Around the Rooms on Board 11

by Herman De Wael

Bulletin 8 showed the same board on pages 15 and 16, and since I am strategically placed in this building (right next to the boxes containing the original recorder forms), I decided to take a look to see what happened at every other table. I checked the recorder forms for the table recordings for 67 tables:

Board 11. Dealer South. None Vulnerable.
	♠ J 7 4 ♥ 5 ♦ 10 5 4 ♣ A K Q 7 6 5
♠ 10 9 5 2 ♥ 7 4 2 ♦ K Q 7 3 2 ♣ 10		♠ A K Q ♥ A Q J 9 ♦ A 9 6 ♣ 9 3 2
	♠ 8 6 3 ♥ K 10 8 6 3 ♦ J 8 ♣ J 8 4

Four players found the South hand to be enough to open on. Karlis Rubens for Latvia and Olavi Oja for Estonia, who were actually playing each other, and Maria Rahelt of Denmark and Gudrun Johannesdottir of Iceland. Two opened a Multi 2♦, two a weak 2♥. The North players corrected to 2♥ or passed, and now one East bid 2NT, which was raised to 3, while the three others were content with a double, two of them eventually ending up in 3NT as well.

So at 63 tables, South passed, and invariably, West did the same.

Three North players decided not to open. All three Easts then opened 2NT, with 2 East players ending up in 3NT, one West in 4♠.

Four players thought this was the time for some bluff bidding. We've already told you about Tom Hanlon (see the report on Appeal 3), and two others were playing in a match against one another (this seems to be a recurring theme): Philippe Caputo for Belgium and Fredrik Bjoernlund for Sweden. No doubt happy to be in such youthful company was Victor Goldberg of Scotland. All four opened the North hand 1NT. Of course you cannot stop East from doubling, after which Peter Fredin was allowed to play 2♥, while his Belgian counterpart saw that same bid being doubled, Caputo retreating to 3♣, doubled, for an acceptable score of -300. Derek Diamond decided to pass, and he may well be glad his opponents took that out to 2♦, playing there. We already know what happened when Hugh McGann decided to redouble.

Seven players, including all three Polish Norths, had the gadget of a weakish 2♣ (probably precision style) available, and opened that one. They also all got doubled. One South player thought it right to introduce hearts at this stage. Three South players upped the ante, bidding 3♣, while three others just passed. But in all cases, East/West settled in some contract in diamonds or spades.

Nine North players thought their hand was good enough for an opening at the one-level (or too weak for 3♣?) and they opened 1♣. Again all Easts doubled. Three Souths chose to pass, while six introduced their heart suit (1♥). All nine tables ended up in some spade contract for East/West.

This left 40 tables with the popular choice in North, 3♣.

One East player (Mine Babac) passed, and defended 3♣ (down two). One other (Andrew Parker) bid 3♦, eventually reaching 4♠ by West. That left 38 doublers.

One South introduced his hearts at this level, while one even bid 3♠ (there is no mention of an alert on that recorder form). Eight players raised the level by one, and 2 Souths (from San Marino and Finland) even went all the way to 5♣. Those two got doubled and had to concede -800, but in all other cases, East/West ended up playing some contract.

This left 26 West players with a decision to make after 3♣ - double - pass. Six chose to show their spade suit, and four were allowed to play in 3♠, because only two Easts raised to 4♠. The other 20 quietly bid 3♦. One East passed on that one, one raised it to 5♦, and four just raised it to 4♦, which allowed two Wests to introduce spades after all (the two others still raising to 5♦). 13 Easts bid 3♥ over 3♦, ending in 4♥ either directly or after a 4♣ cue. One East started with the 4♣ cue and ended up in 5♦.

Let's have a look now at the play in the various contracts:

24 declarers played a spade contract, all from the West side. Most made 11 tricks, while quite a few took the heart finesse too soon and suffered a heart ruff. Three declarers made only nine tricks, but two had the excuse of being only in 3♠. Peter Schaltz has the unique, if unenviable, score of +50 to his name. The Belarus North at his table had started with a high club, and switched to his singleton heart. Peter had finessed, but South had not given his partner a ruff, instead playing another club. And then???

20 declarers played in diamonds, also all from the West side. In the Open series, all but one declarer was restricted to 10 tricks, although half of them were only playing 4♦ or even less. In the Women and Seniors series, 11 tricks was the favourite by 9/4. Again the heart finesse seems to be the main culprit.

15 declarers played 4♥ in East; all but 4 scored 10 tricks, and so did the Belgians while defending 2♥ from Peter Fredin, scoring -250 in stead of -420 for the effort. Patrick Jourdain will have to find consolation from an Michelle Brunner or Julian Klukowski, two of the others to go down in 4♥. Both these declarers had played ♥AJ, which is a correct safety-play if hearts are no worse than 4-2. The fourth, Alexander Dubinin, will probably point to the identity of his opponents (Bocchi-Duboin) as his excuse.

Six East players found themselves in 3NT, two of them without a club opening from North. One of those Souths led a spade, which gave declarer 10 tricks, the other found the more difficult (for him) club lead. We do not know what happened at the table where despite the club lead, declarer managed 11 tricks, but we can guess at the sound level at the end of the hand.

Only four pairs ended up as declarer in North/South, all scoring seven tricks in some ♣ contract.