5♣ and made +400. Wiankowski/Nawrocki bid the slam, which left Michal Nowosadzki to find a lead from ♥K-x-x in the first suit bid by dummy. He duly led a heart, which meant 10 IMPs to MOSS. In LEBOWITZ vs SELIGMAN, they bid to 6♣ at both tables. For LEBOWITZ, Adam Grossack also found the heart lead from Kxx. At the other table, though, Helgemo/Nystrom bid 6♣ from the other side, which left Jacek Pszczola with the impossible task of finding the winning lead from ♥Q-10-x, so that was 14 IMPs to LEBOWITZ.  

Two boards later, most South players were faced with some variation on the second of this month’s problem hands. This scenario was presented to the BBO Bidding Challenge expert panel in May and the majority of the panel voted for a 3NT rebid. Let’s see how some players fared at the table: 

In a slightly different scenario, Jacek Pszczola jumped to 3NT at his second turn. Having already shown most of his values with a redouble, though, Martin Seligman did not think the North hand was strong enough to make another move, despite the club fit. N/S +720.  

Larry Lebowitz preferred to start by showing a good hand with a 2♦ cue-bid, and Adam Grossack showed a willingness to co-operate via a return cue-bid. When Lebowitz then rebid his suit, Grossack Blackwooded the partnership to slam. Declarer won the heart lead, drew trump, disposed of his heart loser on the ♦A, and took the spade finesse for the overtrick: N/S +1390 and 12 IMPs to LEBOWITZ, who won 57-23 to move up into second place. 

After a transfer advance from David Gold, Andrew Black was effectively in the same position. Perhaps it is a systemic thing that I simply don’t understand, but I can offer no explanation for his 1NT rebid. That Gold simply raised to 3NT also suggests that he was not expecting quite this hand from South either. N/S +720 

Walter Schuster started with a negative double on the North cards and, here too, South chose a 2♦ cue-bid to show his strength. North jumped to 3♠ and then raised when Federico Primavera rebid his clubs. The Italian awarded himself a sixth club, and there they were, although perhaps less convincingly than at the first table we saw reach the good slam. Thirteen tricks were made here too: N/S +1390 and 12 IMPs to ULI 

Despite the loss on this deal, BLACK still won the encounter 60-32, consolidating a place in the top three. MOSS won again, 48-28 over RIPPEY, retaining their 25-VP advantage over the field, and ensuring victory in the heat with a match to spare.  

The top three teams were just about safe now, as they had opened a 10-VP gap between themselves and the trailing pack. EDMONDS, who had climbed to fourth place, drew the dubious privilege of opposing the leaders in the final round. Meanwhile, they led a pack of teams going all the way down to BRIDGE24.PL MIXED in fourteenth place, who were separated by less than 10 VPs. So, there were eleven teams scrapping it out for five remaining places over the final 16-board set. 

Board 5, the source of the last of this week’s bidding problems, created swings in a number of matches in Round 8.  

For many partnerships, a double of an overcall after a 2♣ opening shows a hand with few or no value. Paske/McIntosh had the agreement that double showed semi-positive values, described by Paske a 5-8ish, and Tosh decided that 3NT sounded like a sensible contract facing that type of hand. Declarer made the obvious eleven tricks: N/S +660. 

Andrew Black overcalled only at the two-level, giving the American pair more room. Here, double would have been weak and thus Adam Grossack passed to show values. Larry Lebowitz’s double was not alerted or described but, judging from North’s subsequent actions, I would have to guess that it was, in principle, a takeout double. North bid his hearts and Lebowitz now bid 3♠. With no spade stopper and no other four-card suit, what else can Grossack bid other than 4♥? Lebowitz then raised to 6♥. 

There was no bad trump break or anything nasty elsewhere. Nor, though, were there twelve tricks. Declarer in a heart contract has exactly the same 11 as did declarer in 3NT, with nowhere to put the two losing spades: N/S -100 and 12 IMPs to BLACK. It was a similar story in the top match: 

Here, the opening was a 15+ Strong Club, and Simon De Wijs’s double was not alerted/explained. The effect was the same, though, as Bauke Muller rebid 3NT and duly made the obvious 11 tricks: N/ S +660. 

It looks as if David Grainger’s pass of 3♠ showed values, hence Jodi Edmonds advance with Blackwood once she found a heart fit. N/S +100 and 12 IMPs to MOSS. 

At only a couple of tables did N/S produce the optimum result and the winning answer to the original problem. In the match between SCORWAY (Scotland, Norway) and RUSSIAN JUNIORS, the juniors played safely in 3NT after a Strong Club opening and a 3♠ overcall. At the other table, though: 

The auction began as it had at many other tables, but Norwegian star Christian Bakke, not unreasonably, fancied his chances defending. The defenders cashed their seven side suit tricks and then waited for their two trump winners: N/S +1100 and 10 IMPs to SCORWAY.  

MOSS finished with yet another massive victory, this one 83-5, ending hopes of a Top-8 finish for EDMONDS. Moss finished with eight wins from eight matches, and almost a 30-VPs gap between themselves and the rest of the field. In the battle for second place, BLACK overhauled LEBOWITZ by defeating them 83-55. 

After eight matches, this heat finished with the top of the leader-board looking like this: 

The top eight teams earn qualification for Group A when Heat 2 of this event comes around in a month’s time. 

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the early stages of Heat 2.