The 2025 edition starring MKB, Luc and Vincent
A new edition of the Junior Pairs 🌟
As every year, the U31 Pairs competition brought together a fine selection of young bridge enthusiasts in Paris. A total of 42 pairs came from all over France to compete in an atmosphere that was both serious and friendly.
This year, I played with Matt, a very promising young U21 player with whom I had had few opportunities to play until now. Among the familiar Funbridge faces, Vincent Gallais and Luc Bellicaud took part in the competition, each with a different partner than usual.
Margaux Kurek-Beaulieu
Vincent Gallais
Luc Bellicaud
Matt Osinski
The Girls on the wall 😍
When we arrived, we saw that the federation had hung up some really nice pictures of the French teams that had won titles. So we took a photo with Élise, Constance, Zoey and me because all four of us were on it: we were crowned European Girls Champions for the first time in 2024. 💛
It was cool as we don’t necessarily play on the same team now. Some have switched categories or have become too old, but we still have that feeling of having won it together.
🥇 Click here to read my article about the 2024 Girls Championships.
A very difficult slam
You have Matt’s hand in South. After overcalling with 2♣, you learn that your partner has at least a game-invitational hand with a minimum of five diamonds. Your RHO repeats his hearts at the 3-level, and it’s your turn…
Matt chose to pass with this hand and that is annoying since the situation is non-forcing. However, this time I reopened by naturally bidding my two-suiter with 3♠.
Pass and it’s your turn again. What do you bid next?
My opinion is that you should show a positive hand with the 4♥ bid, which should only be made with a shortage. I even think that you could have bid 4♥ on the previous round… But if you had to play in 3NT, it would be a shame.
Here, protected by the initial pass, I believe that there is really no reason not to bid more positively than 5♦ (4♦ would be non-forcing), allowing me to count only one heart loser opposite.
Our friends Zoey et Laure were the only ones to successfully bid and make the slam in diamonds on this deal. Well done!
Now is your turn to play! Here is a deal from the U31 Pairs which will require you to assess your hand and use your instinct when playing the cards. You will be able to see my score and comments at the end of the deal.
Spoiled by the FFB: pizzas for everyone on Saturday evening! 🍕
On Saturday evening, the FFB had planned a pizza party for all participants! An excellent idea. Not just because no one ever says no to a pizza, but because it allowed us to relax a little, have a laugh together and enjoy some real time away from the bridge table.
I also want to take this opportunity to highlight how much the French bridge federation supports young people. They paid for all our expenses over the weekend, there was no registration fee, and travel expenses were reimbursed on an objective basis. Frankly, this is a rare luxury and proof that our federation is doing everything it can to make sure that young people can play without worrying about their budget. Just one comment: not enough goat’s cheese and honey pizzas! 😇
Now is your turn to play! Here is another deal from that weekend on which I got a very bad score… Will you make better decisions? You will be able to see my score and comments at the end of the deal.
I made a (very) bad decision
Here is a deal played against our friends Nao and Eulalie. I am sitting South. The bidding reaches 3♠ when it’s my turn to speak, and I know that I have to make a bid opposite my partner’s good opening and minimum of five hearts.
I don’t know which game I want to play in, but I’d like to try. Does 3NT make? Or 4♥ if he has six? 5♣? I wanted to double to try to play in 3NT (if Matt has the king, for example) and everyone passed… It was totally normal to pass with Matt’s hand, he didn’t really have any other choice.
It became a real disaster when Eulalie quietly took her nine tricks. I now think that I should have bid 4♣ even though it’s non-forcing because I’m not sure I can make 5♣ and my partner can still bid his hearts if he has a nice single-suiter.
The four hands:
A defensive deal with Vincent: a difficult switch!
The opponents reached 3NT, played by South. The queen of spades is led, on which you can play the 4.
South wins with the ace, and returns the ace of diamonds and a diamond to dummy’s jack, which takes the trick. When he cashes the king of diamonds, which card should East discard to call for a heart?
Without playing any particular system, discarding a small club would be discouraging for clubs without necessarily be encouraging for hearts, and discarding a big heart has the major disadvantage of giving a trick away…
The best thing to do is to discard a small club. Counting points, West should know how many you have in hearts and try his luck with the king! In a teams match, you could consider sacrificing the second undertrick and discarding the 9 of hearts, hoping for the king and a minor-suit entry in West.
The winners ✨
In terms of results, Arthur Boulin and Théo Guillemin won the title 🥇, ahead of Romaric Guth (my usual partner, already two-time runner-up with me!) and Hugo Rabourdin. 🥈
On the third step of the podium were Maëva Bultel and Maxime Vitse, who impressed with their consistency: first in three out of four sessions, a superb performance for a pair that is still young on the circuit! As an aside, in the summer of 2025, Maëva became European Girls Pairs Champion with Élise Nugues, and Romaric also won a European title this summer with Luc in the U31 category. 🩵
We also took advantage of the weekend to take a photo with Arthur (wearing his QJB sweatshirt!), who has just opened a “Quai des Jeunes Bridgeurs” club in Brest, while Luc, Vincent and I run the one in Lille.
For those who don’t know, the “quais” (quays in English) are youth clubs funded half by the federation and half by the local bridge committee. The aim is to encourage the practice of bridge everywhere in France, including among working people. It’s great to be part of this project with others 🙂
It was really fun playing with Matt. We had a lot of laughs, and that’s what I love about these youth weekends.
Now, if we look at the results, Matt and I finished 14th with a respectable score of 54.5%. We can be proud of ourselves. For his part, Vincent took the 6th place, only 2% behind the top 3 pairs. And Luc… Well, he reached the first half of the rankings, which is already pretty good for him. 😜
What did you think of this article by MKB?
Share your view in the Comments section below!
Always enjoy reading these, fun playing the hands. And great to see youth bridge being promoted too.
Great article!