After a week in the snowy climes of the high Alps in France, we have travelled east across Europe to Poland, where it is more obviously Spring. We are here for the final of the National Mixed Teams. The format is a 24-board match divided into two 12-board segments.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are South holding:

What do you bid?

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

What do you bid?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you are in the East seat holding:

What do you bid?

While you consider those, we start with the very first deal of the match.

Igor and Sabina Grzejdziak (right) made their first international appearance in a Mixed Teams event at the 2005 European Transnational Championships, although Igor had previously played two European Youth Championships for the Polish Junior team in the 1990s. They have been regular members of the Polish Mixed team since 2016, last year reaching the quarter-finals of the Mixed Teams at the World Championships in Salsomaggiore.

On this deal, they followed a Gazzilli sequence to what looks like a fairly normal 4♥ contract. The question was then whether declarer could overcome the 5-0 trump split?

South led a club, North winning with the ♣A and switching to a diamond. Declarer won and laid down the ♥A, getting the bad news. The ♠10 came next, and was run to North’s queen. Winning the diamond return, declarer now overtook the ♣Q and advanced the ♣J, North ruffing in with the ♥9.

If declarer pitches her diamond loser on this trick, she can get home by repeating the spade finesse and picking up North’s remaining trumps via the marked finesse. She will lose just one trump and one trick in each black suit. When Grzejdziak instead overruffed with the ♥K, she was in trouble. She picked up the spades but still had to lose a diamond as well as a trump trick to the ♥J. With one loser in each suit, that was one down: E/W -50.

The auction was much more straightforward following Sautaux’s 1NT opening. West raised to 3NT and South led a club, which was ducked around to the queen. The ♥A revealed the position in that suit, so declarer advanced the ♠10, covered by king and ace. Declarer crossed back to hand with the ♥K to lead a second round of spades. North won and switched to diamonds, but the defence simply did not have enough ammunition. Driving out the ♣A gave declarer ten tricks, three in each major and two in each minor. E/W +430 and 10 IMPs to AKINOM to open the match,

The rest of the first half was fairly quiet, but LACZNOSC just managed to overcome that early setback to take a 2-IMP lead, 20-18. Both South players had to answer the first of this week’s problems on the opening deal of the second half.

North rebid his hearts and then showed club support at his third turn. Natalia Suszanowicz (left), a member of the Polish Under-26 Women’s team at last year’s European Youth Championships, had to decide whether to settle for game in notrumps or investigate slam on the way to game in the minor. With such good controls, she decided that she was too slam-suitable to just give up in 3NT, so she advanced with 4♣. When Michal Wrobel could do no more than bid 5♣, she gave up her slam ambitions.

The play did not start well for declarer: West led a heart to king and ace, ruffed the heart return, and exited with the ♠J. The first question was how to play the trumps. Suszanowicz cashed the ace and then had to decide what to do when West produced the last missing small trump on the second round. Rising with the king is attractive as, if it drops East’s ♣Q, declarer would be home, as she could then discard one diamond loser and ruff the other two.

She overcame that hurdle when she chose to put in the ♣10 from dummy and East discarded. Alas, her success was short-lived as, after drawing West’s remaining trump, she then had to take the diamond finesse. When West produced the ♦K, declarer was one down. N/S -100.

Natalia Sakowska (right) is one of the young superstars of Polish Women’s bridge. She made her first international appearance in the Schools section at the 2006 European Youth Pairs Championship. In a glittering Junior career that lasted six years, she won two World titles, the Under-26 Women’s Teams in both 2010 and 2012, and three European titles, the Under-26 Women’s Teams in 2007 and 2009, and the Under-26 Women’s Pairs in 2008 playing with Joanna Krawczyk. She also collected a silver medal at the 2012 European Under-26 Women’s Pairs in partnership with Danuta Kazmucha. Sakowska made her debut in the Polish Women’s team in 2012, while still a junior, and she has also been a regular member of the Polish Mixed team since 2016.

Faced with the same problem on this deal, with more than two-thirds of her HCP in her partner’s short suits, Sakowska judged that 3NT was sufficient. West led a diamond, dummy’s ♦J winning, and Sakowska started clubs by cashing the king and then running the ten to West’s queen, protecting her diamond holding as best she could. West exited with a heart to the king and ace, and East returned a diamond, but declarer now had nine tricks; two diamonds, one heart and three in each black suit. N/S +600 and 12 IMPs to LACZNOSC.

The very next deal produced another double-digit swing…

Sabina Grzejdziak started with 1♦ and then splintered in clubs when Igor Grzejdziak (left) responded in spades. Igor rolled out Blackwood, discovered there was just one key-card missing, and bid the slam. All very straightforward.

The play was equally uncomplicated when North led a heart. All that remained was to knock out the trump ace and claim twelve tricks. E/W +980

A simple 2♣ overcall caused all sorts of problems in the replay.

Natalia Sakowska’s 2♣ overcall of East’s 1♦ opening left Szczepanski with the second of this week’s problems. Yes, you have the values to bid a forcing 2♠ but, with such a weak suit, does it not look more sensible to make sure of getting those good hearts into the auction in case North raises clubs to an uncomfortably high level?

Szczepanski did indeed start with a double. When his partner then forced with a 3♣ cue-bid, he showed his club stopper with 3NT. What do you then make of partner’s 4♣? This sounds like a ‘choice-of-games’ cue-bid, but which games do you think East is offering? Would she not bid this way with, say, 2-4-6-1 shape, checking for a likely 4-4 heart fit before heading for the diamond game if that chance does not materialize? It looks as if Sautaux thought she was just offering a choice of majors. Is Szczepanski supposed to wait with 4♦ if he has only four-card majors?

Whether they were ever going to be in a position to venture beyond game after this start is, of course, another matter. There was no spade ruff for the defenders to take and, when declarer got the trumps right, there were the same 12 tricks in the 4-3 heart fit as in the 5-4 spade fit. E/W +480 and another 11 IMPs to LACZNOSC.

LACZNOSC had now opened a useful lead, but AKINOM were not ready to go quietly. Late in the set, both East players had to make the decision on the last of this week’s problem hands…

Should you raise partner’s hearts immediately, or introduce your spade suit? Sabina Grzejdziak opted for the latter option. South overcalled in diamonds and Igor raised to 3♠. Michal Wrobel’s jump to 5♦ then really put East under pressure. It is hard to criticize her 5♠ bid, but it did not get the job done on this layout. With the club finesse working, there were 13 tricks: E/W +710.

There are two primary objectives to bidding – to identify the trump suit and to decide how high to go. It seems clear to me that the sooner you can take care of the first of those objectives, the more space you have to work on the latter of those decisions. By introducing an alternative trump suit on this deal, East has effectively wasted what little space was left to them by the defensive pre-emptive bidding.

At this table, East agreed hearts at her first turn via a game-forcing 2NT. When South came in with a diamond overcall, West showed slam interest with a 4♦ cue-bid. Now, when North raised to 5♦, East could make a forcing, invitational pass. With such good controls, it was not hard for Szczepanski to accept his partner’s invitation. E/W +1460 and 13 IMPs to AKINOM.

Although AKINOM gained another double-digit swing on the next deal, it was only enough to reduce the deficit to single-digits. LACZNOSC won the second half 30-25 and, with it, the match and the title with a 52-43 victory.

We now head south to Turkey, and the 2023 Summer Festival, from where we will bring you the best of the action in the final of the National Women's Teams.