Contract Bridge

Today’s deal occurred in the final of the 2011 world team championship. The event was won by a young squad from the Netherlands, who defeated an equally young group of Americans by 45 IMPs.

The U.S. got off to a fast start in the early going, leading by 21 IMPs after the first quarter, with this deal accounting for about half that margin. When the board was first played, the Dutch pair of Bauke Muller, North, and Simon de Wijs, South, wound up in five spades doubled on the auction shown.

After South’s weak two opening, West’s three-spade bid showed hearts and a minor, whereupon North ventured a conservative raise to four spades. East’s four notrump asked West to clarify his hand, and when South intervened with five spades, West doubled, thinking he would settle for a “sure” plus score. Wijs had no problem making the doubled contract with an overtrick, losing only a diamond for a score of +1050. Considering that six spades was virtually laydown, this impressive-sounding result was not as good as it might at first seem.

Sure enough, at the other table, where Justin Lall and Joe Grue were North-South for the U.S., Lall leaped directly to the spade slam at his first turn after the bidding started the same way. Lall knew his side had no spade or club losers, and that the king of hearts was almost surely onside, so he was gambling only that the opponents could not cash the first two diamond tricks. If South had the ace or king of diamonds, or a singleton or void in the suit, or if West did not lead a diamond initially, the slam was virtually certain to make.

Plus 1430 yielded a 9-IMP gain for the U.S. Interestingly, if North had redoubled five spades at the first table — certainly a reasonable action — his side would have been +1600 and would have gained 5 IMPs on the deal.