Brazil v Norway

Orbis Bermuda Bowl - Semifinal

Norway led by 10 IMPs going into the final set of their Orbis Bermuda Bowl semi-final against Brazil.

The margin was unchanged seven boards into the set, but Chagas/Branco had to do well to flatten this board:

 

 

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

West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo   Pass 1ª Pass 1NT Pass 2§ Pass 3§ Pass 3¨ Pass 3NT All Pass

West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco   2¨ Pass 2© Pass Pass 2ª Pass 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass

As you can see, Helgemo/Austberg had a free run to Three No Trump. When East showed up with five spades, it was not too taxing to pick up the clubs without loss; +630.

In the other room, the Two Diamond opening, weak with at least 4-4 in the majors, created a very different scenario for Chagas/Branco. Their agreements included a Two Spade overcall being take-out for the minors, so Marcello Branco had to pass on the first round. When he bid Two Spades at his next turn, Gabriel Chagas did well to go on. Branco raised, of course, ending the auction. Chagas made an extra overtrick when Tor Helness led a top club then switched to a low spade; +660 and 1 IMP to Brazil.

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

West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo 2© Dble Pass 3© Pass 3NT Dble 4¨ Dble All Pass

West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco 2© 3§ Pass 3¨ Pass 3ª Pass 3NT All Pass

I much prefer Chagas's overcall to Erik Austberg's take-out double. Four Diamonds Doubled was not a pleasant experience for Geir Helgemo. He won the spade lead and played a club. Miguel Villas-Boas won and played two top spades. Helgemo ruffed high, while Joao Paolo Campos pitched two clubs. Helgemo played a diamond to the jack and another diamond for queen and ace. Campos played a heart to dummy's bare ace and Helgemo tried to cash a club. Campos ruffed that and played king and another heart for Villas-Boas to ruff. When the smoke had cleared, Helgemo was three down for -500.

Three No Trump was an interesting contract in the other room. John-Egil Furunes led the king of hearts, hoping to pick up a singleton queen in either dummy or his partner's hand. Dummy was no doubt a disappointment to him. Branco led a club to the king, ducked, and the jack of clubs to East's ace. Helness switched to a low spade, correct if someone had a bare ace. Fearing that West might win a spade honour and clear the hearts while still holding the ace of diamonds as a further entry, Branco rose with the ace of spades. Now he led a low diamond towards dummy. This was the key point of the hand. In practice, Furunes ducked and the jack scored. Branco could cash the clubs and play a diamond back; +400 and 14 IMPs to Brazil, who had taken the lead.

Suppose, however, that Furunes rises with the ace of diamonds and returns a diamond. Declarer can win in either hand but has only eight tricks and will then be stranded in a hand full of losers. That would be down one.

A couple of boards later, Helgemo/Austberg had a bidding disaster when someone was clearly reading from the wrong page of the system file. They missed a vulnerable game and brazil picked up a further 11 IMPs.

Board 11. Dealer South. Love All ª 7 6 5 © K J 4 3 ¨ K Q 10 3 § Q 9 ª Q J 10 4 3 2 ª A K © Q 10 © A 8 5 2 ¨ J ¨ 9 6 § K 10 8 5 § J 7 6 4 3 ª 9 8 © 9 7 6 ¨ A 8 7 5 4 2 § A 2

West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo     Pass 2ª Pass 2NT Pass 3§ Pass 3¨ Pass 3ª All Pass

The weak two bid kept North/South out of the auction and Campos played a comfortable partscore. After a diamond lead and continuation, he picked the clubs correctly and made 11 tricks; +200.

West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco     Pass Pass 1¨ Pass 2¨ 2ª Pass Pass 3¨ All Pass

Furunes did not think the West hand fitted any of his options. Personally, I like Three Spades with that shape, but that's me. When he passed and then overcalled the inverted raise, he had not shown sufficient playing strength to encourage Helness to compete.

Three Diamonds came down to a heart guess which was not really a guess. Helness cashed the top spades and switched to a low club. Chagas rose with the ace and played a trump to hand, ruffed his last spade and drew the missing trump. Then he exited with a club. Furunes won the king and switched to the queen of hearts. That was covered by the king and ace and Helness played back a heart. Chagas played low, of course, and made his contract; +110 and 7 IMPs to Brazil. The point is that had Helness held the ace, ten of hearts, he would just have ducked the king.

The good news for Norway was that there were some big boards to come. The bad news was that they were far enough behind to need at least two big swings to turn the match around.

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

West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo Pass Pass 1ª 2§ 3ª Dble 4§ Pass 4ª 5§ 5ª Pass Pass Dble All Pass

Austberg seems to have made a point-count double. How could his opponents make 11 tricks after South had overcalled. He was right; they couldn't make 11 tricks, they were cold for 12. That was +750 for Brazil.

West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco Pass Pass 2§ Dble Pass 4§ 4ª 5§ 5ª Pass 6ª All Pass

Helness decided that he should open his side's big bid. When Furunes could compete to Five Spades, he bid the slam; +980 and 6 IMPs to Norway.

Board 13. Dealer North. Game All ª 9 6 3 2 © 10 5 3 ¨ K 10 8 5 § J 8 ª K Q 5 ª A J 10 © K Q 7 © A 9 6 4 2 ¨ J 4 3 2 ¨ — § 10 7 6 § A K 4 3 2 ª 8 7 4 © J 8 ¨ A Q 9 7 6 § Q 9 5

West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo Pass 1© Pass 1ª Pass 3§ Pass 3© Pass 3ª Pass 4§ Pass 4¨ Pass Pass Pass Rdble Pass 4© All Pass

West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco Pass 1© Pass 2¨ Pass 3§ Pass 4© All Pass

Both East/Wests missed a great chance. Slam is little better than two 3-2 breaks, but once you start on a slam hunt it looks quite attractive to bid it. Consider the Brazilian auction. Villas-Boas had shown a game-force opposite a forcing no trump response. He had then shown short diamonds. Does the West hand not look pretty good now, with two honours in partner's first suit and only one wasted jack? Meanwhile, Furunes made a two-over-one response and Helness also forced to game. Furunes thought that he had a minimum and so jumped to Four Hearts. Helness was not close to bidding on. After the hand, he appeared to be suggesting to Furunes that he might have bid the West hand differently. No swing at +680.

Board 14. Dealer East. Love All ª A Q 9 © 4 2 ¨ K Q 7 6 5 3 2 § 6 ª 8 6 4 ª K 5 3 © K 10 8 © A Q 7 6 ¨ J 10 ¨ 9 4 § A K Q J 7 § 9 8 4 3 ª J 10 7 2 © J 9 5 3 ¨ A 8 § 10 5 2

West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo   Pass Pass 1§ 3¨ Dble Pass 3© All Pass

The defense took two diamonds and switched to spades. Campos did not guess the hearts so was one down; -50.

West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco   Pass Pass 1NT 3¨ Dble Pass 4§ All Pass

The Norwegians were probably on their way to Three No Trump after Furunes' opening bid, but the Three Diamond overcall saved them. Double was for take-out and Furunes bid his solid suit rather than dabble with a three-card heart bid, which would have at least kept Three No Trump in the picture. Chagas led the diamond king and Branco overtook and returned the suit. Chagas exited passively with his trump. Furunes won and cashed a second trump. Then he led a spade to the king, cashed the ace of hearts, and played a heart to the ten. He drew the last trump, unblocked the heart, and crossed to the nine of clubs to take a pitch on the heart queen; +130 and 5 IMPs to Norway.

Brazil led by 12.5 IMPs but the last two deals both featured possible slams.

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

West North East South Campos Austberg Villas-Boas Helgemo Pass 1§ Pass 1ª Pass 2ª Pass 3§ Pass 3© Pass 4¨ Pass 4ª Pass 4NT Pass 5© Pass 6ª All Pass

West North East South Furunes Chagas Helness Branco Pass 1§ Pass 1ª Pass 2ª Pass 3© Pass 4¨ Pass 4NT Pass 5© Pass 6ª All Pass

Both pairs bid smoothly to the slam for a push at 980.

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

And both East/West pairs got to slam on this one as well. Furunes must have aged ten years as he attempted to remember his system. He opened a strong no trump and Helness bid Stayman then followed up with Three Clubs, a shape enquiry. Furunes bid Three No Trump, showing 4-3-3-3 with a four-card minor, and Helness bid Four Spades. Helness was very confident that this showed a slam try in spades, but Furunes put his head in his hands, sat up and thought, put his head back in his hands, and repeated this procedure for about 15 minutes. Finally he bid Five Clubs. When the tray reached Helness, he took about half a second to jump to the cold slam, saving his partner from any more torture.

Campos/Villas-Boas got there without any of the agony suffered by Furunes to flatten the board. Brazil had won the match by 137.5-125 IMPs. Not only were they in the final, but they had exorcised the ghosts of 1993 in Santiago, when they had lost the Bermuda Bowl semi-final on the very last board against Norway.