Marc Smith visits the knockout stage of the OCBL June Cup

We have followed the action from the qualifying rounds of the Online Contract Bridge League June Cup. After four days of play, the field of 18 has been reduced to eight. The quarter-final line-up is shown below, with the carryforward advantage earned by position in the qualifying stage shown in brackets:

ORCA (+6.1 IMPs) vs SCORWAY
TILLY (+6.1) vs BLACK
APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS (+3.1) vs CALCIO & FOOTBALL
ZHAO (+3.1) vs HUNGARY.

As usual. We begin with a couple of bidding problems. Firstly, with just your side vulnerable, you are South with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you hold as North:

What action do you take?

We shall see how your choices would work later. Two of the quarter-final matches quickly began to look like very one-sided affairs. APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS blanked their opponents 32-0 over the first eight boards to lead by 35.1 at halftime. In the all-England battle, TILLY outscored BLACK 23-0 to lead by 29.1 at the midway point. The other two ties were much more competitive. ORCA won the first half 22-18 to lead the Scottish/Norwegian combination by 10.1 IMPs at the half. HUNGARY were the only underdog to overturn the carryforward, winning the first half 21-8 against ZHAO to lead by 9.9 IMPs.

Board 12 produced a major swing in all four quarter-final matches. All of the South players were faced with some variation of this week’s first problem.

For the Hungarians, Miklos Dumbovich solved the problem by passing his partner’s 2NT overcall. With the defensive clubs breaking, Gabor Winkler lost just four clubs and the ♥A: N/S +120.

After the same start, Chen Zhao transferred to hearts. Liu Jing liked his hand enough to super-accept, cue-bidding in spades to agree hearts. Chen re-transferred and the partnership had reached game. The 4-0 trump split might have proved problematic, as declarer needs to ruff a club loser in the short trump hand, but Jing’s task was simplified when the Csaba Szabo began the defence by leading three rounds of clubs. Now declarer had only to drive out the ♥A and claim. N/S +620 and 11 IMPs to ZHAO, who won the second stanza 18-5 to tie the match at 26-26 and thus advance to the semi-finals just by the margin of their 3.1-IMP carryfoward.  

Neither West opened the bidding in the match between ORCA and SCORWAY:

Barnet Shenkin passed as Dealer, which allowed Richard Plackett to open 1♣ (clubs or balanced). Espen Erichsen transferred to hearts and Plackett’s 2NT was a good raise to at least 3♥. Erichen’s 3♦ bid was then a re-transfer and invitational. Plackett decided that he was minimum now, having already shown at least a sound limit raise, so he retreated to 3♥ and Erichsen understandably gave up. Here, too, three rounds of clubs gave declarer an easy ride to ten tricks: N/S +170.

An unusual sequence from the Norwegians: I confess that I have bid 4♥ in this auction, but only when I somehow found myself with SIX-card support for responder’s suit. Nils Kvangraven decided that his hand was so good in the context of his (14)15-17 1NT opening that he could not risk partner passing below game. And right he was too! N/S +620 and 10 IMPs to SCORWAY. It was too little, too late, though, ORCA winning the second half 19-14 and the match by 15.1 IMPs. ( In The match between APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS and CALICO & FOOTBALL, Zack Grossack bid ‘only’ 3♥ in the same position, and his partner passed.)

With the leading four teams from the qualifying stage all winning their quarter-final matches, the semi-final line-up was:

ORCA (+0.1 IMPs) vs APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS
TILLY (+0.1 IMPs) vs ZHAO

One player in each match faced the second of this week’s bidding problems:

Roy Welland got things rolling with a 5+♠ weak two. Richard Plackett overcalled in his major and Sabine Auken upped the ante to game. Espen Erichsen self-alerted his double as ‘takeout in theory’, although I wonder how many partnerships have such an agreement about a double in this situation. Richard Plackett duly removed to his second suit and Auken doubled 5♥ on the way out.

The defence was accurate: Auken led the ♣K and continued with the ♣7 at trick two. Welland ruffed and returned a diamond but, of course, declarer was never going to run that to the ♦8 in dummy. Plackett won with the ♦A and advanced the ♥Q. Auken won the ♥A and exited with a spade. Declarer won with the ♠A, ruffed a spade, and ran the ♥10 successfully to pick up the trumps, but there was still a diamond to be lost at the end. N/S -300.

Switching to a diamond at trick two amounts to the same thing. East can then win the first trump, deliver her partner’s club ruff, and get a diamond ruff in return to set the contract by the same two.

Peter Crouch had to start with the dreaded Multi, which slowed down the auction. Now, when North had to make a decision over the double of 4♠, South had already shown heart support. Whether that makes it more or less clear to defend, I will leave you to judge. Suffice it to say that Rafal Jabjiewski’s decision to pass the double was spot on.

Wotjek Gawel led a low heart to queen and ace, and Nafiz Zorlu cashed the top clubs to shake dummy’s heart loser. He then ruffed a club with the ♠7, North pitching a heart. Jagniewski won the diamond exit and played his trump, South allowing dummy to win with the ♠5. Declarer could ruff a diamond and ruff a club, but when he tried to take a second diamond ruff, South overruffed with the ♠J. Ace and another trump now left declarer with two diamond losers: N/S +300 and 12 IMPs to APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS, who led 15-12.1 at the midway point.

In the other semi-final:

In the same situation as Erichsen in the other match, Bauke Muller self-alerted his double of 4♠ as ‘points’. Chen Zhao passed and led a top diamond, then switched to a heart at trick two. Declarer won with the ♥A and cashed his top clubs, pitching dummy’s remaining heart. A club ruff and a diamond ruff followed and then declarer ruffed a heart, but that was just about the end of the road. Muller overruffed the next round of diamonds, crossed to the North hand with the ♥Q, and scored a second diamond overruff with the ♠J. Ace and another spade then left dummy with a diamond loser: here too, N/S +300.

At only one table did West not open:

We have seen that only nine tricks can be made in hearts, so Castner did well to steer his partnership away from game in that strain. Would notrumps be any better, though?

Verhees led the ♠K, which was allowed to win, and switched to a diamond at trick two. When declarer led a heart to the king at trick three, though, his goose was just about cooked. Nicco van Prooijen won the second round of hearts with the jack, cashed a high club and played a spade through declarer. West won with the ♠10 and declarer accepted his fate, claiming just seven tricks: N/S -100 and 9 IMPs to ZHAO, who had jumped out to a 43-11.1 lead after eight boards. On to the second half:

A natural auction saw Stefano Thommasini declarer 3NT from the East seat for the Brazilians. Bauke Muller led a heart to the jack and king. Declarer played a diamond to the ace and another back to the king, getting the bad news in that suit, and then played a spade to the king and ace. Chen Zhao cashed the ♥Q but, when he had no more hearts to play, declarer was able to claim nine tricks. E/W +400.

The Dutch strong club system got to the same contract but with a crucial difference:

Here, Louk Verhees became declarer from the West seat, and Phil King’s  ♥Q lead presented declarer with a much more challenging task. Verhees played low from dummy at tricks one, then covered the ♥J continuation. Kevin Castner won with the ♥A and switched to the ♠6. Declarer’s ♠Q won and declarer pitched a heart from dummy.

Declarer cashed four rounds of clubs, South pitching a spade and North a diamond. A diamond to the ace and a second diamond back to the king then revealed the position in that suit. Now declarer had to guess what was going on in the majors. The winning play is to cash the ♦Q and endplay North with the ♦J to lead away from the ♠A-J at the end. When, instead, Verhees tried to endplay North by exiting with a heart. South won and the defenders claimed all of the remaining tricks. E/W -100 and 11 IMPs to TILLEY.

TILLEY won the second half 37-7, but that still left them 2 IMPs short and their valiant run was at an end. ZHAO won the match 50-48.1 to advance to the final. The other semi-final was even closer. ORCA won the second half 20-18, leaving them in arrears by just a single IMP. APRES-BRIDGE CHAMPS triumphed by a score of 33-32.1. The two English teams had been eliminated by a combined 2.8 IMPs – that feels even closer than losing in a penalty shoot-out! (And that is something in which the English have plenty of experience.)

ZHAO went into the final carrying the 0.1-IMP advantage that would be critical in the event of tied match.

Verhees opened a weak two and the Poles quickly installed themselves in 3NT. Verhees opened the ♥6, which went to the ten, jack and two. Chen Zhao now switched to a low diamond, won in hand by declarer with the ♦9. The ♣Q was allowed to win, Verhees signalling with the jack. A second round of clubs went to the nine king and ace, so Zhao cashed his two diamond winners and returned a club to his partner’s ten for the fifth defensive trick. E/W -100.

For the Dutch, Simon de Wijs reached 3NT after an identical auction. Hermann Lall’s spade lead was not as taxing, though. With five tricks in the majors, declarer just needed to score four in the minor suits. De Wijs won the spade lead in dummy with the jack and led a low diamond. When Petra Hamman played low, that was the end of the defence. (She needs to rise and switch to hearts.) Having slipped a diamond trick through, declarer then switched to clubs, where he was able to establish the three tricks needed to bring his tally to nine. The defenders could cash their two diamond winners, but two tricks in each minor was all they could get. E/W +600 and 12 IMPs to ZHAO.

ZHAO won a low-scoring final 29.1-21. Congratulations to Chen Zhao and his Chinese/Dutch team on a fine victory.

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the opening stages of Heat 6 of the New Alt Competition. We will return to see more from the OCBL with coverage of both the Super Cup and the July Cup in a few weeks.