Riga Round 16: Poland vs Germany

We had two struggling teams meeting yet again. Unlike other matches, quite a few interesting declaring and defensive problems emerged in this set.

The Polish team fell behind early by 21 IMPs, but they ultimately rallied to take the match by 13 at the end, with a final score of 44 to 31.

Both tables experienced relatively similar auctions:

Open Room:

Reps	Jagniewski	Fritsche	Gawel
	1♥	X	2♥
P	2NT	P	4♥
AP

Closed Room:

Chmurski	Gruenke	Buras	Eggeling
	1♥	P	2♥
P	4♥	AP

In the open room, Fritsche led a fourth best spade, which was won cheaply with Jagniewski's six. Unfortunately, declarer still had two spade losers to deal with despite the cheap first trick. He proceeded to draw trumps, starting with the queen in his own hand and then playing a heart to the king. Upon discovering that trumps broke four one, the correct line would have been to finesse diamonds, knock out the club ace, and set up the fourth diamond in dummy. That way, declarer's spade losers would be eliminated using the two discards.

Jagniewski, however, cashed the third trump immediately and played a club, which was won by East's ace. He discarded a diamond loser when East returned a club, making it inevitable that he would lose two spades, one heart, and one club.

The four of diamonds was led at the other table, which defeats the contract by one trick double dummy. Paul Gruenke cashed the queen of hearts from his own hand, played another round to dummy, and then proceeded to play a club to East's ace. Rather than choosing a passive return, Buras aggressively shifted to a spade, a move that accidentally eliminated declarer's losers in that suit. Since the king of diamonds was already gone at trick one, declarer was able to set up the diamond suit after winning the spade switch. This gave him two discards to completely eliminate his spade losers, yielding plus 420 and ten IMPs for Germany.

This hand provided some great humor regarding how the decision to preempt completely flipped the final result.

Chmurski	Gruenke	Buras	Eggeling
	P	P	1NT
P	2♥	3♣	AP

Neither North nor South chose to preempt with their hands. It seems quite reasonable for North to pass, as holding four hearts alongside the six card spade suit made the hand unsuitable for a preempt.

Gruenke still chose not to compete over three clubs after the one no trump opening bid. Eggeling's pass over the intervention likely did not indicate anything specific, as it would be risky for South to compete with a three spade bid, considering that partner could hold nothing for their transfer. Conversely, it would make sense to bid three spades or three hearts if a retransfer was available with the North hand, even if that action was only invitational. The North hand would still be quite close to inviting game even if there was no overcall and partner simply accepted the transfer. Declarer ended up taking seven tricks here.

Reps	Jagniewski	Fritsche	Gawel
	P	3♣	3NT
P	4♥	P	4♠
AP

The three clubs bid, for what it is worth, is a reasonable choice for a vulnerable second seat preempt. Despite a minor concern regarding the suit quality, the hand is otherwise decent enough to bid.

Gawel judged well to overcall 3NT, which landed the Polish pair in four spades after a transfer auction. He took eleven tricks, as he was able to ruff dummy's final heart loser because the defender who was short in hearts had no trumps remaining. The Polish team picked up ten IMPs on the board, which began to chip away at the German lead.

Chmurski	Gruenke	Buras	Eggeling
			P
1♠	P	4♣ (1)	P
4NT	P	5♥	P
6♠	AP

1. Splinter, singleton or void.

The eight of hearts was led, won by dummy's ace, and a club was played to declarer's ace. Then, Buras ran a diamond, which South won. South's attempt to cash heart tricks failed when declarer ruffed in. Twelve tricks were claimed from that point forward. The heart was not expected to cash, as Chmurski would have passed 5♥ without a control

Reps	Jagniewski	Fritsche	Gawel
			P
1♠	P	4♣ (1)	P
4NT	P	5♥	X
6♠	AP

1. Same as above

Here, things went similar except the doubling of 5♥ with the South hand. The first three tricks went the same, except Jagniewski led his lowest heart. Once taking the ace of diamonds, Gawel returned a second one. Klaus Reps pitched a club from his hand, and then proceeded to ruff a diamond. Then, hr ruffed a club in dummy, drew one round of trump to his hand, and then ruffed a second club. This was the position after 8 tricks.

Here, things went similarly except for the doubling of five hearts with the South hand. The first three tricks proceeded identically, except Jagniewski led his lowest heart. Once winning the ace of diamonds, Gaweł returned a second round of the suit. Klaus Reps discarded a club from his hand and then proceeded to ruff a diamond. Next, he ruffed a club in dummy, drew one round of trumps to his hand, and ruffed a second club. This was the position after eight tricks.

Declarer proceeded to ruff a heart in order to ruff his fourth club. Now the moment of truth arrived. As the Polish defenders played low from an original doubleton, would it be better to play the fourth diamond and hope South ran out of diamonds or that the suit was divided four four, or would it be better to play a third heart instead? Which suit was North more likely to overruff?

One specific factor might make one line superior to the other. Given South's showing of the ace of diamonds, they might have chosen to open a Multi preempt if they held a six two distribution with hearts. The double of five hearts could purely have been lead directing and did not guarantee any length in the suit, especially considering that Gaweł was screaming for a heart lead given that they held another entry in the suit.

Therefore, even though a heart would have likely been the more practical play at the table, declarer chose to play the fourth diamond, which was overruffed by Jagniewski. That resulted in fourteen IMPs for the Polish team, wrapping up the match with a 44-31 victory