Riga Round 22: Turkiye v Norway

The score was extremely close, with Norway edging out the victory in a 51-56 IMP win.

Board 19

6D by EW is cold, yet surprisingly, neither table reached it as their final contract! I'm sure both pairs would reach 6D if it was an uncontested auction, but of course, the opponents have to get in the way.

Norway stopped in 5D after South opened 1S:

West (Berg)	North (Yilmaz)	East (Grude)	South (Kubac)
			1S
X	3S	X	P
3N	P	4S	P
5D	All Pass

East's double was responsive, showing the minors. 4S was probably intended as a slam try by East, but West may have understood it as pick a minor, so he bid 5D. Believing he had shown a slam try hand and partner had rejected the invite, Grude passed. When declarer dropped the stiff K of diamonds, 5D made 7.

4S should be a slam try with both minors. If all East wanted to do was have West pick a minor at the 5-level, he could've bid 4N instead of double the first time. With no wastage in the majors and 14 points, West would've accepted the slam try, and EW would've been in 6D. East's hand is very close to slam forcing, but after partner's 3N bid (which implies spade wastage), prospects for slam are less likely. For example, change the SA to SK: then West would bid the exact same way, but 6D is suddenly a bad contract.

At the other table, EW were in 6D ... temporarily.

West (Zorlu)	North (Bakke)	East (Sakrak)	South (Brogeland)
			2S
X	4S	4N	P
5D	P	6D	P
P	6S	P	P
X	All Pass

Brogeland decided to open 2S to put pressure on EW. With limited space after Bakke's 4S bid, Sakrak had to guess whether to bid slam. While slam could be down on some layouts, it's percentage to bid slam: parther made a takeout double at the 2-level, implying decent values. The opponents' spade bidding decreases the chance that partner has spade wastage, and especially over the 5D bid which indicates a 10-card fit, 6 is a very reasonable call. Besides, with South having the weak hand, the finesses are more likely to be on than off if needed.

However, Bakke, seeing only the SQ in his hand for high cards, figured 6D was going to make the vast majority of the time: partner preempted favorable with 2S, and he has no high cards outside of spades. So, he saved in 6S over 6D. This is a riskier bid than it seems: what would he do if the opponents bid 7D? 7D might be cold, in which case a 7S save is necessary, or it might be down, in which case 7S would be a disaster. He already made the opponents guess: according to bridge philosophy, give opponents the last guess. If the DK and DQ were swapped, if EW decided to bid 7D over 6S, North would feel very uncomfortable.

Despite the risk in 6S, the bid worked: missing the DK, neither opponent was willing to bid 7D, instead opting to defend 6S doubled. Notice Sakrak's pass: this is a forcing pass situation, so it's cooperative if partner wants to bid 7D: he is not for neither against the bid. It gives partner the final decision. With Zorlu's hand, double is clear: bad diamonds and the Ax of spades both point to penalizing. 6S doubled went down 5 for -1100, but that's better than the -1390 they would've suffered from 6D (declarer would obviously drop the DK to make the contract safely). However, since the other table wasn't even in slam, Turkiye still conceded 10 IMPs to Norway.

Board 22

Another slam hand for EW! 6D is cold on 3-2 diamonds, but reaching there isn't easy. With only 29 points combined and both sides having honors in their short suits, as well as this being a minor suit slam, reaching 6D in any field will give you a great score.

The Turkish pair is up first. They stopped in 3N on this board:

West (Zorlu)	North (Bakke)	East (Sakrak)	South (Brogeland)
		1S	P
2C	P	2D	P
2H	P	3D	P
3N	All Pass

With 17 points opposite partner's 1S opener, signing off in 3N is a little conservative. The only points not pulling their full weight are the KQ of hearts, but there's no reason to believe that they will be useless, and connected honors are generally a good thing. West could consider trying for slam with a 4D bid. Although bypassing 3N, the hand is good enough that one would be surprised if 5D EW didn't make. That depends on opening style though: if the pair opens light, then 3N appears more reasonable. 3N made 6 on a heart lead.

At the other table, West did continue with 4D:

West (Berg)	North (Yilmaz)	East (Grude)	South (Kubac)
		1S	P
2C	P	2D	P
2N	P	3D	P
4D	P	4H	P
5C	P	6D	All Pass

4H was keycard in diamonds (kickback), and 5C showed 2 without Q. As mentioned before, 6D was cold, giving Norway 12 IMPs.

This hand really came down to hand evaluation for West: in particular, the QJ of spades are golden after partner's 1S opening. Also, after 4D, partner can always stop in 5D with a bad hand, ensuring their side won't get too high.

Board 28

6C by EW makes...the minor suit slam hands are the most swingy, since they're hard to bid and produce big swings when one side bids it and the other doesn't. This one isn't even good: it's on the spade finesse and some more! If defenders lead clubs, declarer could be in trouble since both hearts may not be ruffed, not to mention the possibility of clubs 3-0 offside. Anyways, neither table was in 6C! If that sentence feels familiar, no, NS didn't sacrifice this time...

Let's just take a look at the Norwegian EW pair, who stopped in 5C.

West (Berg)	North (Yilmaz)	East (Grude)	South (Kubac)
1D	P	2C	P
2D	P	3C	P
4H	P	4N	P
5C	All Pass

Berg's 4H was a splinter in support of clubs: if he had hearts, he could've bid 3H (not to mention Grude's 3C generally denies 4 hearts). 4N was likely intended as a diamond cuebid, since otherwise a diamond cuebid couldn't have been made below 5C. With his 12-count including a singleton J, Berg signed off in 5C, where Grude respected his decision with only a 10-point collection of his own. Unluckily, the SQ was onside, but staying out of 6 is the correct decision overall: looking only at the EW hands, one would not want to be in slam.

The other table...well, just look at it for yourself.

West (Zorlu)	North (Bakke)	East (Sakrak)	South (Brogeland)
1D	P	3C	P
4C	P	6C	P
P	X	P	P
6D	X	7C	X
All Pass

EW may have had a misunderstanding about the strength of 4C. Zorlu, perhaps thinking 3C was game forcing, intended it as club support but not a dead minimum. Sakrak, perhaps meaning 3C as natural invitational, thought the 4C was a slam try and, with a maximum invite, jumped directly to 6C. Holding 2 aces, Bakke doubled the contract, aware there was a high chance that EW messed up. Unfortunately for him, the lie of cards was about to let the slam make, giving the swing to Turkiye.

However, also aware there had been a misunderstanding, West decided that to run to 6D! Perhaps West thought North was doubling based on club length, so he tried to save the contract so they wouldn't be off 2 trump losers. With his diamond void, East had no choice but to run to 7C, where he was doubled and set 1 trick. 11 IMPs to Norway!

In hindsight, there was no reason for Zorlu to bid 6D. If 6C was intended as natural, there's no reason to think 6D would play better: with a club stack and nothing else, Bakke should never double in fear of the opponents running to a makeable slam. If 6C was artificial, partner would've already bailed out. Instead, the right move is accept the contract and move on: when the opponents double, no other slam will be making. On this deal, you would actually get lucky and make the contract! No doubt the EW pair discussed the auction heavily and made an agreement on what the bids meant. Misunderstandings happen all the time; but the time for discussion is after the round, not during the next hand. Instead, try to reset your mental state after a misunderstanding so you can still play good bridge.