On Saturday, May 11 in the VG of BBO were transmitted at the same time … the 2013 Swedish Teams and the Norwegian Clubs Team Final.
At the same time one was able to kibitz the Sweden and the Norway matches and while I did it, I was able to witness two different boards, played simultaneously, where the players took the same excellent decision: Partner pick a suit…
In one of the tables (the Sweden match) were playing Johan UPMARK with Peter BERTHEAU, both players were part of the winner team of the 14th WORLD BRIDGE GAMES Lille, France • 9 – 23 August 2012, in the Open category.
Board 24
Upmark opened his hand with a 1 bid and North jumped to 3. Bertheau passed, South passed and West, with short hearts reopened the bidding with a double.
After Olofsson’s pass, Bertheau found the way to ask his partner to pick his longest suit with a 4 cue-bid. West smoothly chose diamonds and the partnership scored 400 after a successful club finesse. At the other table West was not so careful …
West also opened with a 1 bis and North also jumped to 3. East passed, South passed and now West perhaps watching his J10… decided to bid 3NT unilaterally, he went three down after a A lead. The board scored 11 IMPs for the world champions.
Meanwhile in Norway the BBO VG was transmiting the Norwegian Clubs Team Final and the players were playing this board:
After South’s 1NT openning bid, West showed the two majors, North doubled and East chose to play game in spades.
South, found himself with little space and used a 4NT bid to ask his partner to chose his best minor. North decided to pick diamonds and they scored +600, declarer only lost 1 spade and a club.
At the other table West was much less careful though incredibly lucky.
South also chose to open with a 1NT bid, but West dazzled by his 6 heart cards only showed that suit. After several doubles and a redouble South confident in his heart stopper chose to play 3NT.
West continued denying his spades and lead his Q…giving declarer the possibility to make the first 11 tricks: 5 diamonds, 4 spades, two hearts… and to add 2 IMPs for his team …