Marc Smith visits the final stages of Heat 5 of the New Alt Competition

Last week we left Heat 5 of the monthly New Alt Competition with six matches played. These were the standings:

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

In the other groups, FREDIN (Sweden, South Africa) led ORCA (England) in Group B. In Group C, LEBOWITZ (USA, Denmark, Sweden, Italy) headed JEDI KNIGHTS (England, Wales). Group D was topped by BUQQY (China, Pakistan, Bulgaria) with TILLY (England, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, Germany) in second place.

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

What action do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start in Round 7, where the key match appears to be second against third, MOSS vs BLACK. Hands with the high cards fairly evenly split, no good fit and poor breaks often create trouble for one side or the other, and the first deal of this match was no exception. North/South can make seven tricks in hearts and East/West nine in their 4-4 spade fit. Could anyone stop in something they could make, though? Almost universally no – at 28 tables, one player was allowed to make 3NT (which should have been two down), but every other declarer went minus.

The good news for the Poles was that neither of the Swedes could find a double. Michal Nowosadzki can theoretically get out for three down, but Gunnar Hallberg found the best lead of a low diamond. When declarer played low from dummy, losing to the singleton king, he could then manage only six tricks; N/S -200.

At the other table, Sylvia Moss was faced with the first of this week’s problem hands,

David Gold described his bid as showing a ‘good weak two’ (weaker versions start with a Multi) although, to my mind, describing that North hand as any kind of ‘weak two’ comes very close to a breach of the Trades Descriptions Act. It was certainly a good layout for the English pair’s system, and things got even better when Sylvia Moss backed in with a 2NT overcall. Roger Lee advanced with regular Stayman and raised the 3♠  response to game, which Andrew Black was quite happy to hit.

Gold led his trump. Black’s ♠8 was taken by the ten and Moss played three rounds of clubs pitching a heart from dummy. At this point, only the ♦K enables declarer to make nine tricks. When she instead played a fourth round of clubs, she was booked for at least two down and pitching dummy’s second heart then gave the defenders a chance to hold her to just seven tricks. However, rather than continuing trumps, Black played ace and another diamond, enabling Moss to pitch a heart. Gold won with the ♦Q but was then endplayed to lead around to declarer’s hearts. Even so, two down was N/S +300 and 11 IMPs to BLACK.

BLACK won the match 43-20, reducing the gap between themselves and their opponents to just 6 VPs. NICKELL defeated DONNER 31-20, extending their advantage at the top to 11 VPs. RED DEVILS won the third match in Group A 26-6, surely consigning EDMONDS, who are now more than 30 VPs adrift, to relegation.

In Round 8, BLACK took on NICKELL in what was surely a must-win match for the English team if they were to have any chance of winning the title. Board 10, on which a number of players had to deal with the second of this week’s problems, was the complete opposite of the previous deal. With E/W able to make ten tricks in hearts, and N/S cold for game in either black suit, the deal created a major swing in two of the Group A matches,

It is a matter of style what action you take over East’s 1♥ opening. I know from discussion with various members of the BBO expert bidding panel, notably Dabiel Lavee and Michal Klukowski, that they would consider this South hand too strong for an overcall, and thus they would always start with a double. I confess that I am in the Eric Kokish school that considers starting with a 1♠ overcall automatic, as it so often makes subsequent decisions much easier. This deal was a case in point. Geoff Hampson started with a double and then showed extra values by doubling 4♥ at his second turn. Faced with the bidding problem posed earlier, Eric Greco chose to defend, as I suspect most would. There was nothing to the play, the defence making just two aces and the ♦K: N/S -790.

Tom Paske twice collected a silver medal in the ‘Youngsters Teams’ representing England at World Championship events, in 2008 and 2010. In 2018 he earned a bronze medal as part of the ALLFREY team at the World Bridge Championships in Philadelphia, and he was a member of the MOSSOP sextet that won the Open Teams at the 2019 European Transnational Championships.

He started with a 1♠ overcall. When he then doubled 4♥, it was easy for Andrew McIntosh to remove to 4♠. Martin Fleisher correctly saved at the five-level in hearts, as a small minus was now the best East/West could achieve. N/S +200 and 14 IMPs to BLACK.

For the Belgians, Geert Arts started with a double. Sylvia Moss showed a weak raise only to the two-level, but Roger Lee still bid game. Again, South doubled and North decided that he had nowhere to go. N/S -790.

John Hurd started with a double, so Kevin Bathurst found himself in the same position as many others. He alone chose offense over defence, effectively getting his partnership to the making 5♣. Mike Vandervorst soldiered on to 5♥ on the East cards, quite rightly, although I doubt it felt like a victory when it came time to score. N/S +200 and 14 IMPs to MOSS.

In the third Group A match, the deal was a flat board at N/S -790.

BLACK kept their hopes alive with a 46-14 victory over NICKELL. The primary beneficiaries, though, were MOSS, whose 85-28 drubbing of RED DEVILS carried them back to the top of the leaderboard with a 6-VP lead. EDMONDS beat DONNER 35-14 but surely it was too little too late, although they were now only 14 VPs behind the Belgians.

In Round 9, the three top teams all faced opposition in the bottom half of the table. However, only one of those top three teams managed to record a victory. Board 15 was a curious deal. Although it was a common contract at other tables, none of the six N/S pairs in Group A played in 6♠, and that certainly contributed to the winning tallies in all three Group A matches.

This is quite an astonishing auction from a pair who are perpetual winners of Alt events. When Sylvia Moss rebid her spades, systemically showing six, it looks normal for North to raise to 3♠ to agree the suit. Actually, though, Roger Lee’s 2NT worked fairly well, as Moss’s diamond bid dramatically increases the likelihood of short hearts, which is exactly what North wants. The most astonishing bid, though, is North’s 4♠, with partner unlimited and holding four prime cards for slam, to make the weakest possible bid (other than passing 3NT) defies all logic. Expecting some sort of unsuitable minimum opposite, one can hardly blame Moss for passing. Only the 4-1 trump break prevented declarer taking all 13 tricks: N/S +680.

Well, I know which I think is the better auction, but sometimes justice is not served. Trumps were 4-1: N/S -100 and although Brad can perhaps claim a moral victory in the intra-Moss battle, that was still 13 IMPs to MOSS.

This deal does illustrate the danger of bidding a grand slam that is anything less than almost solid. A grand needing a 3-2 break should be considered the absolute worst. As illustrated here, just bidding the small slam would have been sufficient to earn a double-digit swing. The extra couple of IMPs that would have been gained for making the grand does not come close to covering the 27-IMP net loss that will happen almost a third of the time, when the trumps do not break.

This illustrates a major flaw in one style of playing 2/1. If opener is allowed to reverse without showing extra values, how is responder ever supposed to know when it is a dull combined 28-count game hand and when you are in the slam zone. In this style, South could still bid 3♦ without, say, the ♠Q and the ♥A. Do you really want to venture beyond 3NT or 4♠ on this North hand now?

With diamonds 3-3, declarer always has eleven top tricks. On a club lead he was able to set up spades to make an irrelevant overtrick: N/S +490.

Ralph Katz alerted 2♠ with the explanation that it said nothing about spades, but quite what the implications were I cannot tell you. Indeed, this sounds like the sequence you would use to show this shape when you have a minimum opening because an immediate 3♦ would show extras, but that was clearly not the case here.

Ola Rimstedt led the ♥K. When spades failed to break, declarer gave up a spade in order to establish the suit and the defenders cashed three heart winners. N/S -400 and 14 IMPs to a resurgent EDMONDS.

In the third Group A match, the Belgians gained 13 IMPs for reaching 3NT when David Gold and Andrew Black also bid to 7♠. The excitement was not yet over, though, as the final board of the match was another slam hand, with East/West cold for twelve tricks in either black suit but a relatively cheap save available to N/S.

This method of playing a 2♣ response as a random game-force without saying anything about clubs is becoming more popular, but it does have its drawbacks if the opponents can get in as Sylvia Moss did on this deal. Her 4♥ overcall really stuck it to her opponents, making it impossible for Gary Donner to show his good spades or, indeed, the fit for the suit that he didn’t know his partner held. Equally, Sandra Rimstedt never got the chance to show her good suit either, making it hard to judge whether this was a game hand or a slam hand. Roger Lee offered the opponents a second chance, competing to 5♥ when East/West had already tried to stop in game, but the odds that they would suddenly wake up and bid a slam at this stage were surely remote. There was nothing to the play, the defence making just the ace of trumps: E/W +680.

Kevin Bathurst also began with a nebulous 2♣ game force response, but Brad Moss’s 3♥ overcall allowed John Hurd to rebid his spades at a relatively comfortable level. Joe Grue did his best, jumping to 5♥, but Bathurst already knew enough. 7♥ would have been relatively cheap, costing just 1100, but it would have saved few IMPs. E/W +1430 and another 13 IMPs to MOSS, who had turned a decent win into a big one with these last two deals.

The MOSS char-a-banc rolled right along with a 69-15 victory over DONNER. RED DEVILS beat BLACK 37-19 whilst EDMONDS actually climbed out of the cellar with a storming 58-19 win over NICKELL. The upshot was that MOSS now held an insurmountable 22-VP lead over the field and that DONNER found themselves in the relegation place with one match left to play.

It was MOSS vs NICKELL in Round 10 but, of course, the excitement was somewhat diminished with the title already decided. MOSS wins 35-12, allowing BLACK to overtake NICKELL with their 47-24 victory over EDMONDS, who find themselves back in the relegation spot when the music stops. These are the final standings:

MOSS	137.11 VPs
BLACK	114.52
NICKELL	103.03
DONNER	87.30
RED DEVILS	82.76
EDMONDS	75.28

The MOSS team win their fourth consecutive heat of the New Alt, whilst EDMONDS is set for relegation despite a late resurgence.

In the other groups, VINITA (USA, Denmark) overtakes FREDIN (Sweden, South Africa) with a big win in the head-to-head match in Round 9 and holds on to earn promotion. In Group C, JEDI KNIGHTS (England, Wales) hold off LEBOWITZ (USA, Denmark, Sweden, Italy) to earn promotion to Group B. Group D is topped by BUQQY (China, Pakistan, Bulgaria) ahead of TILLY (England, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, Germany), and those two teams are promoted to Group C.

Next week we will be checking out the action at the Online Contract Bridge League’s June Cup, where many of the same world class players will be entertaining and enlightening us thanks to BBO VuGraph.