Introduction: In Holland, and abroad, there is currently a lot of fuzz about this website. If you can’t reach Dutch, the quick summary is that the site states that jobs previously taken by Dutch people are now done by Polish and other east-European contractors. People are being asked to report such cases, even though it is completely legal for those foreign workers to work here and charge lower rates than their Dutch colleagues. The site is being sponsored by the xenophobic political party PVV. Interestingly enough, the concept for the site wasn’t new, a few years back, the maoist-communist party SP introduced a similar site, asking the same questions. It didn’t generate much publicity though.
As some of you know, I frequently play Polish Club (a.k.a. WJ05). Part of the system is an artificial major suit raise known as Bubrotka. We had 2 nice swings using this tool recently. That prompted my opponent to write the following letter to the leaders of the 2 political parties. A copy can be found below for students of the game:
Dear Mr. Wilders, Dear Mr. Roemer,
In the team of four competition, I picked up the following hand.
Not very interesting and I passed throughout the auction, as did my partner. My opponents, playing Polish club, had this sequence:
1♣ was artificial, either 12-14 balanced, 15+ with clubs or 18+ with any distribution. 1♥ showed 4 or more and 7+ points. 2♦ was something special, they called it Bubrotka or an artificial major suit raise. 3NT showed 6♥, 7-10 points and no singleton. 4♠ asked for key-cards and 4 NT showed 1. Your lead?
Problem is, of course, that there is little known about the opening hand. When asked, they will tell you that opener has heart support and sufficient strength to push on to the 6 level, but nothing else is known about his hand. I went for the natural looking ♦K lead and that wasn’t a success. Look at the full hand on the right.
Declarer won, drew trumps, conceded a club and claimed.
My teammates bid using traditional Dutch methods, starting with 1♣-1♥, 3♣-3♥, 3♠ showing values. That allowed my opponent to stick in a lead directing double. When the final contract was reached, the player in my seat had little trouble to find the killing lead. -17 imp’s, of course they were vulnerable.
Later on in the match, the same opponents picked up these hands.
Again the bidding started 1♣, this time a natural 1♠ response and again this 2♦ Bubrotka thing. The response now was 3♠, showing 7-10 and 5♠-332. 4NT asked for aces, 5♣ showed 1, 5♦ asked for the trump queen and kings, 5♠ showed the ♠Q but no kings. My partner led a spade, spades broke 3-2 and clubs 2-2 but even with significantly worse breaks in the black suits, the contract is still cold and declarer claimed after trick 1.
At the other table, my teammate had to start with 2♦ (multicolored), 2♥, 3♣ showing a strong hand with clubs. That took away so much space that they couldn’t find out about the grand. Another 11 imp’s down the drain.
The conclusion is clear: these Polish bidding methods are taking away imp’s from Dutch pairs using traditional Dutch bidding methods. I spent years reading “van Start tot Finish” and practicing until I reached the national team events, but if this trend continues, I’ll soon find myself back in the 3rd class of the local league.
I’m reporting these hands to both of you on your websites (here and here), can you please take the appropriate steps to outlaw these foreign methods?
Yours sincerely,
Name withheld on request
Well, as you can guess, I’m now sitting behind my desk waiting for the local police to show up and do all kinds of nasty things to me.