Vugraph Deals #109

The Online Contract Bridge League June Cup attracted 18 teams, liberally dotted with world-class players. The top matches were featured on BBO VuGraph, and there was plenty for the large crowds of kibitzers to enjoy.

The field was divided into two nine-team groups, playing a nine-round qualifying event of 16-board matches. The top four teams in each group would advance to the knockout stage at the end of the week-long event.

As usual. We begin with a couple of bidding problems. How your choices would work, we shall find out later. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are the Dealer as West with this interesting collection:

What, if anything, do you open?

Next, with just the opponents vulnerable, you hold as West:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start in Round 1, where Board 8 produced this week’s first bidding problem. As you might imagine, there were a range of actions taken on this weak 6-6 hand. In the match between two teams flying British flags, ORCA and BLACK:

Tom Paske decided that this West hand was a 2♠ opening. Peter Crouch doubled and Andrew McIntosh advanced with 2NT. Turkey’s Nafiz Zorlu jumped to 4♥ and Tom Paske, clearly expecting a fit opposite, understandably took another bid despite having opened with a pre-emptive bid. When 4♠  came back to Zorlu, he backed in with a double, and Crouch saw no reason to disturb it.

Paske ruffed the heart lead and led a trump to the queen. Winning with the ♠K, Zorlu played two top diamonds and Paske ruffed. With the club position fairly well marked by North’s original takeout double, Paske led the ♣Q, covered by king and ace. He cashed the ♠A and, when that dropped the missing trumps, he claimed ten tricks, just conceding the ♣J. E/W +590.

Richard Plackett’s 3♠ opening got more momentum into the auction, which was not good news for his side. Andrew Black doubled and Espen Erichsen raised to 4♠. When David Gold then advanced with 4NT, showing two places to play, he had effectively won the board for his side. Like his counterpart at the other table, Plackett took a second bid too, and Black was happy to double 5♠. The play was identical: E/W -100 and 12 IMPs to BLACK, but the match finished with honours about even, BLACK just edging it 32-31.

In DONNER (USA, Sweden) vs SUGI (Indonesia), both West players chose a third option:

Per Ola Cullin was allowed to open 1NT on the North cards, and Marion Michielsen transferred to hearts. Now West came in with 2♠ and the auction accelerated thereafter. It is hard to blame Michielsen for doubling.

The play started in familiar fashion. After ruffing the second round of diamonds, Sigit drew a second round of trumps with the ace, came back to his hand with a trump and played a club to the nine. E/W +590 here too.

Gary Donner also passed the 6-6 hand and Very Pangkerego opened 1NT for the Indonesians. When South transferred, Donner entered with a 2♥ cue-bid, spades and a minor, and Pangkerego countered with a cue-bid of his own, showing a good heart fit. As at most of the other tables, EW got to 4♠ here too, but Sugiharto was not interested in defending on the South hand. The 6♥ bid was perhaps a bit ambitious, but no one had a double and, even if they had, it was still a good save. The defence made two aces and their trump trick: E/W +100 and 10 IMPs to SUGI, who led 16-1 at the midway break. DONNER came back in the second half, though, winning another close match, 34-31.

Round 2 saw another team flying the flag of St George move to the top of Group B. After a win against LESLIE (England) in Round 1, TILLY (England, Germany, Brazil) came up against GREENSPAN (USA).

The Americans wasted little time on the auction. East led a club and, when declarer played low from dummy, West withheld his king. Declarer won with the ♣10 and claimed the rest with the ♣A and eleven winners in the other suits. N/S +1470, and no doubt the Americans were glad to see that the club finesse was losing all along.

Germany’s Kevin Castner won the Open Teams at the 2016 European Winter Games and then collected a bronze medal from the same event four years later. He had more sophisticated weapons at his disposal when England’s Phil King opened 1NT on the North cards. Castner started with a jump to 3♣ , Puppet Stayman, asking for a five-card major, and heard King show hearts. He then advanced with a control-showing 3♠ and King cue-bid in diamonds. When RKCB uncovered three key cards opposite, Castner decided that he had heard enough, and jumped to the grand slam.

Playing in hearts, declarer does not need the club finesse. King won the opening trump lead, cashed the two high spades, ruffed his third spade with the ♥Q, and claimed thirteen tricks. E/W +2210 and 12 IMPs to TILLY, who won the match 37-16 to head Group B after two matches.

In Round 3, we got our first look another team likely to be in contention at the end of the week, APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS (USA, Germany, Poland).

Against a traditional 15-17 1NT opening, many pairs use double to describe some sort of takeout hand. Against a weak notrump, though, double is traditionally penalties and the Swedish 14-16 opening was just small enough to allow Hemann Lall to double just to show a good hand. Neither East nor South had anything to say, and Lall opened the defence with the ace, queen and a third heart. Patra Hamman won with the ♥K and switched accurately to a club, leaving Gunnar Elmroth with little choice but to finesse. Lall won with the ♣K and cashed his major-suit winners for two down. N/S +300, and which way the IMPs would go would now depend on whether North/South at the other table could make game.

Chile’s Barak Baskan started with a takeout double of Roy Welland’s nebulous 1♣ opening. Sabine Auken transferred to spades and Welland's 1♠ bid showed a minimum with probably only three-card support. Baskan introduced his hearts and Turkey’s Sinan Tatlicioglu made an invitational raise, which was accepted.

With the ♣A onside, declarer appears to have only three losers in the minors as he can ruff his two spade losers in dummy. However, entries to declarer’s hand are a problem and Auken duly found the killing lead of a trump. (A diamond and a trump switch is also good enough, as long as West does not cash his second diamond winner.) Declarer won in his hand and played three rounds of spades, ruffing in dummy, but he could not then get back to his hand to take a second ruff.

Baskan led a club, but Welland rose with the ace, cashed his two high diamonds, and then exited with a heart, denuding dummy of trumps. Declarer had to lose a spade at the end: N/S -100 and 9 IMPs to APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS, who won the match 52-37 to move into the top half of Group A after a slow start.

Their opponents in Round 4 were HARRIS (England, Bulgaria), and both West players were set the second of this week’s bidding problems:

Vladi Isporski passed and thus the Bulgarians went quietly, allowing Reese Milner to play peacefully in 2♦. Isporski led a heart, which was good news and bad for declarer: he won trick one with the ♥10 but, when he then led a heart to dummy’s ace, East ruffed. Rumen Trendafilov exited with the ♦J to king and ace, and Isporski returned a low diamond, removing dummy’s last trump. Declarer then prematurely claimed six tricks, not realizing that West could be endplayed to concede a heart trick at the end. Unable to make more than a spade partscore themselves, E/W +200 seemed like a reasonable board for the Bulgarians. The Poles at the other table had other ideas, though:

Wojciech Gawel was a member of the Polish team that won the main event at the 2009 European Universities Championships. More recently, he collected a silver medal in the Open Board-a-Match Teams at the 2020 European Winter Games. When the auction started in similar fashion, he took advantage of the favourable vulnerability to step in with a takeout double of spades over South’s 1NT response. As at the other table, North advanced with 2♣ and South corrected to diamonds. When 2♦ came around to Rafal Jagniewski, though, he backed in with a double. Gawel was happy to convert for penalties and led the ♠Q.

Declarer won with the ♠A and did not get off to the best start when he played ace and another heart, the ten losing to West’s jack. Gawel switched to clubs and declarer won with the ♣A to play a spade, compounding his previous error by ruffing with the ♦3, overruffed with the ♦4. A club to the queen and a third round of spades through declarer left the contract in tatters and declarer eventually managed to scramble just five tricks. E/W +800 and 12 IMPs to APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS, who were 38-0 up at halftime and eventually won the match 41-10 to move to the top of Group A with four matches played.

Although South played in diamonds at half of the 18 tables, only two other pairs managed to double, and at one of those tables South had somehow climbed to the four-level!

Approaching the midway point of the qualifying rounds (four matches out of nine), these were the leading teams in each group:

Next week, we will return to see the best of the action from the second half of the qualifying rounds.