BBO Vugraph #179

This week, we make our final visit to Wroclaw in southwestern Poland for the final of the World Mixed Teams. And, what a treat lies in store, with two very strong teams ready to go head-to-head for a world championship title. On one side is FERM (USA, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland), with three finalists from April’s Bermuda Bowl garnering support from across northern Europe. On the other, MINITER (USA, Sweden, Norway), with two double Venice Cup winners plus the Norwegian maestro being cheered on by the Viking hoards of Scandinavia.

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

What do you bid?

Then, again with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting South with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are South with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, an opening lead problem. With both sides vulnerable, you are North and hear the following auction:

What do you lead?

FERM had the best of the opening stanza and led by 27 IMPs (52-25) after the first of the six 16-board sets. Kibitzers were still finding their seats when Daniela von Arnim faced the first of this week’s problems on the opening board of the second stanza.

Fredrik Nystrom chose to pre-empt in third seat and Sanna Clementsson upped the ante to the four-level. Thereafter, East/West’s focus seemed to be more on finding the right strain more than on level. This was not a deal on which to prefer the 4-4 fit, against which there was a potential ruff, but there was no spade ruff available against a heart contract, so 5♥ was not quite high enough. E/W +480.

Rather than taking away bidding space from her opponents, Christina Lund Madsen chose to try convincing the Scandinavian pair that she had more values than she did. However, cue-bids from both sides of the table quickly established that East/West held most of the high cards. Facing a maximum pass, even one with wasted diamond values, Geir Helgemo decided his hand was worth playing in slam, and he offered Jessica Larsson a choice of strains. Helgemo was no doubt delighted when she chose his strong five-card suit, and equally pleased with the result when it came time to score. E/W +980 and 11 IMPs to MINITER, cutting away at the early deficit.

Then came a deal on which a pair of multiple Venice Cup winners played an impressive game of “Anything you can do…”

Simon De Wijs’s jump to 3♣ was not alerted/explained in the hand records, but probably showed diamonds. Thus, it was that Daniela von Arnim played the diamond slam from the short side.

South led a low trump, won the third round of the suit, and exited safely with a fourth diamond. This meant that declarer could unblock the hearts, cross to her hand in spades, and cash the ♥Q. Returning to dummy with the ♠A, Von Arnim then ran her remaining diamond winners. She had to judge from the play which defender held the thirteenth heart, but it looked like it was North, in which case he was destined to be caught in a show-up squeeze. When declarer finally played a club from dummy at trick twelve, North followed with the last low club, but his remaining card was assumed to be a heart, so Von Arnim rose with the ♣A and down came South’s king. An impressive E/W +1370.

The auction was even quicker here, but South’ spade lead disrupted declarer’s entries. Larsson won in hand and started on diamonds, South taking the second round and continuing spades. The primary difference is that declarer has been unable to cash the ♥Q before running her diamond winners. However, South threw what was perhaps a tell-tale heart on the fifth round of diamonds. When the last diamond winner was cashed, North had to discard from ♥10-x and ♣10-x. Drijver knew he had to keep his heart guard, so he threw a club. Reading the hand perfectly, Larsson pitched the low heart from her hand and played a club to the ace. Cue loud applause from the peanut gallery: E/W +1440 and 2 IMPs to MINITER.

MINITER had blanked their opponents 34-0 over the first nine deals of the set, but then an overambitious slam venture edged FERM back ahead in the match. Next came a potentially explosive deal on which both South players had to deal with the second of this week’s bidding problems.

Clementsson showed a good hand with at least 5-5 in the black suits with her jump to 4♣, and then Nystrom had to decide how many spades to bid over Von Arnim’s 5♦ bid. When the Swede opted for what sounded like just a competitive 5♠, both opponents chose to let sleeping dogs lie. With the clubs lying well for declarer, there was nothing to the play: N/S +680.

In the same position, Lund Madsen also essayed 5♠. Geir Helgemo demonstrated once again, though, that he is not afraid to stir the hornets’ nest. Perhaps he had already decided that we would save at the seven-level if North bid a sixth spade, although I suspect that Larsson would have been there in front of him on that East hand. With no red ace, Drijver could hardly commit to making 12 tricks, so he doubled and the Scandinavians had found a cheap save. N/S +500 and 5 IMPs to MINITER.

MINITER won the second stanza 39-33, but FERM still held the early advantage, leading 85-64. The third and fourth sets were both close, leaving FERM ahead by 18 IMPs (137-119) with 32 boards remaining in this final. The penultimate set was to prove decisive.

Simon de Wijs started with Michaels, showing spades and a minor, and Daniela von Arnim gave simple preferences to spades at the minimum level. De Wijs then showed his massive strength with a jump cue-bid, but Von Arnim was not interested. Declarer had to lose a diamond, a spade and a heart: N/S what looked like a fairly straightforward +620.

However, things were far from straightforward in the other room, where Jessica Larsson was called upon to solve the last of this week’s bidding problems.

Helgemo probably had no two-suited bid to show this combination (some partnerships prefer to show specific suits, usually clubs and the other major). Having started with a double on the North cards, things became much more difficult for the Scandinavian pair.

Christina Lund Madsen took the opportunity to get her second suit into play, perhaps paving the way for a paying sacrifice if North/South did get to 4♠ but, more importantly, allowing Bas Drijver to jam the auction with a pre-emptive jump to the four-level. When that came back to Helgemo, he bid his longest suit, leaving Larsson to try to unravel a very tricky conundrum. In commentary on BBO VuGraph, I suggested that it was more likely that she would raise to 5♦ than bid 4♠. In the end, she passed, which at least produced a plus score to save a couple of IMPs. N/S +130 and 10 IMP to FERM. Then came:

I don’t recall ever seeing an auction quite this symmetrical. Sanna Clementsson’s 3♦ was alerted and was likely a re-transfer, showing either a game try or a slam try with at least six hearts. The Swedes climbed into the danger zone where, looking at just the East/West hands, a club ruff might potentially have beaten them. Indeed, De Wijs led the ♣3 against 5♥, but there was no ruff available: E/W a relieved +650.

At the other table, Bas Drijver grabbed the opportunity to channel his inner-Zia.

After the same transfer start, Drijver advanced with an auto-splinter, showing short spades and setting hearts as trumps. Madsen waited with 3NT, suggesting no club control, so Drijver continued with a spoof cue-bid on J-x-x and then Blackwooded his partner to slam.

Did you find the winning lead when presented with the hand as a problem earlier? With the club control, presumably the king, known to be in dummy, it was certainly possible that Helgemo would underlead the ♣A in the hope of inducing a misguess. Not this time: he opened a sedate ♠10 and Madsen was soon claiming her 12 tricks. E/W +1430 and 13 IMPs to FERM.

When a MINITER pair bid to a slam off two aces a couple of boards later, that was another 11 out, and FERM whitewashed their opponents 47-0 over just eight boards to start the penultimate set. MINITER mounted a mini-comeback, but it was all too little too late. They won the final set, but by only 5 IMPs.

FERM won the match 237-184 and are surely worthy champions after emerging from perhaps the strongest Mixed Teams field ever assembled. Congratulation to Barbara Ferm, Sjoert Brink, Bas Drijver, Christina Lund Madsen, Simon de Wijs and Daniela von Arnim. 

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