We are in the Netherlands for the final of the Dutch Premier League. On one side are Switzerland’s reigning Bermuda Bowl champions, playing as BC de LOMBARD 1 (Pierre Zimmerman, Michal Nowosadzki, Sjoert Brink, Bas Drijver, Jacek Kalita and Michal Klukowski). Taking them on are home town favourites BC t’ONSTEIN 2 (Ricco van Prooijen, Bob Drijver, Guy Mendes de Leon and Thibo Sprinkhuizen).

The format is an 80-board match divided into five 16-board stanzas. After our first visit, we left things early in the second stanza. With 20 boards played, the Dutch team had their noses in front by 3 IMPs, 48-45.

Only one problem this week. With only your opponents vulnerable, you are West holding:

What do you bid?

We start with a deal on which E/W played 3NT at both tables, albeit from opposite sides. It was all about finding the ♦J… or was it?

Thibo Sprinkhuizen led the ♥Q against Michal Nowosadzki (left). Winning with the ♥K, declarer led the ♦K from dummy, Mendes de Leon signalling with his now worthless jack. Sprinkhuizen ducked, won the second round of diamonds, and continued hearts, but declarer was just about home now. Needing only three spade tricks, and happy to lose a trick to North, Nowosadzki safety played the spades, leading to the ace, back to the king and playing a third round toward the jack. North won with the ♠Q but declarer had nine tricks, via three spades, three diamonds, two hearts and a club. E/W +600.

Ricco van Prooijen played the same contract from the West seat on the lead of the ♠10. He covered with dummy’s jack, which won, and immediately ran the ♦10 around to North’s jack. Van Prooijen won the spade continuation in his hand with the king and crossed to the ♠A. When he then led a diamond, Michal Klukowski (right) ducked. Van Prooijen won with the ♦K but, limited to only one diamond trick, he could now no longer make more than eight tricks. E/W -100 and 12 IMPs to BC de LOMBARD 1.

After misguessing diamonds, declarer can still give the defence a chance go wrong. Winning with the ♠K at trick three, he needs to play the ♦K now, while dummy still has two entries. Assuming South allows the ♦K to win (if he doesn’t, the play is easy), declarer can then cross to dummy with the ♠A and force our the ♦A, establishing his second trick in that suit. Now South has to find a club switch to defeat the contract (and it’s Klukowski, so he will probably get it right, but even Homer sometimes nods). If South woodenly returns a safe-looking heart, declarer wins, cashes his second heart winner, crosses to the ♣A, takes his diamond tricks, then exits with the fourth round of spades. North wins but he will then be endplayed to lead away from ♣K-J at the end.

Later in the set, one West player had to answer the problem from the top of this article.

After Nowosadzki’s 1NT response, Pierre Zimmerman (left) had to decide between raising his partner or rebidding his diamonds. Zimmermann opted for a direct raise to the nine-trick game.

On a spade lead (best) declarer needs to bring in the diamonds for one loser. That’s good odds – any 2-2 break, a 3-1 break with South holding any three cards, or a singleton king with South. When Sprinkhuizen led a heart, declarer had even better chances. He ran the opening lead to his queen and then played a club to the ace and a second club. Needing just four club tricks to go with one diamond and two in each major, this line would succeed against any 3-3 or 4-2 club break (plus a singleton king).

As the cards lay, declarer is destined to succeed whichever minor suit he has to play. E/W +400.

The Dutch Tarzan auction began with a Strong Club from Ricco van Prooijen and a 2♦ response showing 9-11 balanced. West then began a relay sequence and East described his hand. After Klukowski’s double of East’s artificial 3♥ bid, Van Prooijen did not like his hand for 3NT, so he continued to relay, with 3♠ asking for controls, and the 4♣ response showing two (one ace or two kings).

The resulting 5♦ contract is not hopeless, and at least they had played from the East seat, putting the ♥K on lead. Klukowski opened safely with the ♠6 and Bob Drijver (right) had to choose between two lines of play. One option is simply to rely on the club finesse and the trumps to play for one loser. That would mean winning the spade lead, crossing to dummy with the ♦A, and running the ♣Q. If that finesse won, declarer would then need trumps to behave as he would have a heart loser at the end. That was the working line of play.

Drijver went for the alternative, playing the ♣A at trick two and continuing with a second round of clubs, establishing a discard for the heart loser. This line needs any 3-3 club break (and trumps to play for one loser), or some 4-2 club breaks combined with a suitable trump holding, such as the hand with the doubleton club holding a doubleton ♦K or ♦J-10-x.

Klukowski won with the ♣K and continued spades. A diamond to the ace did not drop the king and, when Klukowski was able to ruff the third round of clubs with the ♦J, declarer was one down. E/W -50 and 10 IMPs to BC de LOMBARD 1.

The Swiss team won the second stanza 63-32, so they led by 37 IMPs, 94-57, with two of the five sets played.

The third set started promisingly, with this bidding test for the E/W pairs.

Pre-emption can be a double-edged sword that adds momentum to your opponents’ auction.

Pierre Zimmerman had a toy, so he opened the West hand with 2♠, showing five spades and at least a four-card minor. That left Guy Mendes de Leon (right) with the first of this week’s problems. One option is to overcall 4♥, which would probably have duplicated the result at the first table, with East jumping to 4♠ and South competing to the five-level. However, Mendes decided that his hand was too strong for that option, so he began with a takeout double.

Michael Nowosadzki duly upped the ante with a jump to game, and now Sprinkhuizen joined in with a responsive double. That prompted Mendes to take a shot at slam in his long suit,

Now the spotlight was on Nowosadzki. Would the double Bermuda Bowl champion divine the club lead needed to break the slam? No, he fished out a spade, so declarer was also able to establish diamonds for a club discard. N/S +980 and 11 IMPs to BC t’ONSTEIN 2.

Honours were fairly even at the end of the first segment, with BC de LOMBARD 1 ahead by 6 IMPs, 31-25. The action began early in the second segment. On this deal, the precise meaning of a 2M opening played a big role.

Bob Drijver began with a limited, Precision-style 1♦ opening. Ricco van Prooijen’s second-round jump to 3♥ showed a good six-card or longer suit and was forcing to game. Drijver advanced with a non-serious 3♠, showing a spade control but a minimum. Suitably discouraged, Van Prooijen gave up in game.

It’s hard to argue that dummy was minimum for his opening bid, but the hands fit perfectly and there were 12 virtually top tricks. E/W +480.

In the replay, Bas Drijver (left) got the ball rolling with a 12-14 1NT opening. Sjoert Brink transferred to hearts and then advanced with a self-agreeing and forcing 3♥. Drijver cue bid his spade control and Brink waited with 3NT to enable his partner to show a club control. Brink confirmed his strong slam interest with a 4♦ cue-bid, which prompted Drijver to check on key cards before committing to slam. Indeed, there were even a couple of grand slam tries on the way to the final destination.

There was nothing to the play: E/W +980 and 11 IMPs to BC de LOMBARD to open the third stanza.

Unfortunately, The Great Dealer seems to have fallen asleep after the excitement of the second stanza, and the quality of deals in the third set did not live up to the occasion. 12 of the 16 boards were flat, and BC de LOMBARD 1 won a dull set 16-11. They led by 42 IMPs, 110-68 overnight.

We will be back soon with the highlights from the last two stanzas of this final.