Sittard BC Internal Championships Imp Teams 2002

Session 02, Baandert, Sittard, May 14, 2002

Red section

Boards 21-24

Copyright © 2002-2025 by Michel Franssen

Recommended bidding sequence:

2§ = A little risky in the sandwich position, but this is the only way to put West on the §-lead. South still makes 10 tricks, owing to the working finesse in hearts and 3-3 break in spades, enabling South to pitch his ¨-loser on the 13th spade.

Recommended bidding sequence:

1© = A perfect light opening in 3rd chair, even when vulnerable.
Dbl = Negative, promising 4-card ª-suit and 6-11 hcp.
Pass = North has succeeded in lifting EW to the level of three, and South should not blow it with a silly 3¨ that would turn out to be bad matchpoints tactics, when North gets doubled. 3¨ will be set by 2 tricks after §A, §T for the queen, and now, for example, ¨ for ten and queen, © for the king, low heart ruffed, low § ruffed, low © ruffed with ace, ¨ to jack, and North still loses a spade.

When North leads ªA against 2©, West must work hard enough to make it: second spade for the king, ©A, ©K, ©T for the jack, *J for the ace, spade for the queen, §Q, § ruffed, ©9, and North denies West access to dummy by rising on ¨7, and ducking on ¨K!

A multi-colored 2¨ would work out better for EW after all, for it would force North automatically to 3¨, showing 5+ suit and 12-15 hcp, and, ending the auction. A penalty double would be too risky at imps.

Recommended bidding sequence:

2¨ = Jacoby transfer, showing 5+ hearts and 0+ hcp.
2© = Cuebidding North's suit, which could hardly show anything else but 5+ spades and 5+ in a minor.
Dbl = For penalties, which would not make sense with less than 3 hearts.
2NT = Asking East to bid his minor.
Pass = 3© would be too risky, even at matchpoints (you don't want to go for 200 in that type of game).

On accurate defense, East must work very hard for his 9 tricks: ©A, ©K ruffed, ªA, ª for the queen, §K for the ace, ª ruffed with ten, overruffed with king, ¨ for ace, ª ruffed with queen, © ruffed, ¨J, ªJ, ¨9, and §Q is the 4th defensive trick.

Doubling, instead of cuebidding 2©, is less qualified to bring the complete message of East across:

Dbl = For penalties and ¨-lead.
2© = 3+ ©-support, or such action makes no sense at all.
2ª = Sounding like a 4-card suit, preferably in a 6-4 hand (the only 5-4 type of hand suited to interfere with a 15-17 1NT-opening, is the non-vulnerable 5-4 in the majors {Landy, Multi-Landy, or Cappelletti}).

Two lions, who played together on this occasion, screwed up badly against much weaker opponents:

Pass = An empty action one can expect from inexperienced players. With 3-card support in hearts, 2© is the only proper action. Bridge is about sharing vital information with partner.
3§ = For some reason, (not a hesitation or gesture!), West had forgotten this part of his elemantary stuff, and took East double for takeout.
3ª = Proves that East wanted to show strength at his previous call, sticking to the general rule, that one should show his higher ranking 5-card suit first. Unless East is prepared to pay the pride in dogmatism, he should try 3¨ now. EW had not discussed such outrageous bidding sequences, West had bid a tempo so far, so East was under no ethical obligation to stay sleeping, and keep his partner sleeping, at the same time.
Dbl = For penalties.
4§ = Turned out a succesful attempt to take at least 95% of the blame for a disaster, that could still have been avoided. East should have stayed in 3ª, and hoped for the best, since West did not run anywhere. It would have taken excellent defense to beat East by 500: ©A, ©K ruffed, ª for the queen, © ruffed, ¨ for ten and king, ©J (East dumps the club he is going to lose anyway, South dumps a diamond), ¨ ruffed, §K for ace, ªA, ¨A ruffed, and East makes the rest. Tiger Rob van Wel, junior world champion of 1987, was allowed to make 2ª, when his opponents failed to feed him enough hearts, and he had much tougher opponents then the lions.
Dbl = For penalties. West managed to get away with 6 tricks and -1100. Don't ask how!

Recommended bidding sequence:

Dbl = Negative, promising 4/4 in the majors and 6-11 hcp. 2© would show 5+ hearts and 8-11 hcp allright, but deny a 4-card ª-suit.
4§ = Preemptive.
4© = Technically East is a little short of this action, but the risk involved is largely outweighed by the risk of missing game in a team game.
5§ = Giving EW a chance of collecting 500, but that is hard to be seen with 10 trumps between, as it is hard for EW to double them with only 3 trumps to defend with.

With the king of trumps on side, East has no trouble taking 11 tricks.

Back to frontpage of Sittard BC Imp Teams 2002