Vugraph Deals #166

Welcome back to Madeira and the 55^th European Teams Championships. The format in the Open Teams is a 29-match full round robin of 16-board matches played over 11 days. Over the opening rounds, we have been following the Dutch, one of the favourites to win the title. However, it is not only medals that are up for grabs at this championship. The top eight teams here in Madeira will also earn a place in next year’s Bermuda Bowl in Morocco. With that in mind, this week we take a look at four teams harbouring hopes of winning one of those eight places. 

As usual, though, we begin with a couple of bidding problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are East holding: 

Partner’s 4♣ bid shows a game-forcing heart raise with a void in diamonds. What do you bid? 

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you hold as West: 

What action, if any, do you now take? 

Finally, with both sides vulnerable you are sitting North with: 

What action, if any, do you take? 

While you consider those, we open this week’s action with a match featuring two teams who got off to very different starts. The Swedes topped the table early on and, despite a thrashing at the hands of the Dutch yesterday, they came into Day 5 in third place. Meanwhile, the Italians got off to a disastrous start, but after a good day yesterday they have climbed up to 11^th and are hot on the heels of a place in the top eight. Both East players had to deal with a variation of this week’s first problem on this deal: 

Masimiliano di Franco opened 1♥ and heard his partner jump to 4♣, showing a raise to 4♥ with a diamond void. Most partnerships play splinter bids as limited, showing a raise to game and no more, to help opener judge when to venture beyond game. Whether the Italians do so, I cannot tell you but, if so, perhaps this West hand is marginally too strong for a splinter? Suffice it to say that stopping in game was not a success. Indeed, all of the other 29 East/West pairs in the Open played this deal in either 6♥ or 7♥. Declarer claimed 13 tricks at trick one: E/W +710. 

For the Swedes, Peter Bertheau’s splinter response was also void-showing. In essentially the same position as Di Franco, Simon Hult advanced with a 4♠ cue-bid. Now Bertheau asked for key-cards, presumably, judging from the response, with the ♦A ignored. It is not clear exactly what Bertheau learned with his 5NT continuation but, apparently, it was sufficient for him to jump to the grand slam. Dummy’s spade losers duly disappeared on declarer’s three diamond winners: E/W +2210 and 17 IMPs to SWEDEN. 

Faced with the second problem from the top of this article, both West players in our match appear to have avoided a dangerous banana-skin on this deal. Or did they?

Both South players opened 4♥ as Dealer, and both Easts doubled in the pass-out seat. Peter Bertheau for Sweden and Andrea Manno for Italy both opted for defence, and it is easy enough to see that perhaps -590 was the smallest minus available to them. Indeed, around the room, spade contracts played by West made between three and six tricks. However, only the Polish N/S (against Scotland) managed to find a double, collecting +1100 at the four-level. Remarkably, at 10 of the 30 tables, West was allowed to play 4♠ undoubled at a cost of 200 or 250.  

A late Swedish rally made the match close, Italy winning 37-31. Sweden slipped one place to fourth, whilst the in-form Italians climbed up to within touching-distance of the promised land, just one place and less than 1 VP outside the eight places that will qualify for next year’s Bermuda Bowl. With a long way to go, history tells us that one should never write off the Italians.  

The meeting of France and Israel on Day 6 marked the midway point in the 29-match round robin. Two in-form teams, Israel were coming off a big win in the day’s opening match, against Norway, that kept them comfortably in the top eight. Meanwhile, France had hammered Turkiye to move up to tenth place, knocking on the door to the qualification places.  

Early in the match, both North players had to answer the last of this week’s problems: 

Paul Seguineau’s solution was a jump to 5♦. He won the opening club lead in hand and played a heart to ten and king, won the club continuation, and ruffed a heart in dummy. The ♠A and a spade ruff got declarer back to hand and he ruffed his last heart. However, he then had to force himself again to return to hand. With East now holding the same number of trumps as declarer, the defence was sure to score two more tricks. N/S -100. 

The bidding problem was not quite the same for Birman, but his solution to the question he was asked suggests that he would have done the same thing had East’s raise been one level higher. Whilst both the diamond and no-trump games are theoretically destined to fail, finding the winning defence against 3NT is, perhaps, more difficult. 

East led the ♥7 and the spotlight fell on Frederic Volcker. To defeat 3NT, he must win the first heart and switch to spades, establishing three defensive winners in that suit whilst declarer has only eight winners to cash. When, instead, Volcker played three rounds of hearts, declarer claimed five clubs, two diamonds and a trick in each major: N/S +600 and 12 IMPs to ISRAEL. 

There were twelve top tricks in spades on Board 6. Bidding slam on the combined 22-count, though, proved to be beyond the E/W pairs at every one of the 30 tables in the Open. Unbelievably, the Israelis were given a free run in the Open Room: 

How many clubs do you bid with the South hand? In the modern game, where everyone bids with any excuse on almost any hand, I cannot believe the right answer is none. If you allow opponents the auction to themselves, I have to say that you deserve it if they keep reaching the best contract against you. Passing at these colours seems to be asking the opponents to bid a game or slam that your teammates miss because the opponents made life difficult for them. I would doubt that many (any?) other E/W pairs got to bid these cards without being hampered by some level of pre-emption, so perhaps the Israelis should consider it a chance missed. North led a trump, so that was 13 tricks: E/W +710. 

Dror Padon did not miss the opportunity to make life difficult for his opponents. Having said that, I don’t know how many times in commentary and in these pages and others we have highlighted the danger of sacrificing on balanced hands, as the penalty is often higher than you expect. This North hand is a classic example – every side-suit loser in partner’s hand is a loser, as you contribute exactly no tricks outside the trump suit. I do not see any upside to North’s 5♣ bid – the opponents can just double and take their +800 or you may galvanize them into bidding something you cannot beat by telling one of them that their partner is short in clubs. What are the good things that might happen if North passes? 4♣ might, conceivably, end the auction and you go down in 50s. If East does back in with a double, West will probably bid 4♠ on this deal, but you can certainly imagine layouts where he does not have a clear bid and chooses to defend 4♣-X. The defenders took the obvious five top tricks plus their heart ruff: E/W +800 and 3 IMPs to FRANCE. 

France won the match 44-29, but little changed in terms of places: Israel dropped from seventh to eight and France remained in tenth. However, the noticeable gap that had existed between the top eight and the chasing pack had now just about entirely disappeared.  

We will be back next week as the tournament moves into its second half. The scramble to grab one of those Bermuda Bowl qualification places hots up, and the chase for the medals becomes a three-horse race.  

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