Marc Smith visits the Heat 5 of the New Alt Competition

Last week we saw the opening matches in Heat 5 of the monthly New Alt Competition. After three matches, the standings in Group A were:

MOSS	43.00 VPs
DONNER	41.62
NICKELL	40.55
RED DEVILS	24.84
EDMONDS	15.82
BLACK	14.17

Even at this early stage, it was fast becoming a three-horse race for the crown, with the rest fighting to avoid relegation.

As usual. We begin with some bidding problems for you. How your choices work, we shall find out later. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are North with:

The first question is whether you open in first seat and, if so, what. If you do not, then the auction continues as shown and you must then make a decision over 4♥. Are you taking any action now?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you hold as East:

Do you bid again and, if so, what?

While you consider those, we start in Round 4. The leading two teams were pitted against each other and there was plenty of action too, with 81 IMPs changing hands over the 16 deals. The fireworks began on the very first deal, which generated a swing in all three Group A matches. Every North was faced with part one of the first of this week’s bidding problems: do you bid or pass as Dealer?

Andrew McIntosh decided against opening, but then doubled when East raised his partner’s heart pre-empt to game. Tom Paske bid the obvious 4♠, and it was then down to Philippe Caputo to find a winning lead.

When the Belgian opened the ♥A, that was the end of the defence. Paske won the switch to the ♦Q, played a low spade to the queen and ace, and ruffed a heart in dummy. He then overtook the ♠J, drew West’s remaining trumps, and cashed three more diamond winners. Ten tricks: N/S +420.

If West could have found a low heart lead, East wins and switches to clubs to take the first four tricks. The realistic way of defeating the contract is for West to lead his diamond at trick one. Declarer can always make five spade tricks and four diamonds, but he needs a heart ruff in dummy to bring his total to ten. On a diamond lead, East can win the first heart. If declarer has not drawn any trumps, a club switch brings immediate success for the defence. If he has drawn one trump, East delivers his partner’s diamond ruff and West then plays a second round of hearts to force dummy, thus cutting declarer off from the good diamonds. All in all, you have to think that 4♠ is likely to make most of the time. (At the seven tables where South played 4♠, only Peter Fredin found the ♦Q lead to beat it.) So, West has to find the save…

For the Belgians, Steve de Roos opened 1♦ (2+♦), which encouraged Geert Arts to introduce his spades after East’s 3♥ overcall. De Roos now had an easy 4♠ bid, but Andrew Black correctly took the five-level save. After a top spade lead and a trump switch, declarer can make six trumps in his hand, two diamond ruffs in dummy and two club tricks, but that still leaves him one trick short. N/S +100 but 8 IMPs to BLACK.

In DONNER vs MOSS, Marion Michelsen also played 5♥-X after a similar auction. The same defence similarly left her a trick short: N/S +100.

At the other table, Cecilia Rimstedt opened a natural weak 2♦ on the North cards, which led to East declaring 5♥ undoubled. Kevin Dwyer also led a top spade, but he then found the unfortunate switch to a diamond at trick two. Rimstedt won and played a second round of spades, which allowed Kevin Bathurst to score three diamond ruffs in dummy. Six trump tricks in hand and two clubs via the finesse added up to eleven: N/S -450 and 11 IMPs to MOSS.

At first glance it may look as though North can still beat the contract by just switching to her trump at trick three, but the timing is now just slightly different. Declarer wins in hand, ruffs a diamond, ruffs a spade, ruffs a diamond with dummy’s last trump and ruffs another spade. Now declarer runs his trumps. When the last heart is cashed, South has to keep the master spade, and must therefore come down to the doubleton ♣K. Dummy then throws the spade and North is squeezed in the minors: forced to keep a winning diamond, she must also reduce to only two clubs. With the aid of the club finesse, declarer can then score three club tricks to bring his total to eleven.

In the third Group A match, NICKELL vs EDMONDS, Joel Wooldridge passed both as Dealer and over 4♥ in the situation posed as a problem: N/S -420. At the other table, Eric Greco opened 1♦ and East declared 5♥-X after the usual auction. Geoff Hampson led a top spade and switched to a trump but declarer tried to ruff down North’s presumed ♣K and thus scored only the ♣A and eight trump tricks: N/S +500 and 14 IMPs to NICKELL.

Cecilia Rimstedt opened 1♥ and Kevin Dwyer responded with a semi-forcing 1NT. John Hurd came in with a takeout double of hearts and East/West now bid efficiently to game in diamonds.

Dwyer led a heart to declarer’s ace, and Bathurst ruffed a heart in dummy before playing two rounds of trumps ending in his hand. He then ran the ♠J to North’s ace. Cecilia Rimstedt had a ‘safe’ heart exit, but she realized that her ♣Q was likely to be the last trick for the defence if she did that. Instead, she smartly returned a spade and South’s ♠9 forced dummy’s king. Declarer had eventually to take the club finesse. North won with the ♣Q and cashed her partner’s spade winner for one down: nicely defended, E/W -100.

Live by the sword, die by the sword: the Swedes well-and-truly caught the World champion Poles speeding. When Per-Ola Cullin doubled Michal Nowosadzki’s pre-emptive 3♥ for takeout, Marion Michielsen correctly judged to convert for penalties. Declarer misguessed spades to give the defenders a seventh trick, but most of the damage had already been done: E/W +800 and 14 IMPs to DONNER.

In the match between BLACK and RED DEVILS, both East/West pairs got to game:

The Belgians flirted with collecting a penalty, but the English had only braved the two-level, and Caputo judged that was not high enough. His 3♦ bid left Vandervorst with a choice of game contracts, and he opted for notrumps.

Paske led a heart and, winning the third round, declarer could count eight tricks. The problem is that declarer’s only entries to hand are in the short diamond holding, so he must make a decision early. Vandervorst chose to put all of his eggs into the club basket, so he cashed the ♣A, won the third round of diamonds in hand with the king, and played a club to the jack. When that lost, the defenders had six tricks: E/W -200.

Of the six declarers who played 3NT on a heart lead, all followed much the same line and went down. The contract can be made by cashing five rounds of diamonds, which basically destroys the North hand. He can afford to discard low spades on the third and fourth diamond, baring his ♠A, but the fifth round of diamonds hammers the last nail into the North coffin. Discarding a club enables declarer to score his ninth trick by cashing clubs from the top. If North instead throws a heart winner, declarer exits with a spade to the bare ace. North can then cash his one heart winner before having to return a club to dummy.

David Gold had the option of passing the double of 3♥ to collect at least 500, but he preferred to give his partner a chance to shine.

Playing in 5♦, Black won the heart lead, ruffed a heart, and played a trump to dummy. He then played a club to the jack. North won with the ♣Q and could do no better than exit with a second round of trumps. Black again won in dummy and now led the ♠J, running it when South played low. When this forced the ♠A from North, declarer could claim eleven tricks, dummy’s third spade disappearing on declarer’s fourth-round club winner. E/W +600 and 13 IMPs to BLACK, who jumped up to fourth place with a 61-36 victory.

Elsewhere, MOSS defeated DONNER 54-27 in the top-of-the-table clash. However, a second consecutive 20-0 win, this time 75-6 over EDMONDS, enabled NICKELL to leapfrog both of the teams that had been ahead of them.

Appropriately, the first round robin of matches would be completed with a meeting of the top two teams: MOSS vs NICKELL, a mouth-watering prospect for those watching live on BBO VuGraph. Vagaries of system created a number of swings on this curious deal:

This auction looks fairly normal. Of course, dummy was awful so the contract was poor, but the defence dropped a trick and allowed Steve Weinstein to scramble seven tricks. N/S +50.

However, systemic differences meant that the auction was less straightforward at a number of tables. Notably, pairs who open 1♣ on all balanced hands outside the notrump range found themselves in some difficulty:

Jacek Kalita opened a Polish Club (clubs, weak balanced, or any 16+). When South’s overcall came back to him, Kalita reopened with a double, leaving Michal Nowosadzki with an awkward problem. His 2♣ seems like the best of a choice of bad options. Kalita had no reason to bid again, so there they were in a 3-3 with the defenders’ trumps breaking 6-1. Things went about as well as could be expected, and declarer managed to scramble four tricks: N/S +200 and 4 IMPs to NICKELL.

David Gold and Andrew Black play an essentially natural system, but with a 1♦ opening promising an unbalanced hand. Thus, all balanced hands open 1♣ (including 3-3-5-2 shapes). Even so, when the auction began the same way Andrew Black had no reason to bid anything other than 2♣ on the West hand. An early mis-claim cost declarer a trick here: N/S +250.

After the same auction, Thomas Paske was not prepared to let sleeping dogs lie, so he reopened with a takeout double on the South cards. Of course, Andrew McIntosh was quite happy with this development, and declined to take it out. Perhaps Piotr Zatorski could have guessed there might be a better spot, but is it so obvious with his LHO advertising interest in both red suits?

Paske led the ♣J, which was allowed to win. He then cashed the ace, king and jack of spades, North disposing of a diamond as declarer ruffed with his remaining low trump. Declarer tried to cash diamonds, but North ruffed the second round and played a low trump to the ace. Declarer clung onto his heats in the endgame, keeping the ♠8 in dummy, so the defenders had to concede one trick in the majors at the end. Still, N/S +800 and 11 IMPs to BLACK.

Alas, this was a fairly dull set of boards and the top match swung on an RKC misunderstanding that led to Nickell/Katz bidding a grand slam off a cashing ace. MOSS won 36-22 to take a 5-VP lead into the second round robin. RED DEVILS beat DONNER 33-7, widening the gap between DONNER and the leaders. BLACK’s 49-7 victory over EDMONDS meant that three teams were almost tied for third place, with EDMONDS left 27 VPs behind the field and odds on to be relegated…. Unless:

Both Kevin Bathurst in MOSS vs EDMONDS and Gunnar Hallberg in DONNER vs BLACK, were faced with the second of this week’s bidding problems after identical auctions. Both elected to pass: E/W +680.

At the all-Polish table, the auction began with a Polish Club (as most auctions seem to do) and Michal Klukowski showed a balanced positive with 1♠, a transfer to notrumps, after South’s overcall. Piotr Zatorski showed a Strong Club hand with spades and Klukowski agreed the suit. A couple of cue-bids later, and East launched RKCB. Having found out that Klukowski held one key card, the ♠Q and no outside kings, quite why it took five bids to get from 5♠ to 6♠, I cannot explain. Maybe Sjoert Brink had convinced them that there was a prize for the longest auction.

North led a diamond, and Klukowski took a diamond ruff at trick three. The ♠Q and a spade to the king revealed the bad break, but declarer was still okay as long as North held at least three clubs. Klukowski unblocked the clubs, crossed to the ♥A, and discarded a red-suit loser on the ♣Q. He then led a club, ruffed with the ♠8, exited with his plain-suit loser, and waited for the ♠K-10 at the end. E/W +1430 and 13 IMPs to EDMONDS, showing renewed signs of life with a 49-28 victory over MOSS.

Sandra Rimstedt opened a Strong 1♣ and Gary Donner showed a balanced positive with a heart stop after South’s overcall. They quickly agreed spades and Donner cue-bid in hearts. Blackwood then propelled the partnership to slam when West admitted to a key-card and the ♠Q.

Rimstedt won the heart lead, unblocked the clubs, and played three rounds of diamonds, ruffing in dummy. She then pitched her heart loser on the ♣Q and ruffed a heart. When she then played her last diamond, South ruffed with the ♠5, overruffed with the queen. Declarer finally led dummy’s remaining trump to her ten. North had to make one trump trick, but that was all. E/W +1430 and 13 IMPs to DONNER.

BLACK won a close match, 44-35, to overtake DONNER and move up into third place. In the third match, NICKELL defeated the Belgians 46-32 to move ahead of MOSS into first place. With six matches played, and thus four remaining, these are the standings:

NICKELL	80.55 VPs
MOSS	77.82
BLACK	60.97
DONNER	56.72
RED DEVILS	51.26
EDMONDS	32.68

We will be back here next week with the best of the action from those final four matches.