Denmark will face Italy in the semifinal of the Yeh Bros after a thrilling quarterfinal against China Blue. Before the last board the score was 82-82. When this distribution monster made a guest appearance:
North led the king of diamonds, got the heart shift spelled in capitol letters by South playing the Queen, heart shift, yet a diamond trick and down 1.
At the other table Sabine Auken and Roy Welland pushed their opponents a bit farther and thus created the opportunity to win the match:
Sabine led the 8 of hearts, ruffed by South, who aftrer some consideration played the 8 of diamonds. Sabine knew there were no more heart ruffs, so she returned a diamond for down 2 and +500 and a ticket to the semifinal against Italy.
If anyone considered the Vanderbilt champions to have achieved a once in a lifetime-experience winning that tournament, their results at the Yeh Bros have forever silenced the critics.
Once again Dennis Bilde, still 23 years old, has placed himself among the top players of the world. According to the butler, Dennis and his old man were plus 0.99 after ten matches against the toughest opponents imaginable.
With his raid of champion by champion it is hard not to give him the nickname Dennis the Menace.
Before beating the chinese, Denmark comfortably slaughtered the young and talented USA Kranyak team (Demuy, Wooldridge-Hurd). The first segment ended 68-17 in favour of the Danes. Their early lead was partly due to this board:
Bilde senior chose to bid 2C rather than 2D to show the placement of his values. It is not unusual to bid 2C since a 5-4 diamond fit can still be found, leaving room for partner to bid it, whereas a club fit would often disappear.
On this board it helped the Bildes to find the cold heart slam. At the other table Wooldridge chose to bid 2D rather than 2C, softening Hurd’s slammy desires and thus settling in 4H. 11 imps for Denmark (FYI the team name Denmark was suggested by – the American).
I caught Dennis just before bedtime for a chat about his expectations for the match against Italy tomorrow. During the Vanderbilt Dennis did not play against any of the Italians, so for him it is a dream come true facing them in the semifinal. Dennis has an almost masochistic desire to always want to play against the best…
What are your thoughts about tomorrow’s match against Italy?
“I am looking forward to beating Italy. I hope they are also looking forward to play the consolation.” The obvious reply of the ever smiling, ever confident young man.
I am going to quote you for that, you realize that, right?
“That is why I said it.”
I can almost see him smile from across the world.
Since he is beating Italy in the semifinal, Dennis has a small hope to meet the Russians in the final with Brink-Drijver on the team, who he just beat in the Vanderbilt final.
“It is super cool to play against Bas and Sjoert, it is just really annoying they are so good,” Dennis says.
After winning the NEC cup and being reinforced by the arrival of Drijver, the Russian team rather surprisingly failed to qualify for the top 8 in the Yeh Bros. According to Dennis’ and Sjoert’s calculations, the chances of Russia reaching the final is 1,5 %. This far they have won both their knock outs and play Yeh Bros and China Thursday morning.
Both Dennis and Sjoert hope for a rematch of the Vanderbilt final, since to put it in Dennis’ confident words:
“Sjoert wouldn’t mind winning the 32.000 dollars for second place…”