This is our last week in France, with the conclusion of the final of the Premier League. Last week, we left thing with SOULET (Philippe Soulet, Marc Bompis, Bernard Payen, Michel Lebel, Eric Mauberquez and Christophe Oursel) ahead by 40 IMPs. There are 48 board remaining in the final against the ZIMMERMANN team contains six Bermuda Bowl winners (Pierre Zimmermann, Franck Multon, Michael Klukowski, Piotr Gawrys, Jacek Kalita and Michal Nowosadzki).

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with only your opponents vulnerable, you are West holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the East seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we begin with what turned out to be a spectacular flat board.

Michal Klukowski opened a multi-way Polish Club (natural, 12-14 balanced or any 18+) and Philippe Soulet attempted to spike his opponents’ guns with a pre-emptive jump to 3♣. After two passes, Klukowski re-opened with a double, showing the strong variation, and now Piotr Gawrys came to life with a jump to 4♦. Klukowski advanced with a 5♣ cue-bid and Gawrys reciprocated, by accepting the slam try and also showing his heart control. Klukowski could not underwrite 13 tricks and, indeed, the grand slam is only a marginal proposition, essentially needing a 3-2 trump break, which is perhaps not a lot better than 50-50 after West’s pre-empt.

Gawrys won the opening club lead and immediately ruffed a club in dummy. The ♦A-K confirmed that trumps behaved, so declarer simply crossed back to the ♥A, drew the last trump, and claimed the rest. N/S +1390.

In recent years, we have seen players stretching the limits of pre-emptive bidding ever further. The auction at the other table illustrates that it has perhaps just about reached the breaking point of its elasticity.

Christophe Oursel (left) and Eric Mauberquez have been playing together for a long time: they finished fourth in the European Junior Pairs way back in 1993. In 2015, they were members of the team captained by Philippe Soulet that represented France at the European Champions Cup.

On this deal, Oursel opened a natural 1♥ and Franck Multon decided that the West hand warranted a 4♣ overcall. Regular readers of this column will be all-too familiar with the concept that sacrificing on balanced hands is fraught with danger, but Pierre Zimmermann decided to push the boat out a little further by raising his partner’s pre-empt to game. Oursel had an obvious double to show his good hand, and Mauberquez had no reason to do anything other than defend.

Mauberquez opened with the ♥A and a second heart. When Oursel continued with a third high heart, Multon elected to ruff with the ♣10 and Mauberquez took the opportunity to divest himself of a spade. Declarer played a club to the king and then took advantage of the entry to dummy to lead a spade towards his king. Oursel rose with the ♠A and led another high heart, both West and North throwing diamonds. Now came the ♠Q, which allowed North to ruff away declarer’s king. The defence had limited declarer to only his five trump tricks: 5♣-X down six was N/S +1400 and an unusual push to begin the day’s entertainment for those watching live on BBO VuGraph.

By a strange quirk of fate, a few deals later, along came a deal with remarkable similarities. Let’s see if anyone had learned from the previous experience…

Oursel made a negative double at his first turn and then, when West’s raise to 3♣ came back to him, he showed a three-card, invitational spade raise. One might, perhaps, have expected that East, with his seven-card suit, might compete to 4♣ if 3♠ was passed around to him. That Franck Multon thought he should compete again, on a hand that is terrible offensively but is packed with potential defensive values, is much more surprising. But that is what happened.

The defence did not have to be Belladonna-Garozzo to collect three diamonds, two spades and a heart, leaving declarer with only his trump winners. E/W -150 for what looked, since no one could find a double, like a flat board against a conventional -140 from the other table.

The moral is that you can only push people around so far. Eventually, they will wake up and double.

At this table, Michal Klukowski (right) began with a 3♣ cue-bid, showing an invitational spade raise, which left Philippe Soulet with the first of this week’s bidding problems. For me, anything more than a double is an overbid on that West hand. Even opposite six trumps, you have no LAW safety at the four-level. When Soulet chose to make a move towards game with a 3♠ cue-bid, presumably angling towards 3NT, it is hardly surprising that Marc Bompis felt he had been sufficiently encouraged to save in 5♣ after Gawrys had raised to 4♠ on the North cards.

The Poles had done well to bid game in their 5-3 spade fit rather than the doomed 4-4 heart fit, but even 4♠ seems likely to fail. Suppose East either leads the ♥K or opens with the ♣A and then switches to his heart. Would you play for diamonds to split 3-3 with the king onside (and spades 3-2 so that you can get back to the 13^th diamond with the third round of trumps)? Alternatively, would you just simply draw trumps and rely either on a 3-2 heart break or on the ♥Q being in the East hand? Magician though he is, it looks like Gawrys would need X-Ray vision to make his game on this layout.

Pushed far enough, someone did finally stop to double a club contract. As at the other table, declarer could make only his seven trump winners: N/S +800 and 12 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN.

After the first 16 boards of the day, SOULET had extended the advantage to 42 IMPs, 156-114, with 32 boards remaining.

SOULET had added a further 25 IMPs to their lead when the next deal arrived midway through the set. Arguably, neither side managed to get to the best contract, but it seems clear who deserved to gain IMPs…

East rebid a 12-14 HCP 1NT and it looks like Philippe Soulet’s jump to 3♣ was invitational, which left Marc Bompis with the second of this week’s problems. With partner likely to hold at most four cards in the majors, Bompis’s 3NT bid does not look right to me. With a maximum, it would be feeble to pass 3♣, but either 3♦ (to see if partner can show something in spades) or 3♥, showing doubt about spades, seem preferable.

Certainly, looking at just the E/W hands, 3NT is not the contract you would choose. With the defenders very likely to be able to cash five spade tricks against no-trumps, 5♣ is clearly where you would rather play. On the actual layout, of course, the defenders can score no more than two tricks: a very fortunate E/W +460.

What’s good for the goose, is also good for the gander, and whilst the French pair could count themselves fortunate to go plus in their game, the Poles rode their luck even further…

Piotr Gawrys upgraded his hand to a 15-17 1NT and Michal Klukowski’s jump to 3♠ showed game-forcing values with either 1-3-(45) or 0-3-5-5 shape. Gawrys confirmed clubs as trumps and Klukowski advanced with a diamond cue-bid. When Gawrys then showed a heart control, the young genius decided that he had enough to bid slam.

It’s not a wonderful slam, but it is probably just with the odds, and we’ve certainly all been in far worse ones that have made. On a heart lead, declarer would need the diamond suit to produce five winners, so not far off 50% (3-3 or doubleton jack). On any other lead, declarer can survive with only four diamond tricks as long as clubs break 2-2, enabling him to score two spade ruffs. 

Eric Mauberquez had no reason to lead a heart, but it wouldn’t have helped him anyway with the diamonds as they were: E/W an excellent +920 and 10 IMPs to ZIMMERMANN. Justice done, I think!

You can push the boat out only so far. Towards the end of the stanza, both North players had to deal with the last of this week’s problems.

Christophe Oursel did not take any action over West’s 4♥ opening. Eric Mauberquez then re-opened with a takeout double on his passed hand, and Oursel understandably saw no reason to do anything but take the sure plus score by defending. There was little to the play and the defence duly scored two diamonds, two trumps and a spade for two down: N/S +500.

Theoretically, Frank Multon (left) made the right decision by doubling the 4♥ opening, as N/S can make ten tricks in spades for a 3-IMP gain. However, the South hand is enormous facing the double of 4♥, so Pierre Zimmerman quite reasonably was not prepared to settle for bidding the minimum. He advanced with a 5♥ cue-bid and, although he passed when Multon could bid only 5♠, the damage was already done.

East led a heart and declarer pitched a club from dummy. After winning with the ♥A, Philippe Soulet accurately exited with a spade to the queen and ace. He won the second round of trumps with the ♠K and exited safely with a third round. The defenders had to come to a trick in one of the minors, so that was one down: N/S -100 and 12 IMPs to SOULET.

SOULET piled on the IMPs in the final deals of the match and eventually won the stanza 100-43. They won the match and the title by a margin of 99 IMPs, 256-157. Congratulations to the SOULET team: Philippe Soulet, Marc Bompis, Bernard Payen, Michel Lebel, Eric Mauberquez and Christophe Oursel.