China v The Netherlands

Orbis Venice Cup - Quartefinal 4

China led by 24 IMPs at the half-way stage of their quarter-final match with the Netherlands. The final set of the day was an important one. If China could add to their lead they would sleep more easily than their opponents.

Board 1. Dealer North. Love All ª Q 10 4 © 9 6 5 ¨ — § A K Q 8 5 4 3 ª A 7 5 ª J 8 3 2 © A Q 10 © J 7 4 2 ¨ A J 8 6 5 2 ¨ K 10 9 4 § J § 6 ª K 9 6 © K 8 3 ¨ Q 7 3 § 10 9 7 2

West North East South Yu Vriend Wang van der Pas 1§ Pass 1NT Dble 3§ Dble Pass 3¨ Pass Pass 3NT Dble 4§ Pass Pass Dble All Pass

It looks aggressive to double Four Clubs on the West cards, but no harm should have been done as the Chinese pair had already given up on the idea of bidding game themselves. Wenfei Wang led the nine of diamonds, ruffed by Bep Vriend. Declarer cashed a top club then crossed twice to dummy in trumps to eliminate the diamonds before leading a low heart. Should East put in the jack?

On the actual deal, playing the jack of hearts makes the defense very easy, but imagine that North holds the heart queen instead of the spade queen. West could help here, of course, having a series of free plays in diamonds to suggest which of her majors is the stronger. I am not sure that the Chinese play a lot of this secondary suit preference and, whether or not she had this inference available, Wang played low on the heart lead. Vriend put in dummy's eight and Yu Zhang was endplayed. The winning defense is to exit with ace and another spade and wait for a second heart lead. That defense is surely indicated as West should know the shape of the hand by now. But Zhang played a diamond instead, giving a ruff and discard. Vriend ruffed in dummy, pitching a heart, then proceeded to get the spades right to bring home her contract for +510.

West North East South van Zwol Yalan Verbeek Gu 2§ Pass 3§ 3¨ 5§ 5¨ Dble All Pass

The Precision Two Club opening added momentum to the auction and Wietske van Zwol found herself in Five Diamonds Doubled. Yalan Zhang led a top club then switched to a spade, establishing two winners for the defense. Van Zwol led a diamond to the king then ran the ten of diamonds. When that held she continued with the jack of hearts, allowing her to pick up four tricks in the suit and 11 in all; +550 and 14 IMPs to the Netherlands.

Board 3. Dealer South. EW Game ª K Q 4 © 10 7 5 2 ¨ A 10 9 § J 7 2 ª 6 3 2 ª A 10 9 7 © K Q 8 © 9 6 ¨ K 7 6 2 ¨ Q 8 5 3 § K Q 4 § A 10 6 ª J 8 5 © A J 4 3 ¨ J 4 § 9 8 5 3

West North East South Yu Vriend Wang van der Pas     Pass 1¨ Pass 1ª Pass 1NT Pass 3¨ All Pass

West North East South van Zwol Yalan Verbeek Gu     Pass 1¨ Pass 1ª Pass 1NT All Pass

One No Trump proved to be a much more comfortable contract than Three Diamonds, where there were no useful ruffs out. Zhang lost a heart, two spades and two trumps to go one down in Three Diamonds; -100. Meanwhile, the defense led two rounds of hearts against One Trump. Van Zwol played a diamond to the queen and a second diamond, ducked. The hearts were cleared and she cleared the diamonds, ending up with an overtrick; +120 and 6 IMPs to the Netherlands.

Board 7. Dealer South. Game All ª K 9 4 © A J 8 ¨ A Q 3 § K 10 6 2 ª Q J 10 8 7 6 5 3 2 ª A © Q © 9 6 5 4 3 ¨ 8 4 ¨ K J 7 5 § 5 § 9 8 3 ª — © K 10 7 2 ¨ 10 9 6 2 § A Q J 7 4

West North East South Yu Vriend Wang van der Pas     Pass 4ª Dble Pass 5§ All Pass

West North East South van Zwol Yalan Verbeek Gu     Pass 4ª Dble All Pass

In some matches, South opened the bidding, leading to a quite different problem. Now, what would you do as South when partner doubles the Four Spade opening? Obviously, it depends on whether the double is for penalties or is take-out or optional. It appears that it was basically for penalties as far as Gu was concerned. She passed but the penalty was an inadequate +200.

If you are going to remove the double, do you bid a simple Five Clubs, Four No Trump to show two or more places to play, or are you more optimistic. It helps if you have an agreement that bidding shows a realistic hope of making your contract - in other words, a flat yarborough passes and hopes to beat Four Spades. Playing that way Five Clubs is sufficient as a lot of the time that slam is on partner will be able to bid it. Five Clubs was the choice of Marijke van der Pas. When she made an overtrick, she may have been mildly worried that slam would be reached in the other room, but if so she need not have worried. +620 was worth 9 IMPs to the Dutch, who had moved into the lead.

Board 12. Dealer West. NS Game ª 9 7 © A Q 8 2 ¨ A J 7 4 3 § 8 2 ª A 4 ª K J 10 6 5 3 2 © K 10 4 3 © 6 5 ¨ K Q 9 2 ¨ 6 § A J 3 § 9 5 4 ª Q 8 © J 9 7 ¨ 10 8 5 § K Q 10 7 6

West North East South Yu Vriend Wang van der Pas 1NT Pass 4© Pass 4ª All Pass

West North East South van Zwol Yalan Verbeek Gu 1NT Pass 2© Pass 2ª All Pass

What would be your choice when partner opens One No Trump? Both openings showed 15-17, so the swing was a matter of player judgement rather than system. A club lead made it very easy to hold the two contracts to nine tricks. That was +140 for Van Zwol, but -50 for Yu Zhang; 5 IMPs to the Netherlands.

Board 15. Dealer South. NS Game ª 10 8 © K 4 3 ¨ Q 7 4 § Q J 6 5 4 ª A K 9 5 4 ª 6 © 9 7 © Q 10 ¨ J 9 8 ¨ A 10 6 5 3 2 § A 9 3 § K 10 7 2 ª Q J 7 3 2 © A J 8 6 5 2 ¨ K § 8

West North East South Yu Vriend Wang van der Pas     1ª Pass 1NT 2¨ 2© 3¨ Pass Pass 3© All Pass

Van der Pas bid three times with her shapely hand and that proved to be the winning thing to do. Zhang led the eight of diamonds against Three Hearts and Wang won the ace and switched to her spade. Zhang won and cashed a second spade then led a third round without cashing the ace of clubs. Van der Pas ruffed with dummy's king and took her club pitch on the diamond queen. Then she played a heart and, fearing that a losing finesse could be followed by a spade over-ruff, played ace and another, thereby holding herself to nine tricks; +140.

West North East South van Zwol Yalan Verbeek Gu 1© 1ª 2© Pass Pass Dble Pass 3¨ 3© Pass Pass 4§ Pass 4¨ All Pass

In the other room, the Dutch pair competed to Four Diamonds. The defense need to cash their heart tricks if they are to defeat this contract. When Gu led her singleton club, Martine Verbeek could win the jack with her king, cash the ace of diamonds, then play two top spades to pitch a heart. She now reverted to playing trumps and just lost a diamond, a heart and a club; +130 and 7 IMPs to the Netherlands.

The set score was 55-1 to the Netherlands with one board to play. Finally, there was some joy for the Chinese team.

Board 16. Dealer West. EW Game ª Q 10 9 © 7 4 ¨ A K Q J 6 4 § K Q ª A K 8 5 2 ª 7 6 4 © K J 3 © A 8 5 2 ¨ 2 ¨ 7 5 3 § 8 6 5 4 § J 3 2 ª J 3 © Q 10 9 6 ¨ 10 9 8 § A 10 9 7

West North East South Yu Vriend Wang van der Pas 1ª 2¨ Pass 3¨ Pass 3NT All Pass

Had Wang led a spade, Zhang would have had to do very well to win and find the hearts switch. Ducking a spade works whenever partner gets in before declarer has nine tricks, for example if her high card is a diamond stopper. But Zhang was not put to the test. Wang found the great lead of a low heart. When her jack won, Zhang cashed two top spades, Vriend desperately following with the ten and queen. But Zhang was not to be fooled. She played the king then three of hearts and the contract was one down; -50.

West North East South van Zwol Yalan Verbeek Gu 1ª 1NT Pass 2§ Pass 2¨ Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass

The auction at this table made it even tougher to find the killing defense. Verbeek made the normal lead of a spade and, not suspecting that declarer had such an impressive source of ready tricks, van Zwol won and returned a low spade. Yalan Zhang had 11 tricks for +460 and 11 IMPs to China, who needed them.

Despite this wing, the Netherlands had won the set by 55-12 and moved into a 19 IMP lead with 32 boards to play.