Although only 12 teams found their way to northern Poland for the 2023 World Bridge Tour Masters event, the strong field includes many of the leading European players. The venue for this star-studded event is Sopot, a seaside resort on the Baltic Sea. Along with its larger neighbours, Gdansk and Gdynia, Poland’s smallest city forms the metropolitan district known as Tricity.

The format is a complete round-robin of 20-board matches split into two 10-board segments. At the end of the 11 rounds, the top four teams will play semi-finals and final for the title. The other two groups of four will play off for minor places.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the North seat with:

What action do you take?

Next, a lead problem. With both sides vulnerable, you are West and hear the following auction:

East’s 1♣ opening is the multi-way Polish Club, showing clubs, 11-14 balanced or any 18+. West's 3♦ is natural and invitational.

What do you lead?

While you mull those over, we begin with a meeting between two of the four all-Polish teams in the field, AZS WRATISLAVIA and SPS CONSTRUCTION. When you bid game on a combined 23 HCP with only an eight-card fit, you expect to need a little luck, and picking the right game will surely be crucial…

Still with a couple of years of eligibility as juniors remaining, the Patreuha brothers, Patryk (left) and Jakub (below right), are the latest in a growing line of young stars produced by the Polish bridge factory in recent years.

They made their first international appearance as members of the Polish team that won the Under-16 Teams title at the 2014 World Youth Championships. In 2019, the brothers finished sixth in the World Under-21 Pairs and Patryk collected a silver medal from the World Under-21 Individual. Post-pandemic, they have begun to make their mark in Open events, reaching the quarter-final stage at both the 2022 Rosenblum Cup in Wroclaw and the European Winter Games in France a couple of months ago.

Jacek Kalita set the ball rolling when he opened his flat 11-count on this deal. He rebid 1NT to show a minimum, but Michal Klukowski’s 2♦ forced to game, and thus it was only a question of which one. With three-card support and a ruffing value, Kalita was happy to agree his partner’s major.  

Patryk Patreuha accurately identified declarer’s diamond weakness and led a trump, attacking dummy’s ruffing value. Klukowski won in his hand and played a heart to the ten, winning. A diamond to declarer’s nine lost to the jack, and Patryk continued with a second trump. When he then won the next round of hearts to play a third round of trumps, Klukowski’s goose was cooked. All he could make was two hearts, two clubs and five trumps: E/W -50

Mateusz Sobczak (right) also opened the East hand. Of course he did: who passes flat 11-counts these days?

Although not alerted, Piotr Marcinowski’s 2NT was presumably forcing (otherwise Sobczak would surely have passed a limit raise). Marcinowski’s 3♥ was alerted, although not explained – showing weakness, perhaps? The upshot was that Sobczak steered his partnership away from the 5-3 major and into the nine-trick game. Who would have thought that was the winning strategy on this type of hand, but it’s hard to argue with success.

South led the ♣Q. Sobczak won, crossed to dummy in spades, and played a heart to his jack. Another spade returned the lead to dummy and a second heart was played. North rose with the ♥A, and the defenders can cash three diamonds winners, but that’s all. The ♥K is now declarer’s ninth trick. An impressive E/W +400 and 10 IMPs to AZS WRATISLAVIA, who win a close-fought match by 1 IMP, 41-40.

Featured on BBO VuGraph in Round 2, was a match involving two teams flying the English flag, although both teams have strong Scandinavian contingents. This is De BOTTON v GILLIS. Of course, those of us at BBO have a rooting interest, as we always hope to see a major event won by a team including a member of the BBO expert bidding panel, and this GILLIS team has two.

Perhaps surprisingly, this deal created problems for an experienced partnership.

Simon Gillis was able to suggest both majors with a negative double of East’s 1♦ overcall. When Artur Malinowski made a pre-emptive raise on the West cards, Erik Saelensminde (left) showed his extra values via a responsive double. Gillis showed his club support and the Norwegian star raised himself to game.

Janet de Botton cashed a high diamond and switched to the ♠10 at trick two. When Malinowski did not take his ace, declarer scored with the ♠K. Saelensminde ruffed two diamonds in dummy and ran his trumps, squeezing West in the majors for the overtrick. N/S +620.

At this table, the Norwegians were playing transfer responses to 1♣ openings, and thus Thomas Charlsen’s double promised four or more hearts rather than both majors. Ola Rimstedt’s jump to 3♣, showing a mixed raise in diamonds, then left Thor Erik Hoftaniska with the first of this week’s problems.

What do you think your regular partner would make of the various bids available to North in this auction? Does double show good clubs, or just extra values, or both? Is it a support double or perhaps a responsive double? What would a 3♦ cue-bid mean? (That would be my choice, but perhaps this is a problem that we’ll set the BBO expert bidding panel.) The one thing that is certain, is that Hoftaniska’s jump to 4♥ was not the winning choice on this layout.

Whilst 11 tricks were easy in clubs, playing in the Moysian heart fit was anything but a comfortable ride. Declarer managed to make just seven tricks: N/S -300 and 14 IMPs to GILLIS.

Two wins move GILLIS up into third place at this early stage. They trail SKEIDAR (Norway) and APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS (Germany/Poland).

In Round 3, the VuGraph match pits BLACK (England/Netherlands) against NAWROT, another all-Polish team that includes multiple European Champions (this time of the Women’s variety). We get to see the Polish ladies in action early in the second half of the match.

Boguslaw Gierulski made a late entry into the auction, with a takeout double after the young Dutch pair had shown both red suits. Guillermo Mendes de Leon competed to 3♦, which would surely have ended the auction, but Jerzy Skrzypczak took his partner perhaps more seriously than he should. The good news for the Poles was that no one doubled 3♠. The upshot was that while the Poles could have allowed their opponents to score +110/130 in 3♦, 3♠ was three down (but only in 100s). Was E/W +300 a good result for the Dutch or the Poles?

Anna Sarniak (right) made her first international appearance as a member of the Polish Junior team at the 2000 European Youth Championship. She made her debut in her country’s Women’s team at the European Team Championship just four years later. She has collected numerous silver and bronze medals over the last two decades, and she was a member of the Polish Women’s team that won the European Teams Championship in both 2018 and 2022.

On this deal, Sarniak opened a multi-way Polish club (clubs, or 11-14 balanced or any 18+). Danuta Kazmucha’s jump to 3♦ was natural and invitational. Sarniak’s acceptance of the invite then left Andrew Black with the lead problem posed earlier.

Did you find the winning club lead? No? Nor did Black: he opened the ♠5, which went to his partner’s queen and declarer’s king. Black held up his ace until the third round of diamonds, got a signal from his partner, and switched to a club. David Gold won with the ♣A and returned the ♠10, but declarer’s spades were just good enough. She covered with the ♠J and the ♠8 limited the defenders to two spade tricks. E/W +600 and 7 IMPs to NAWROT.

NAWROT won the match by 1 IMP, 29-28, leaving both teams close to mid-table.

We’ll check out one more match on this first visit to Sopot. The VuGraph selection for this round is BUBBLE (Israel/England/Poland) against the team currently lying in second place, APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS (Germany/Poland). So, plenty of home-town interest in this one as well as rooting interest for many of those watching live on BBO. BUBBLE led 28-11 at the midway point, but the German contingent on APRES helped bring their side right back into the match on our final deal. Both North players heard their partner open a 15-17 1NT and then break a transfer to hearts…

Lee Rosenthal broke the transfer to 3♦, presumably showing a diamond control in addition to his big trump fit. Waseem Naqvi now advanced with a spade cue-bid, showing some interest beyond game. Rosenthal showed a club control, but that left Naqvi with a tricky decision. Is this hand good enough to venture past game and, if so, with what? 5♣, perhaps? 4♥ seems rather conservative to me once partner has shown the ♣K. Rosenthal felt he had nothing further to say, so the excellent slam was missed. N/S +680.

Sabine Auken (right) needs no introduction. A multiple World and European champion, she has won the Venice Cup twice (1995 and 2001) and the McConnell Cup (in 2014). Her many successes in major matchpointed events was capped with victory in the 2016 World Open Pairs playing with Roy Welland. Sabine is one of the most recognizable players on the planet (perhaps since appearing on the cover of the original “World Class”).

After the same start, Welland also broke the transfer, although I cannot tell you what specifically 2♠ said, other than showing his heart fit. Whatever it showed, Auken was galvanized and jumped in her second suit. When Welland confirmed a secondary club fit (and also presumably showed a diamond control) Auken simply jumped to the good slam. N/S +1430 and 13 IMPs to APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS, back in the match now.

Of the four matches we have seen on this first visit to Sopot, this is the third to finish with a 1-IMP win. This time it was APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS with their noses just in front, 46-45.

After the first four of eleven matches in the round robin stage of this event, the Norwegians have won all four matches (they defeated APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS by 1 IMP in Round 3) and they have built a not-insignificant lead. These are the standing:

We will be back in Sopot soon with the best of the action from the next round of matches.