We return to Australia, this time at Canberra Bridge Club for the final of the national Mixed Teams Playoffs. The winner will represent Australia in the Mixed Teams events at major championships in 2024.

Seven teams competed in this event. COLES (Trevor Fuller, Leone Fuller, Sebastian Yuen, Christy Geromboux, George Kozakos and Pele Rankin) were seeded through to the semi-final stage. That left three places up for grabs for the winners of the three quarter-final matches. HARRISON (Shane Harrison, Jessica Brake, Bruce Neill and Sue Lusk) defeated FOSTER 270-235. THOMPSON (Ben Thompson, Renee Cooper, David Wiltshire, Sophie Ashton, Jamie Thompson and Ella Jacob) beat FREE 234-268. THOMSON (David Beauchamp, Jodi Tutty, Maurits van der Vlugt, Dagmar Neumann, Warren Lazer and Pauline Gumby) saw off McLEISH 269-195.

With many of the biggest names in Australian bridge in action in the semi-finals, THOMSON defeated THOMPSON 323-276 and four-handed HARRISON pulled off an exciting upset with a 226-214 victory over COLES. So, it would be THOMSON v HARRISON for the title. The match would be played over 120 boards divided into eight 15-board stanzas over two days.

As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are East holding:

What do you open?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the South seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

As a thank you to those who showed up to watch the opening stanza live on BBO, The Great Dealer produced a spectacular set of boards to kick things off. On the opening deal, both East players had to answer the first of the problems above. The result was that one declarer had things relatively easy, whilst the other was presented with a much sterner test.

This shape/strength is tricky to handle after a 1♠ opening and a 1NT response, so Shane Harrison (left) not unreasonably decided to open the East hand 1NT despite the flawed shape. The result was that the eight-card spade fit was never uncovered, and Harrison landed in the comfortable nine-trick game.

Harrison won the opening spade lead cheaply in his hand and advanced the ♥10. Warren Lazer rose with the ♥A and switched to the ♦J. Harrison rose with the king and continued with a second diamond, ducked to South’s nine. The club switch went to declarer’s king and now came a spade towards the jack. South rose with the ♠Q and cashed the ♦A before getting out with his second club.  When declarer cashed the ♦Q, South was forced to unguard one of the majors, so declarer was able to score nine tricks. E/W +400.

David Beauchamp (right) started with a 1♠ opening. Jodi Tutty was able to show a three-card limit raise with her jump to 3♣, so Beauchamp jumped to game in the eight-card major-suit fit. With trumps breaking 5-0, this was a much more challenging contract.

Sue Lusk kept the defenders in front with her lead of the ♥A, but she then needed to continue with either the ♥Q (not exactly obvious looking at that dummy) or by switching to a club. When she instead played the ♦A and then the ♦J, declarer was in with a chance. Beauchamp made a good start, winning in hand with the ♦Q, playing a low trump, and covering South’s ♠5 with dummy’s six. A club back to hand was followed by another low spade, South winning with the ♠Q and exiting with her second club. With declarer needing all of the remaining tricks, these cards remained:

Beauchamp played the ♠9 to dummy’s jack. He cashed the ♦K and the♥K, but then had to force himself to get back to hand, promoting a trump trick for South. E/W -50 and 10 IMPs to HARRISON to open the scoring.

To make the contract from the diagrammed position, declarer must play a red suit to the king in dummy and then cash the other king. He then ruffs a heart in his hand with the ♠9. Now the thirteenth diamond can then be ruffed with the ♠J, leaving just the ♠A-K for the last two tricks.

That lead did not make it through the second board of the set, on which both South players had to deal with the second of this week’s problems.

Sue Lusk passed East’s 2♥ and then passed again when West’s imaginative raise to the three-level came back to her. The defence began with two rounds of diamonds, declarer ruffing and leading a club which ran to North’s ten. Bruce Neill continued with a high diamond, ruffed with the ten and overruffed with the king. A club went to North’s ace and another high diamond came through, declarer ruffing with the queen.

To defeat the contract, South must throw the ♣K on this trick. When Lusk instead released a spade, declarer was home. Beauchamp ruffed a spade in dummy and was now able to score the ♥8 by ruffing a club whilst South had to impotently follow suit. The ♥A and a spade ruff to dummy now enabled declarer to draw the last trump with the ♥J and cash two winning clubs. N/S -140.

Warren Lazer (left) first represented Australia at the 1993 Bermuda Bowl, and he was a member of the team that reached the quarter-finals of the same event in 2007. In 2017, he again reached the last eight of a major international event, the World Senior Teams.

There was nothing delicate about events at this table. After an identical start to the auction, Lazer jumped to 3NT on the South hand. The play was over as quickly as the bidding. East put in the queen on the heart lead, so declarer took the ♥K and claimed a nine more tricks in the minors. N/S +630 and 13 IMPs to THOMSON.

HARRISON opened a moderate lead over the rest of the set, but then came another of those 5422 shapes on which the choice of opening bid proved critical.

Sue Lusk (right) and Bruce Neill conducted a fairly normal auction. Looking at just the N/S hands, 6♥ looks like a more than reasonable proposition after West’s spade overcall, and perhaps Neill might have made another move towards slam. Had he done so, though, a Lightner double and the resulting diamond lead and ruff would have defeated the contract.

Of course, East led a spade against North’s 4♥, so declarer was soon claiming twelve tricks: NS +680.

Pauline Gumby (left) made her debut in the Australian Women’s team at the 1980 World Team Olympiad. She has been on a number of Australian teams that came close to collecting a medal, finishing fourth at the 1981 Venice Cup, and reaching the quarter-final stage of both the 2007 Bermuda Bowl and the 2017 World Senior Teams.

Off shape and out of range, I can see no particular reason to upgrade this South hand, but I am but a humble scribe and Warren Lazer’s decision to start with 1NT turned out very well for his side. Gumby started with a transfer to hearts and Lazer’s break to 2NT showed at least four-card heart support (and perhaps a non-minimum too). After such an encouraging start, who can blame Gumby for checking on aces and bidding slam when she discovered only one missing.

With no opposition bidding, 6♥ is just about a 50-50 proposition – either the ♠A is onside or it is not. However, assuming that North has a sensible 4NT bid (ie she does not have two top losers in any suit), then West has a fair idea where the ♠K is (unless North’s spade control is a singleton). Armed with this information, perhaps Jessica Brake might have worked out that a low spade was the potentially killing opening lead.

No. She opened a mundane club. Lazer had eleven top tricks and little choice but to eventually lead towards the ♠K for his contract. With the finesse working, that was twelve tricks: N/S +1430 and 13 IMPs to THOMSON.

An exciting opening stanza finished with HARRISON ahead by 3 IMPs (42-39).

As a partnership, do you want to get to 50% slams? The answer should be no. When you stop in game and find that twelve tricks cannot be beaten because the key finesse works, there are still numerous ways that you might gain IMPs. The opposition might get to the wrong slam, bid a grand slam, stop to take an inadequate penalty, be pre-empted out of the auction, or even have some misunderstanding and play the hand in 2hx+4. If you bid slam and go down when the finesse fails, you almost always lose IMPs, no matter what happened at the other table.

As soon as Dagmar Neumann (right) opened the bidding, former Dutch junior international Maurits van der Vlugt was interested in slam with his monster hand. One of the luxuries of playing IMPs rather than matchpoints, is that you can often afford to bypass 3NT to investigate minor-suit slams, knowing that you can stop safely in the five-level game if that investigation proves fruitless. That is what happened here. Having persuaded his partner to agree diamonds, Blackwood told van der Vlugt that two key-cards were missing and thus he stopped safely in 5♦.

Neill led his singleton heart, declarer winning in dummy and taking the losing trump finesse. In a desperate attempt to beat the contract, Neil tried to put his partner in with the ♣K to get his ruff, so declarer was soon claiming twelve tricks. E/W +420.

Shane Harrison also opened the East hand, but Jessica Brake was less circumspect, simply raising his 1NT rebid to slam.

This contract was not even a 50% proposition. Yes, it needed the diamond finesse to work, but slam played from the East hand might also fail on a club lead even with the ♦K onside.

Jodi Tutty had no particular reason to lead a club, choosing instead the ♥4, so declarer had dodged that potential bullet. However, when the diamond finesse failed, justice was duly served. North cashed the ♣A and the contract was one down. E/W -50 and 10 IMPs to THOMSON, who edged into the lead early into the second stanza.

HARRISON ended up winning the second stanza 31-20, so they held a 15-IMP (74-59) advantage after two of the eight segments.

We will be back soon with more highlight from this playoff.