Vugraph Deals #150

We return to Salsomaggiore in northern Italy for the quarter-finals of the first post-Pandemic World Championships. Matches at this stage are of 96 boards divided into six 16-board stanzas. This week, we see two true heavyweights, Norway and USA-2, battling it out in the Bermuda Bowl, and we also take our first look at the Venice Cup, with hot favourites Poland against Denmark. 

As usual, we start with some problems. First, with only your side vulnerable, you are North holding: 

What action do you take?  

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you hold in the North seat: 

What action, if any, do you take? 

Finally, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting North with this collection: 

What action do you take? 

While you mull those over, we start in the second segment of the Bermuda Bowl clash between Norway and USA-2. Norway held a 3-IMP lead going into this stanza, having won the opening segment 18-15. The large crowd watching live on BBO VuGraph settled in for what was sure to be an exciting set, with Boye Brogeland and John Kranyak (described to me recently as ‘crazy at the best of times’ by one pundit) at the same table. Few IMPs changed hands on the early boards, but then came a deal with massive potential: 

“No respect, I don’t get no respect!” as the late Rodney Dangerfield often observed. Have you noticed how little respect 2♣ and even 2NT openings are getting at these championships? The next player here seems to be quite willing to get in at the three-level, even vulnerable, on very moderate hands. How much did the aggressive American bidding influence Brogeland’s decision to give up attempting to bid the hand, and instead just punt what he hoped he could make? 

You can understand Brogeland’s thinking: “Surely the one card that partner is unlikely to hold is the ♣A, so let’s bid 6♠ now and hope he has enough stuff in the red suits to make 12 tricks.” 

Kranyak led the ♥2, so declarer claimed: N/S +1010 and a chance for the Americans to gain a swing, perhaps. 

In discussion in commentary on BBO VuGraph with Barnet Shenkin and Allan Graves, we all agreed that any declarer who reached 7♠ was surely bound to make it. However, we were wrong: the English declarer in the Venice Cup saw East discard the ♦Q when she cashed her penultimate trump. Dummy had ♦J ♥Axx and she had ♥KJx and one trump left in her hand. When she cashed her final trump, throwing a heart from dummy, East released a heart. Convinced now that East had the ♦K and two hearts left, she chose the show-up squeeze line in the endgame, playing West to have started with a doubleton ♥Q, and went down. Isn’t that always irritating, when every declarer at any local club would manage to make 13 tricks

Terje Aa is old enough to have learned respect, so he stayed silent in the replay, giving the Americans a free run. Warren Spector set the suit with his jump to 3♠, and the pair then cue-bid their way to Blackwood. Spector’s 6♥ bid asked for third-round control of that suit. Gavin Wolpert did not have it, so he signed off in 6♠.  

Spector won the cub lead and drew trumps in one round. He then cashed the ♦A and used his trump entries to try to ruff down the ♦K-Q. When that failed, he simply took a heart finesse for the overtrick: N/S +1010 and a push. 

Then came a series of deals on which neither side could make a game, but that didn’t stop them trying. The young Norwegian North player had to deal with the first of this week’s problem hands: 

Christian Bakke’s jump to 3NT looks like a practical bid on that North hand. You have eight tricks and, when partner produces a dummy containing an ace, what more could you want? Ah, it would help, of course, if the opponents did not have a suit in which they could cash the first five. The saving grace for N/S is that, despite the 11-card diamond fit, you cannot make game in that strain either, as there are two hearts off the top and an unavoidable slow club loser too. N/S -200. 

In the other room, there were even less alternatives for the American North: 

N/S -200 and another flat board. 

The Norwegians added another 4 IMPs to lead 29-22 after 32 boards. One-third of the way through the match, only a brave man would have been willing to bet more than a couple of quickly-devaluing roubles on the outcome of this one. In the end, though, it was the Norwegians who pulled away and won comfortably, 175-116, and advanced to a semi-final against The Netherlands.  

In the Venice Cup, Poland had completely dominated the round robin stage of the competition, eventually leading the field by close to 50 VPs. They finished more than 90 VPs ahead of the quarter-final opponents they selected, Denmark, but that superiority had been far from evident in the early stages of their quarter-final match. On the first day, Denmark led by 3 IMPs after the first session, by 2 IMPs after the second, and trailed by 3 IMPs at the overnight break. In the opening session of the second day, Denmark won 30-9 to give them an 18-IMP advantage going into the fifth stanza. Could the favourites fight back and reclaim their number one seeding, or would the Danes score a famous victory and match onwards into the semi-finals? 

The Danes picked up a couple of early partscore swings, and then came something more substantial. Both North players were faced with the second of this week’s bidding problems. 

I suppose you could make a case for Pass, Double, 2♥ and, perhaps, even 1NT on the North hand. For the Danes, Helle Rasmussen chose to pass and soon found herself defending a heart partscore. Only a diamond lead legitimately holds declarer to eight tricks, although the overtrick escaped declarer after Bilde had opened with a club. Not that it mattered: E/W +110. 

When Sophia Baldysz chose to overcall on the North hand, the Poles were in deep trouble. The auction followed the inevitable path and Tine Bilde led a top club. A spade to the king was followed by the ♥K, which was allowed to hold, so Charlotte Kock-Palmund continued with the ♠A and then the ♠10. North and East both pitched a club, but declarer had no answer when West then switched back to clubs. She pitched a diamond, allowing East to score the ♣K and the defenders still had three more trump tricks to come. Although there was no way for the Danes to make the ♦K in the endgame, declarer still had to settle for just four tricks. E/W +1100 meant a massive 14 IMPs to DENMARK, and they were not finished yet. 

A couple of deals later, the Danes bid to a routine game in the 4-4 spade fit for +650. At the other table, though, a wheel came off in a Polish Club auction and the Baldysz mother-daughter combination ended in 3NT with a diamond holding of 7-5-3 opposite the singleton 2. That was -100 and another 13 IMPs to DENMARK, who had built a lead of 59 IMPs with just 22 boards left in the match. The Poles were not the favourites for no reason though, and they were not quite ready to throw in the towel. Indeed, they struck right back on the very next deal, where both North players had to solve the last of this week’s bidding problems: 

Rasmussen started with a 2♣ overcall. When that was passed back to Anna Sarniak, she doubled back in, understandably, but giving the Danes a second chance to get to one of their cold games. Rasmussem rebid her suit and Kazmucha competed to the three-level on the East hand, which just about shut the door on any thoughts South might have had about advancing. 

There was more bad news for Danish supporters when the defense began with two high clubs, declarer ruffing. North then won the first round of trumps and continued with a third high club, rather than switching to a heart to get her partner in for a diamond ruff. South won the second round of trumps and played a diamond, won in dummy. When Sarniak then played a heart, South had only the bare ace left, so that was the fourth and last trick for the defense. N/S -140. 

There are two possible game contacts for N/S. 3NT needs diamonds 4-3, whilst 5♣ needs either hearts 3-3 or West to hold both the king and queen.  

Sophia Baldysz started with a double of West’s 1♠ opening, and this gave the auction a much better tempo for N/S. East raised spades immediately, but South was not to be shut out with a six-card suit and two aces. They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and that was certainly what Sophia wanted to hear, so she took a shot at 3NT. East led a spade and declarer claimed her ten top tricks: N/S +430 and 11 IMPS back to POLAND. 

Sloppy defensive play allowed 2♠ to make when the same contract was failing at the other table, and another 5 IMPs landed in the Polish column. Then came another big opportunity. 

Holding a balanced 15-17, quite why Kock-Palmund did not open 1NT is unclear. Bilde showed a game-forcing spade raise with a Jacoby 2NT and the 3♦ continuation was alerted but not explained. (Presumably, it showed extra values without a shortage.) An exchange of cue-bids told West that the ♥K was missing, so she gave up when East made a non-forcing bid. Quite when Bilde had shown more than the 12-13 HCP promised by her initial 2NT response, though, is not obvious to this writer.  

North presented declarer with her twelfth trick by leading a heart, dummy’s ♥Q scoring at trick one. Not that it mattered, since the diamonds were coming in to produce a discard for the heart loser anyway. E/W +480. 

Sarniak did start with 1NT and Stayman uncovered the spade fit. Kazmucha’s 3♥ bid agreed spades and she then showed serious slam interest with 3NT. Cud-bids confirmed that all the side suits were controlled and some form of Blackwood then carried the Polish pair to the decent slam. 

Rasmussen avoided the heart lead, but the ♦7 did not fare much better, as it solved any possible problems declarer might have had in that suit. The play did not take long: E/W +980 and another 11 IMPs to POLAND. 

The final deal of the stanza again saw the Poles playing a two-level contract at both tables. This time, though, it was not with the same suit as trumps in both rooms. Both declarers were successful, so that was another 6 IMPs recovered, leaving the score with 16 boards remaining 167-141 in favor of the Danes.  

26 IMPs is a substantial lead, but the match was far from finished and the large and vocal contingent of Danish supporters would have to bite their nails through one more session. Alas for the Danes, the final stanza was a complete blowout, Poland winning it 61-2 and the match by 202-169 to claim their place in the quarter-final against another Scandinavian team, Sweden. 

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the semi-finals, as the world’s best players strain to reach the bridge equivalent of the Superbowl.