This is our last visit to Louisville, Kentucky and the 2024 North American Spring Nationals. The two teams contesting the final of the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams are #1 NICKELL (Nick Nickell, Ralph Katz, Steve Weinstein, Bobby Levin, Eric Greco and Geoff Hampson) and #14 BATHURST (Kevin Bathurst, John Hurd, Ron Smith, Chris Compton, Jing Liu and Hongji Wei).

The format is a 60-board match divided into four 15-board stanzas. At the end of our last visit, we had reached the midway point of the final, with NICKELL ahead by 12 IMPs, 71-59, BATHURST having recovered from a much larger early deficit.

As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are West holding:

What do you open?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start early in the third stanza, with both West players having to decide what to open on the first of the hands above.

Chris Compton (left) opened 1♣ on the West cards and Ralph Katz’s 1♠ overcall then bought the contract. The defenders collected the first five tricks in the minors, Compton discarding a heart on the third round of diamonds. Declarer then ruffed the club continuation, crossed to dummy with a high heart, and took the trump finesse. When that lost, Ron Smith gave his partner a heart ruff to beat the contract by a trick. N/S -100.

In the replay, Steve Weinstein chose to open 1NT. Bobby Levin advanced with a range-asking 2♠ and then passed 2NT when his partner showed a minimum.

The defence was not difficult. John Hurd (right) started with the ♠K and, seeing the doubleton queen in dummy, cashed five rounds of that suit, Kevin Bathurst throwing clubs and diamonds. Bathurst won the heart switch with the king and continued with the ace, Hurd unblocking the ♥10 when the position in that suit became clear. Declarer was left with a surplus of aces and kings for the final three tricks. Five down: N/S +500 and 12 IMPs to BATHURST on what looked like a nothing deal.

It is widely acknowledged that defence is the most difficult part of the game. Even the Rueful Rabbit knew that when he ran a long suit, people sometimes threw away the wrong thing. There is no legitimate squeeze on our next exhibit, but that doesn’t mean that finding a number of discards is easy, even for expert players.

Steve Weinstein (left) opened with a Namyats 4♣, showing a strong 4♥ bid. Blackwood then carried the partnership to the small slam.

John Hurd led a diamond which is, theoretically, the only lead that restricts declarer to just his 12 top tricks. (On any other opening, declarer has the entries to ruff out the spades and get back to cash the thirteenth card in the suit.)

Weinstein won the ♦A and played five rounds of trumps, forcing North to find four discards. When Hurd released a spade, declarer crossed to the ♠A and ruffed a spade, bringing down North’s king. A club to the jack then enabled Weinstein to take a ruffing finesse against South’s ♠Q to dispose of his diamond loser. Thirteen tricks: E/W +1010.

Chris Compton started with a 1♥ opening, but it still didn’t take Ron Smith long to launch Blackwood. When Smith confirmed possession of all the key cards with his 5NT, Compton closed proceedings by removing all of the cards from his bidding box.

Nick Nickell led a safe heart. Of course, the lead did not matter against this contract, as the threat of declarer ruffing a spade good was non-existent in his no-trump contract. The only thing the defenders knew about declarer’s hand was that he had bid spades, and that was to prove crucial later in the play.

Smith took a break from cashing heart winners after four tricks and played off his clubs. He then reverted to hearts. When the penultimate heart was cashed, Katz was sure that he had to keep his ♠K guarded, so he bared his ♦K. On the same trick, it seemed imperative to Nickell that he retain ♠Q-x-x, so he bared his ♦Q. Declarer discarded the ♠J on the last heart and duly scored his thirteenth trick with the ♦9. A rare case of the Pseudo Double Squeeze, and in a grand slam to boot! E/W +1510 and 11 IMPs to BATHURST.

BATHURST won the third stanza 39-20, which meant that they carried a 7-IMP lead, 98-91, into the final set of 15 boards. So much for ‘match over by halftime’! However, the final set did not start well for the underdogs: on the second deal of the stanza, they suffered from the double whammy of a bidding misunderstanding at one table and some world-class declarer play at the other…

Geoff Hampson opened with a Precision-style 1♦, showing a limited hand but perhaps as few as a doubleton diamond. Jing Liu overcalled with what he thought was a Michaels cue-bid, showing the majors, but his partner was unsure that this applied when the 1♦ opening was nebulous. Expecting the 2♦ bid to be natural, Hongji Wei passed, although perhaps an examination of his own hand, with only three major-suit cards, might have strongly suggested this was the wrong thing to do.

Liu managed to make seven tricks in his 4-1 fit. E/W -50.

John Hurd did not open the North hand, so Bobby Levin (right) kicked things off with 1♠. He then showed his good hand and his second suit with his jump rebid of 3♥, and Steve Weinstein then closed the simple auction with a jump to game in spades.

With only three major-suit cards in dummy, this was never going to be an easy contract to make. Kevin Bathurst led a diamond to the king and ace, and John Hurd found the best continuation of two rounds of trumps. Levin won in dummy with the ♠10, played a heart to the queen and cashed the ♥A. To beat the contract, Hurd must jettison the ♥K on this trick.

When he failed to do so, Levin could see a way home. He drew South’s remaining trumps, North pitching first a diamond and then the ♥K, but that was not enough. Levin now played three rounds of clubs, setting up a club winner in dummy. Of course, he did not ruff the third round of clubs, but discarded a heart, using the North hand as a stepping stone to resurrect the entry-less dummy. When he won with the ♣Q, Hurd had only diamonds left. Levin scored the last three tricks with the ♦Q, a long club and his remaining trump. A masterful E/W +420 and 10 IMPs to NICKELL.

Note that throwing a diamond instead of the ♥K on the fourth round of trumps would not have helped Hurd. Levin would then have ruffed the third round of clubs and exited with a heart. Forced to win with the ♥K, Hurd would again have been forced to give declarer access to the two winners in dummy by playing a diamond.

Over the next ten deals, NICKELL blanked their opponents 48-0, effectively ending the match as a contest. Our next deal was the final nail in the BATHURST coffin…

Bathurst/Hurd play a 14-16 1NT non-vulnerable, so this South hand was slightly too strong. The result was that, when Hurd showed a good suit with his jump to 4♥, Bathurst had not shown his extra values, and thus he was left with the last of this week’s problems. For sure, Hurd might have held something like x/AKxxxxx/Qx/xxx but, as Hamman’s Second Law advises, “If you need me to hold a specific hand, assume I don’t have it.”

There are two obvious problems with rolling out Blackwood here. One is that partner might hold three spades, as he does here, and thus even the five-level is too high. The other is that when partner shows two key cards in response to your inquiry, you still do not know whether you belong at the five-level or in slam. Perhaps it was because Bathurst realized the set had not gone well and thought they were behind that he chose to take the optimistic view of the hand.

Levin duly cashed his top spades and gave his partner a ruff to beat the slam by two. N/S -100.

His Strong Club system told Eric Greco (left) everything he needed to know prior to having to make a decision. He began with an artificial 16+ HCP 1♣ and Hampson’s 1♥ response forced to game showing any hand without at least five spades. Greco could have shown 5+ spades by bidding 1♠ now, but he instead decided to describe his hand as 16-18 balanced, which seems like an appropriate description to me. Hampson transferred to hearts and then jumped to 4♦, showing a self-supporting hearts suit and short diamonds. Of course, Greco was never tempted to bid anything other than 4♥ after this start.

The defenders took the first three tricks here too: N/S +420 and another 11 IMPs to NICKELL.

On the penultimate deal of the match, the East players also picked up what was perhaps the worst hand anyone had ever seen. On commentary, no one could recall seeing a Yarborough in which the highest card was a seven!

NICKELL won the final stanza 59-14, and the match by 38 IMPs, 150-112.

Commiserations to the losing finalists, who had enjoyed a fantastic week to reach this stage…

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Vanderbilt Knockout Teams…

That’s it for us from Louisville. We will be back soon to bring you the best of the action from another top event somewhere in the world.