Welcome to the picturesque city of Dubrovnik, Croatia, perched on the shores of the Adriatic Sea and one of Europe’s most popular vacation destinations. What a shame it’s November! This week, it is the venue for the 21^st European Champions Cup and the 1^st Women’s European Champions Cup.

Many players may perhaps be hoping to catch the “Game of Thrones Tour” sometime during their visit here, but to do so they will need to be as nimble as Arya Stark as it is a compact schedule. There are twelve invited teams in the Open event, last year’s winners plus the national champion team from eleven European countries. In the Women’s event, there are seven invited teams. (It would have been eight, but the Israeli Venice Cup winners were a late withdrawal.) Teams will play a complete round robin over the first two days. The top four teams in each event will then advance to Saturday’s semi-finals.

Today’s highlights come from the two VuGraph matches in Round 2: Eskom Warszawa (Poland) v Irish Champions and Pharmaservice (Denmark) v Lombard (Netherlands). Only the Poles got out of the traps quickly with a victory: They began with a handsome win against the home nation’s representatives. Lombard went down to the Norwegians in their opening match, whilst the Danes ran into the Swiss buzz-saw. The men from the Emerald Isle are coming off a narrow loss to one of the Belgian teams, so let’s see if they packed some of that famed Irish luck for their visit to the Land of Dragons.

A couple of problems with a similar theme today: What approach do you take in the South seat facing a 15-17 1NT opening?

Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you hold:

Next, with only your opponents vulnerable, your hand is:

What is your plan on each of these hands?

We start on the opening deal of the match, with three of the four South players facing the first of the problems above.

Rafal Marks (left) was a member of the Poland University team at European and World Championships in 2017. He collected a silver medal from the Open Teams at the 2020 European Winter Games in Monaco.

On this deal, Marks simply raised to 3NT. In the other match, the Dutch South, Rens Philipsen, did the same but via Puppet Stayman, just in case there was a 5-3 heart fit to be found. At both tables, the defence began with three rounds of spades.

Jakub Wojcieszek ran the ♥Q at trick four. Winning with the ♥K, Mark Moran returned the ♦9, covered by the jack, queen and ace. Declarer continued with a diamond to the eight, so John Carroll won with the ♦10 and cashed his spade winners. Poland N/S -100.

For the Dutch, Dennis Stuurman won the third spade and ran the ♥9. Here, too, West won and returned the ♦9. Stuurman rose with the ♦K and played a heart to the eight. The diamond continuation went to the ♦A. Declarer could cash the ♥A and take the club finesse, but he still had only seven tricks. Netherlands N/S -100.

The contract can be made, but you would need to have been tipped off about the distribution of the heart suit. Declarer has to win the third spade, cross to dummy with the ♦A, and take the club finesse. He then cashes the♦K before playing the ♣A and a third club to West’s king. With only hearts left, West’s forced return allows declarer to make three heart tricks to go with three clubs, two diamonds and one spade. Not an obvious way to play with no opposition bidding.

With the honours split and not supporting each other, and nothing by way of impletion, the South hand can hardly be said to be even an exciting 9-count…I feel that the Irish South was closest to the mark in terms of hand evaluation.

With his pass, Adam Mesbur (right) ensured that the Irish would gain IMPs on the board. Michal Wrobel then offered them the chance for a real bonanza with what looks like a really poorly-judged intervention on the West hand. I could understand if East had bid over 1NT – at least he has some shape. Coming in at the two-level on this balanced garbage, having already told the opponents that you couldn’t open the bidding, seems to be asking for trouble. Wrobel was lucky that both Irish players had too many hearts to make a takeout double, so he got to play for only 50s.

Wrobel managed to scramble five tricks in his undoubled 2♥: N/S +150 and 6 IMPS to Irish Champions. Hearts seemed to be flavour of the day on this deal. At the fourth table, it was the Dutch West who got the auction rolling:

Morten Bilde doubled for penalties after Gerbrand Hop (left) had opened with a mini (10-12 HCP) 1NT on the West hand. When Yke Smit then ran to spades on the East cards, it was the Danes who were left with a problem. The meaning of double and whether pass is forcing when the opponents run to a major is a difficult topic in auctions after a penalty double of a weak no-trump. It seems likely that Andreas Plejdrup’s double here showed balanced values, leaning more towards takeout than penalties.

With no eight-card fit to be had, the best spot for the Danes is defending 2♠-doubled, which should go down as long as the defenders attack clubs early. However, passing the double is tough on that North hand. Thus, Bilde found himself playing an uncomfortable Moysian at the three-level. The bad trump break put paid to declarer’s chances of going plus, but this at least turned out to be a better spot than 3NT. Bilde managed eight tricks: N/S -50 and 2 IMPs to Pharmaservice.

Midway through the match, the South players had again to decide on a plan of action after a 1NT opening from his partner. What did you decide to do with the second of today’s problem hands?

Despite the singleton spade, all four players opened 1NT on the North hand. Both Adam Mesbur for the Irish and Andreas Plejdrup (right) for Danes saw no reason to do anything other than try to play in their long suit at the lowest level possible. Even making eight tricks in spades is not assured, with three diamond losers, the trump ace missing, and a heart guess for one or two losers in that suit. Meanwhile, East/West have no fit and can make close to the square root of zero.

Mesbur managed eight tricks: Ireland N/S +110. Plejdrup made only seven: Danish N/S -50.

You might see a pattern emerging here. The two South players who had bid 3NT on the first deal, felt the urge to pre-empt on this one…

At these two tables, both South players were presumably sure that the opponents would be able to make some high contract, even though North/South are known to hold close to half of the high cards. Or, did they perhaps think that 4♠ would be making? Stranger things have happened, I suppose, but today was not one of those days.

The Danish defenders got their five obvious tricks. Netherlands N/S -100 and thus 2 IMPs to Pharmaservice.

Against Jakub Wojcieszek (left), John Carroll led the ♣K. Declarer won in hand and returned the ♣9, covered with the ten and ruffed. Declarer then led a trump and Moran ducked, allowing declarer to get to his hand with the ♠K. When declarer then led the ♣6, Carroll did not go in with the queen, so declarer pitched a diamond from dummy and Moran had to ruff with the ♠A. That was one trick that had slipped away from the defence.

Moran switched to diamonds and declarer put up the queen. Carroll won with the ♦A but still did not know enough about declarer’s hand, so he cashed the ♥A, solving declarer’s guess in that suit. At least he then switched back to diamonds, and thus avoided letting the contract through. Poland N/S -50, but 4 IMPs to Ireland Champions.

The Great Dealer did provide those watching live on BBO VuGraph with one firecracker in this round. Let’s start with the action in the match between Ireland and Poland.

This looked like a very difficult combination for a Precision-style, natural 2♣ opening, and so it proved for the Irish pair. Adam Mesbur started with a forcing 2♠ and then bid his hearts twice. Despite his great-looking hand, with a void in the suit in which his partner rated to hold values, it was hard for Mesbur to commit beyond game. Likewise, with a shortage in his partner’s first suit, can Tommy Garvey (right) really imagine that this motley opening bid is what his partner needs for slam? Very difficult. I am looking forward to comparing this auction with one starting with a 1♣ opening. With both majors lying favourably, it was hard not to make twelve tricks. N/S +480. The good news for the Irish is that this North hand is also a 2♣ opening in the Polish Club system being employed by their counterparts at the other table.

Rafal Marks chose to start with a 2♦ inquiry which, when his partner rebid 3♣ to show six clubs and no four-card major, seemed to leave him in an even worse position than Mesbur at the first table. Marks bid his spades and then introduced his hearts at the four-level, leaving Wojcieszek with a difficult decision. As he thought for some time about what to do, I suspect that the vast majority of kibitzers would have wagered on a pass of 4♥. When Wojcieszek eventually emerged from the bushes, it was with a leap to 5NT, asking his partner to pick a slam. What remarkably good judgement that turned out to be.

Moran led a diamond against 6♥. Marks won in dummy with the ace and called for a low heart. This is a situation in which many defenders give away the position when they hold a doubleton king so, when Carroll followed with a low trump, Marks put in the eight, which forced the king from West. Now declarer was almost home, and he could even afford to guard against a 4-2 spade break. He won the trump return with the ace, crossed to a high spade, and ruffed a spade with dummy’s last trump. A club ruff to hand allowed Marks to draw the last trump and claim: so much for the Luck of the Irish. A magnificent N/S +980 and 11 IMPs to Eskom Warszawa. So, will we get to see how much easier the auction is after a 1♣ opening in the other match?  Let’s find out…

Rens Philipsen (left) made his international debut as a member of the Dutch Youngsters team at the 2009 European Youth Championships. He collected a bronze medal from the Under-21 Teams at the 2010 World Series in Philadelphia.

Again, there was no 1♣ opening from North. After the same start as the other table in this match, Philipsen started with 2NT, a puppet to 3♣, and his 3♥was then game-forcing with both majors. Having passed initially, Stuurman was happy to co-operate, so he moved forward with a diamond cue-bid. Philipsen rolled out Blackwood and, when he heard the two key card response, he knew it was the ♦A and a top trump. Perhaps dummy would produce the ♥J too!

A diamond was led here too. Philipsen won with the ♦A, cashed the ♥A, then played two rounds of spades, ruffing in dummy. When he led the last trump from dummy, the appearance of the jack was the answer to declarer’s prayers. This line was more committal than the one taken by the Polish declarer in the other match, and might also have run into a spade ruff had West held a doubleton ♥K and four spades. With the cards as they were here, it was smiles all around for the Orange Army: N/S +980 and 11 IMPs to Lombard.

This deal produced the only big swing of a hard-fought set in both matches. As a result, Eskom Warszawa defeated Irish Champions 17-12, and Lombard beat Pharmaservice 16-12.

Six of the eleven rounds in the qualifying stage were played today. The top of the leader board in the Open event looked this way overnight:

After four of the seven rounds in the Women’s event, the overnight standings are:

We will be back in Dubrovnik soon to bring you the best of the action from the second day of qualifying.