Marc Smith visits the French Mixed Trials

After our weekend with the British juniors in South Wales, this week we return to Paris for the final of the trials to select the French Mixed Team for this summer’s European Championships in Madeira. Neither team has enjoyed a straightforward route to this final. MAUBERQUEZ trailed 84-40 after 32 boards of their quarter-final against Mme NATAF, and in the end just squeaked through with a 4-IMP victory. SEBBANE breezed through their quarter-final but then just managed to survive their semi-final against Mme THUILLEZ, winning by just 3 IMPs.

The players return, refreshed after a weekend off, to contest the final over 96 boards divided into six 16-board sets played over two days. As usual, we begin with some teasers for you to consider. We will find out later how your choices would have turned out. We start this week with a competitive bidding decision. With just your side vulnerable, your hand as North is:

West opens a Multi (a weak two in either major) and East’s Two Spades shows no interest in competing higher facing spades but game interest if her partner holds hearts. What action, if any, would you take when East’s Three Hearts is passed around to you?

Next, with only the opponents vulnerable, you hold as South:

Partner’s jump in the fourth suit shows at least 5-5 and is forcing to game. What do you bid?

I’ll leave you to mull those over. 

SEBBANE led by 6 IMPs after the first set but MAUBERQUEZ enjoyed the best of the second stanza and led 52-40 with a third of the match played. The boards livened up somewhat in the final set of the first day. We start with a play/defensive deal on which both East players declared Four Spades after identical auctions:

None Vul - Dealer East

West - Sebbane North - Beauvillain East - Reess South -Bessis

North’s 2NT showed an invitational or better four-card heart raise, and the rest of the auction is fairly self-explanatory. Both South players led the ♥K.

At the first table, Erick Mauberquez ruffed the heart lead and immediately played a trump to his jack and South’s queen. Philippe Cronier switched to the ♦8 and declarer captured North’s ♦10 with his king. Mauberquez now ruffed a heart in dummy, drew the remaining trumps, and led the ♦9. When South showed out that was about the end of the road for declarer. He let that trick run to North’s ♦Q, so Benedicte Cronier cashed the ♣A and two heart winners, holding declarer to eight tricks. E/W -100.

At the other table, Vanessa Reess played a diamond to her king at trick two and then continued with a second round of diamonds. South cannot gain by ruffing so Veronique Bessis pitched a heart. Declarer won with the ♦A and advanced the ♣Q from dummy. This was Edouard Beauvillain’s chance to defeat the contract. (He must win with the ♣A and switch to a trump.) When North followed with a low club, declarer was home. South won with the ♣K but could not profitably play either black suit from her side of the table, so she exited with a high heart. Declarer was now able to score all eight of her trumps by crossruffing the rounded suits. She had already made two diamond tricks earlier, so that gave her ten tricks: E/W +420 and 11 IMPs to SEBBANE.

N/S Vul - Dealer West

Emmanuelle Monod opened a Multi variant (two Hearts was either strong with hearts or weak with spades) and Mauberquez responded with a non-forcing relay (to play facing the weak spade hand). Now the Croniers climbed into the auction, bidding three suits naturally before Benedicte decided that her spade stopper warranted a shot at 3NT.

Would declarer have made the contract on a low heart lead? Probably, but perhaps not. In order to defeat the contract legitimately, the defenders have to attack diamonds early or, at least, avoid setting up declarer’s ninth trick with one of the major-suit queens. When Mauberquez kicked off with the ♠A and the defenders continued with two more rounds of that suit, declarer ran for the hills with her nine tricks. N/S +600.

West - Sebbane North - Beauvillain East - Reess South -Bessis

The auction began in similar fashion here, except that the opening bid was a conventional Multi, showing a weak two in either major. The major difference, though, was that Vanessa Rees decided that the East hand was worth a second attempt to buy the contract, so she competed with Three Hearts at her second turn. This silenced Bessis and left Edouard Beauvillain with the awkward bidding decision posed earlier.

Beanvillian’s Four Club bid is not at all unreasonable and, at least theoretically, landed his partnership in the last making contract available. The alternative seems to be a double. One possibility is that double would end the auction, and although you can beat Three Hearts Doubled via three top tricks in the minors and a diamond ruff plus the ♥Q, you are not getting rich there. Nor are you guaranteed to make game in clubs. Perhaps South will pull a double to Three Spades, asking for a stopper, and 3NT will be reached. There can be no doubt, though, that Reess’s Three Heart bid certainly made it much more difficult to reach what was in practice the top spot.

Against Four Clubs, Sebbane led a heart. Reess has to switch to a trump at trick two to hold declarer to ten tricks. When, instead, she played the ♠A and continued with a second spade, declarer was able to score the ♦A-K plus nine trump tricks by ruffing three hearts in dummy. N/S +150 but 10 IMPs to SEBBANE.

The set finished with another tricky bidding hand for North/South:

E/W Vul - Dealer West

After what looks to me like a routine start to the auction, Philippe Cronier judged well to bid 3NT rather than Three Spades at his third turn, although Four Spades is also a playable spot. 

As the defensive cards lie, 3NT was an excellent contract. Monod led the ♣4 and Mauberquez did declarer’s cause no harm by taking the opening tricks with his ace. Cronier won the club continuation with the queen and knocked out the ♦A. Five diamonds and two tricks in each of the other suits adds up to eleven: N/S +460. 

It would not have helped much had East inserted the ♣8 at trick one: when he then won trick two with the ♦A, he would effectively be endplayed. The best he can do from there is to save one overtricks by leading the ♠J, which declarer probably ducks.

West - Sebbane North - Beauvillain East - Reess South -Bessis

This auction was a mess as soon as Bessis had to rebid Three Spades (surely a splinter agreeing hearts anywhere other than France).  Perhaps Two Spades would have been third-suit-forcing, so she had to jump to show spades? Whatever the reason, it does not seem like a particularly good method.

It looks as it Beauvillain thought his hand was too good for a simple raise to Four Spades. When he advanced with a somewhat ubiquitous Four Clubs, they were in trouble on what is essentially a misfit. With both players looking optimistically upon their hands, the inevitable happened and they climbed too high.

In spades, there were two aces to be lost in addition to a natural trump trick: N/S -50 and another 11 IMPs to SEBBANE. MAUBERQUEZ salvaged something in between the big swings, but SEBBANE still won the stanza 47-27 to take an 8-IMP (87-79) overnight lead.

Someone famous once observed that “Big Wheels Keep on Turning”, and a solid set from the SEBBANE foursome when play recommenced on the second day began to really turn the screws.

We’ve all heard the expression ‘a little learning can be a dangerous thing’, and so it proved for Erick Mauberquez on this deal:

Both Vul - Dealer North

Slam in the 4-4 club fit is excellent, essentially needing either the club finesse or trumps 3-2 and the hand with the ♥K on lead, (or no heart lead). The SEBBANE East/West pair flirted with clubs, but then became locked into spades, 

With the ♣K offside, it was a good slam to avoid. Or was it? It all depends on how alert you think the player in the North seat appears to be. Pierre Schmidt demonstrated how to make twelve tricks, but perhaps we can forgive Edouard Beauvillain his lack of attention since it was only an overtrick at stake.

Bessis led the ♦K and a top-class declarer would instantly spot the possibility of a red-suit squeeze against South. Schmidt did, so he drew trumps quickly and then ran the ♣Q. North won with the king but was not sufficiently switched on to spot the threat against his partner. When he returned a wooden diamond, declarer ruffed, cashed his clubs, and then ran the rest of his trumps. South was duly squeezed: twelve tricks and E/W +680.

As you have no doubt worked out, North must switch to a heart after winning with the ♣K. The entry necessary for the squeeze to work is then removed prematurely.

West - Monod North - Sebbane East - Mauberq’z South - Reess

Emmanuelle Monod committed her side to playing spades immediately. She persuaded her partner to cue-bid once and then decided she had heard enough and jumped directly to slam. Again, South led the ♦K. 

Perhaps Erick Mauberquez felt sorry for North, and didn’t want to put him under pressure. He ruffed a diamond at trick two, drew two rounds of trump ending in dummy, and took a second diamond ruff before drawing the last trump. Quite what plan declarer was following, I cannot even hazard a guess. The result, though, was that when he eventually took the losing club finesse, North was able to kill the squeeze by returning either red suit. Lionel Sebbane opted for a fourth round of diamonds, and thus declarer had to ruff away dummy’s diamond threat against South’s queen. With South now responsible for keeping winners in only one suit, declarer was left with a losing heart at the end and had to go one down. E/W -100 and 13 IMPs to SEBBANE. They won the fourth set 43-14 to open up a 37-IMP lead (131-94) with 32 boards left to play. One foot on the plane, perhaps…

This deal from the fifth set illustrated the gulf between these two teams:

E/W Vul - Dealer East

South at both tables was faced with the second bidding problem posed at the top of this article. For MAUBERQUEZ, Michel Duguet thought 3NT was the way forward. Marlene Duguet now offered a choice of slam and Michel’s preference was clear. Whether North should raise to the grand slam anyway is moot. As one commentator on BBO VuGraph observed, it is not easy to construct an opening bid for South that does not offer reasonable play for thirteen tricks. There was nothing to the play: N/S +940.

West - Bessis North - B Cronier East - Beauvillain South - P Cronier

After an identical start to the auction, Philippe Cronier’s assessment of the South hand as worth a diamond raise seems far nearer to the mark, Benedicte wasted no more time on the auction, and the play was equally swift. N/S +1440 and 11 IMPS to SEBBANE.

SEBBANE won the fifth set 40-33 to lead by 44 IMPs (171-127) going into the final set. It was not an insurmountable lead, but it was a substantial one. There were no last ditch heroics, and the favorites increased their lead, winning the final stanza 42-21 and the match 213-148.

Congratulations to Lionel Sebbane, Vanessa Reess, Pierre Schmidt, Joanna Zochowska, and Philippe and Benedicte Cronier. They will represent France in the Mixed Teams at the 2020 European Championships in Madeira this summer, and they rate to be a contender when the medals are handed out.

Next month we will be back in London for the second weekend of the Camrose, before heading to Columbus, Ohio, whence we will bring you the highlights of the North American Spring Nationals.