When you see 80 imp’s exchanged in 10 boards in a serious event, you almost know for certain that this must have been a junior match. Indeed, other commitments prevented me from going to Amsterdam, where the White House Junior Invitational is being played, so-far, but Bridgebase Online does provide a good substitute.
Yesterday, I watched this match between Belgium (BE)
and Denmark (DK), where the 80 imp’s flew by: 12, 6, 4, 12, 15, 8, 6, finally a push, but then 10 and 7 to show that the push was really a mistake.
The most interesting hands. Board 1
, the first two bids are clear but then the question is what south should bid. System matters a lot here, at the first table, 1♦ could be 3 in a balanced hand, thus making it hard for south to bid more than 2♦. West bid what he thought he could make, north and east bid again, for a quiet 5♥ making 6. At the other table, 1♦ showed 4 in an unbalanced hand and south was able to make a preemptive raise. That was actually quite helpful to west. West could see that his partner must be short in diamonds and tried for slam. 6♦ wasn’t sufficient to keep east from bidding slam. South didn’t believe him, but had to concede -1210 and -12 imp’s a few seconds later.
A few partscore swings followed and then this hand came up. In the closed room, this was a routine 3NT making 10 tricks. A wheel came off in the other room. The double was intended to show a strong hand but taken as a support double. 3♠ then simply showed 5 with an invitational hand but east expected a lot more spades. That would be correct opposite a double simply showing a strong hand. The final contract was hopeless.
The next board. 1♥ was natural, 2♠ a weak jump and double for take-out, 4NT showed a strong hand with the minors. East naturally selected diamonds. There are 2 losers in 5♦ but on a heart lead, the ♠K could be discarded for an overtrick. A well deserved +420 for EW here. In the other room, a different choice of opening bid. 3♥, which doesn’t look right with the strong spade fragment but had a spectacular effect.
After 2 passes, west doubled for take-out. Now, the late and great Edgar Kaplan used to say “take out doubles are to be taken out” but he probably said that well before east was born. East decided to defend. Defending 3♥x isn’t that bad, EW have 5 tricks, for +200 and a 5 imp loss.
Now, any lead will defeat 3♥x and things went well for the defence for the first 6 tricks. Spade lead to the K and A. ♥J to the A. A second round of spades to declarer’s queen. Actually, I don’t quite understand that play, as declarer is marked with the ♠Q after the opening lead. The ♥Q to the ♥K and east played a diamond, won by west. West cashed a second top diamond. That is 4 tricks to the defense and all west has to do, is to cash the setting trick. Down 1 apparently wasn’t good enough for him, as he tried to cash a third diamond.
That proved to be a disaster, north could ruff, draw the remaining trump and cross to the good spades with the ♠8. Made 3, +730 for 15 imp’s.
The push board was a potential swing too. In the closed room, I don’t quite understand the 6♦ bid. If 5♦ is a suit, then, over the 5NT grand slam try, 6♦ must show something useful there. A singleton isn’t, partner can never set up the suit. On the other hand, if west shows something useful in diamonds, then I don’t understand that east only bid 6♠. 7♠ is, of course, a pretty bad contract, requiring ♦Qx(x) of diamonds somewhere. In the open room, 2♣ showed a weak 2♦ or a strong hand, hence the delayed entry into the auction by south. 6♣ looks fairly aggressive opposite a diamond splinter which doesn’t improve your hand. Anyway, a push.
There were swings on this board though. One of the Dutch junior teams ended up in 6♥, doubled and nobody ran. Down 5, for a 19 imp loss against 6♠ making at the other table. In another match, EW didn’t listen to Kaplan either: a strong opening bid by east, 3♣ overcall, 2 passes and a double by east. West decided to defend. +100 instead of +980. And, as this is a junior event, there were a couple of pairs in 7♠, down 1.
After 10 boards, the Belgium team had won this match 63-17, or 25-2 VP.
Play in the White House will continue through Friday March 30th. On Wednesday, there are 6 more 10 board matches planned, with play between 11:30 and 22:00. On Thursday and Friday, the (semi-) finals will be played, 3 14 board sessions between 11:30 and 18:00.