Almost Done … Segment 6 (Double Dutch)

It seems sad that after tomorrow I won’t be able to get up and watch some really great bridge in the morning.  In the Bermuda Bowl USA 2 will try to catch the Netherlands.  The score is 244 for Netherlands to 189 for USA 2 after 6 of 8 segments.  With two segments to go 55 imps is not enough to feel safe.

In the Venice Cup France defeated Indonesia and France defeated USA 2 in the Seniors Bowl.

But on Saturday you can still watch the Bermuda Bowl and I will be doing just that.   It is a thrill to watch these two teams play.  In the last stanza of the day a lot of doubling was going on.  One double worked spectacularly well for USA 2 and a few others produced imps for Netherlands.  Here is an example of one that cost a few imps.  Really I wouldn’t say anybody did anything very wrong.  It just didn’t work out.

Dealer: East Vul: None	Bathurst ♠ K96 ♥ A3 ♦ K10632 ♣ 862
Wijs ♠ AQ10832 ♥ 109842 ♦ J ♣ K		Muller ♠ 75 ♥ KQ75 ♦ 987 ♣ A943
	Zagorin ♠ J4 ♥ J6 ♦ AQ54 ♣ QJ1075

2♦ showed majors.  Now I don’t know what methods Bathurst-Zagorin play but it seems to me that you should have a way of saying partner I have decent high cards and am interesting in a possible penalty.  A lot of pairs play a direct double to have that meaning.   If that is true does a delayed double say I couldn’t double two of a major but I think they are too high now?   Would it have been better for Bathurst to bid diamonds in the first place.  3♦ ought to be a moderate hand with diamonds since one of the cuebids ought to mean a forcing hand with diamonds.

Anyway Wijs had his bid and on the lie of the cards the defense cant take more than a spade, heart and diamond.  When Zagorin lead a top club and Bathurst ducked when a heart was led towards hand WIjs was able to throw his diamond on the ♣ A.  4♥ doubled plus 1 was 690 and 7 imps.

The most spectacular doubled contract was Board 26.

Dealer: East Vul: All	Prooijen ♠ J ♥ KJ743 ♦ AQ103 ♣ Q74
Wooldridge ♠ Q53 ♥ 1098652 ♦ KJ86 ♣ –		Hurd ♠ A964 ♥ – ♦ 752 ♣ AK10832
	Verhees Jr. ♠ K10872 ♥ AQ ♦ 94 ♣ J965

Can you tell looking at the cards that something very “big” is about to happen? Hurd stated things off with 1♣ .  Verhees bid 1♠ .  Wooldridge made a negative double which you might think was a teeny bit aggressive but so far things looked pretty ordinary.  At this point you can see that East-West in the other room has played 2♠ down 2 for minus 200.  Somebody thought that was good for USA 2.  But they had no idea how good it would turn out to be.

2♣ by Prooijen showed hearts. Verhees said that he thought that 2♥ would show a doubleton heart and a minimum.  Obviously Prooijen wasn’t on the same page of the notes alhtough there were warning signs from the East-West bidding that hearts were stacked.  This would have been a bad contract if East-West had flatish hands but since the trump suit split to a void etc.  it was a nightmare for the Dutch and Christmas for Wooldridge.  Wooldrdige led a trump so Verhees playing the contract from the short side new what was happening to him at trick one.  If Verhees had guessed exactly what to do he could have held it to 800 but since the Netherlands was -200 in the other room the total would be 1000 or 1300 which is only a difference of 2 imps (14 or 16).

No match with this many boards is played perfectly.  There are misunderstandings and mistakes.  So while I have pointed out something that went wrong I also appreciate how very well both teams are playing.  Don’t miss watching the finale tomorrow.

Finally, I know when I put up these blogs I make mistakes … hands arrive with twelve cards, I mess up an auction and so on.  I want to thank those who take the time be email or as a comment to let me know about errors so I can fix them.  I wish I was a bit neater with these things.  But I am not.  I do proof read a bit (believe it or not) but it is hard to catch your own mistakes.  By the way the ?!* beside the double expresses the feeling one gets when one knows that a big number is coming their way.