We return to France for the second weekend of the Premier League. There are 12 teams in Division 1 of the three-tier French league, and each will play a 32-board match against the other eleven over three weekends. After the first weekend, with four matches played, these were the leading teams:

Just two problems this week. Firstly, with only the opponents vulnerable, you are West holding:

What do you open?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting South with these cards:

What action, if any, do you take?

For some reason, there was no Vugraph coverage of Round 5, so we start this week with the Round 6 meeting of teams captained by Robert Reiplinger and Herve Fleury.

As a general rule, when you have a strong hand opposite a weak hand with a long suit, it is best to play in the weak hand’s suit. The reason for this is that the strong hand’s high cards will be equally useful no matter which suit is trumps, but the weak hand may be of no value at all unless its long suit is trump. Let’s see how the two pairs handled this situation:

Laurent Thuillez (left) played in his first international event in 1992, the European Mixed Teams Championships in Ostend. In 2004, he was a member of the French Open team at both the European Championships and the World Team Olympiad. After a fifth-place finish in the Open IMP Pairs at the 2006 World Championships in Verona, he collected his first medal, a bronze, from the Mixed Teams at the 2019 European Transnational Championships. After 30 years of international experience, Thuillez became a European champion by winning the Mixed Teams in Madeira earlier this year.

On this deal, Thuillez opened the West hand with a strong/artificial 2♣. After East’s waiting 2♦, Thibaut Charletoux intervened on the South hand, opting to overcall in his good six-card club suit rather than showing both minors. Naturally, Thuillez bid his six-card major, which left Clement Thizy with a decision: should he introduce his weak seven-card major or raise his partner’s suit? With such a weak hand, Thizy decided that raising was best. Although spades is probably the slightly better game, ten tricks in hearts should be possible on most layouts.

North led the ♣10, a card that was great next for declarer (holding the ♣J-9). Thuillez captured South ♣Q with the ace, cashed one high heart from his hand, then ruffed his low club in dummy. With the ♣J-9 equals against the king, Thuillez could safely return to hand with a trump. When both defenders followed, he advanced the ♠K. North can get the defenders a third trick either by ducking the first round of spades or by winning and underleading his ♦A, so that South can win and cash his club winner.  When he instead took the ♠A on the first round and cashed his ♦A, the defenders’ club trick was dead. Declarer ruffed the heart continuation and claimed, throwing his losing clubs on dummy’s spades. E/W +450.

East/West did manage to find their spade suit in the replay. However, that was the end of the good news:

At this table, Herve Fleury chose a 1♥ opening and Marc Girollet bid his spades. Michel Duguet showed both of his suits via a jump to 2NT and Fleury doubled, probably extra values (but perhaps it was a support double, although there is no alert in the VuGraph records). Now Robert Reiplinger upped the ante all the way to the five-level. If pass from East would be forcing now, then 5♠ would be the weakest bid available. However, although West has shown a strong hand, I don’t think this auction makes it clear that the hand belongs to E/W, which suggests that a pass would not be forcing. In that scenario, it seems that East needs something extra to bid independently at the five-level. Clearly, Fleury was expecting more than a queen-high suit, hence his raise to slam.

South led the ♣K. Declarer won and led a diamond and North duly made his two aces: E/W -50 and 11 IMPs to REIPLINGER.

Both West players had to decide what to open on the first of this week’s problem deals:

This auction is not as strange as many might think at first glance. This is France, where both 2♣ and 2♦ are played as artificial/strong openings, so this sequence showed something akin to an old Acol/Strong Two opening (for those old enough to remember such things). Game-forcing hands start with 2♦. Whether this West hand is a tad too strong for this sequence, or whether East should take a bid over 2♠ is another matter. At least they managed to produce a plus score, when many pairs would find themselves going down in 4♠ on the unfavourable distribution.

Xavier Dupuis led a club against 2♠, South ruffing and returning a heart. Thuillez took the finesse, North winning and playing a second club. Declarer won the heart continuation and played spades from the top. South’s ♠K was the fourth and last trick for the defence, declarer’s diamond loser going on dummy’s long club. E/W +140.

I’d guess that the BBO expert panel would roundly reject Herve Fleury’s choice of a 2NT opening with this hand (and we will probably find out in a future month). After all, how is partner supposed to judge what to do if you would bid ♠AJx/♥AQ/♦A10/♣AQ109xx the same as ♠AJx/♥AQx/♦A10x/♣AQ10x. Opening 2NT is just counting points without any regard for the actual strength of the hand. Opening it with the length in the major seems that much more likely to be disastrous, when 4♠ could easily be better than 3NT. However, things worked out on this deal, as East had just enough to Stayman and then bid game. Indeed, would everyone respond to a 1♠ opening bid on that East hand? Perhaps not, making the case for opening with one of the strong options.

North led a club around to the jack and declarer played spade from the top. E/W +460 and 8 IMPs to FLEURY. The match finished 44-27 in favour of REIPLINGER.

The featured match in Round 7 saw two of the leading teams in action head-to-head, with the team captained by Eric GAUTRET taking on Sport Association of BRENO. The second of this week’s problems reared its head early in the match:

At the first table, Philippe Cronier opted for a conservative pass in third seat and Bernard Cabanes’ 4♥ opening ended the very brief auction. The defenders scored their three aces and a slow spade trick to defeat the contract by one. N/S +50.

Jeremie Tignel (right) played his first international championship in 2006, reaching the Round of 32 in the Rosenblum Cup at the World Championships in Verona. He went one better at the 2020 European Winter Games in Monaco, making it to the Last 16 of the Open B-A-M Teams.

On this deal, Tignell opened 1♣ after two passes. Cedric Lorenzini’s 4♥ overcall and a double by Jean Luc Aroix then left him with the problem presented at the top of this article. Do you pass and hope to defeat 4♥, or do you brave the five-level, vulnerable against not, with only 10 HCP facing a partner who could not open the bidding?

Tignell chose offense, advancing with 4NT to show a diamond suit with longer clubs, and Aroix duly essayed 5♣. Lorenzini attacked with the ♦2 (surely a singleton which, as we shall see, was good news for a change) to the queen and ace. Declarer crossed to the ♥A, drew trumps in three rounds via the successful finesse, and advanced the ♠Q. Lorenzini won with the ♠K and, as expected, had no second diamond to play. Tignell ruffed the heart continuation and led the ♠9, driving out the ace and establishing the ♠J as a parking place for his diamond loser. A magnificent N/S +600 and 11 IMPs to GAUTRET.

Our final deal this week raises a number of important lessons for those looking to improve their game. After all, isn’t it always better to learn from other people’s mistakes (particularly when they really should know better), rather than having to suffer the consequences yourself? Let’s start, though, at the table where events were relatively normal.

Aroix opened a perfectly normal 1♣ and E/W quickly installed themselves in game, Thomas Bessis making one slam try on the way to 4♥. When dummy first appeared, Lorenzini was probably disappointed to be playing only in game, with slam needing little more than a finesse through the opening bidder with only 14 HCP missing. When it came time to take the spade finesse for the second overtrick, North’s discard was, therefore, both a surprise and relief at the potential pitfall avoided. E/W +650.

This is the sort of deal that you mentally mark down as probably a push, with potential for gain if the opponents at the other table get to the doomed slam. The first lesson of the deal, though, is to never underestimate the ability of teammates to do something truly bizarre.

The madness began with Romain Zaleski’s decision to open 3♣ on the North hand. I understand the attraction with only two low cards in the majors, but pre-empting with such good playing strength so often leads one down the path of temptation to take another bid later in the auction.

Next, what do you think of South’s 4♣ bid over East’s double? Let’s start with the technical stuff:  4♣ in this type of auction should say to partner ‘I know what to do when LHO bids again’. You may think you can beat game if LHO bids one, or you are walking the dog and intend to bid on yourself. Either way, partner is explicitly barred from taking further action. (If you want to invite partner to save with a suitable hand, you bid 3NT. If doubled, you retreat to 4♣, and partner will understand the message.)

I don’t know how many times in these pages and elsewhere we have discussed the subject of sacrificing on balanced hands, as the penalty so often turns out to be higher than expected. Yes, I suppose bidding 4♣ here does take away LHO’s ‘pick-a-major‘ cue-bid, but a responsive double does much the same thing. One thing is surely certain, you are NEVER going to play in 4♣, so what can it achieve other than giving partner some silly idea? Look again at that South hand: do you really want to give partner any encouragement at all? Really?

Of course, South is not expecting his partner to bid again, but now we are back to the problem of having opened a pre-empt on a hand with such great playing strength. Do you really want to defend 4♥ on that North hand once partner has raised clubs? I’m sure that everyone understands why Zaleski bid 5♣. Of course, if he passes 4♥, the auction may well end there. Once Bessis bid 5♥, Lorenzini decided that he liked his hand enough to award himself a sixth. Sitting North, how do you now feel? Fetch the bucket, George!

Having pushed the opponents into slam (as it happens, a huge result for his side), Zaleski now felt he had to take out what was surely ‘cheap insurance’ by saving at the seven-level. Do you think that, perhaps regretting his 4♣ bid, South was going a little blue around the gills by now? Antacids all round, please.

Bessis gratefully doubled and the defence duly collected two hearts and three diamonds to beat the contract by five. E/W +1100 in a phantom sacrifice! So much for the potential plus position that teammates had mentally registered at the other table: 10 IMPs to GAUTRET, who won the match 49-36.

The hundreds watching live on BBO VuGraph were suitably entertained, of course. However, this was just the hors d'oeuvre (well, we are at a French event), as The Great Dealer had saved the best for last. The final match of this second weekend of the French Premier League turned out to be an exciting, high-scoring shootout between the teams who had begun the weekend occupying the top two places on the leader-board.

We will be back next week with the best of the action from that final match.