The Deauville Festival with the Girls team
A festival in the best possible conditions: a great team and a five-star hotel!
Here I am again with my third article from this intense month of bridge 😉
This time, things are more relaxed than at the European Championships, as we are at the Deauville International Festival, where Team Girls (players under 26) was invited by Alain Bekerman, the festival president.
I went there with Zoey, Elise, Maeva and Eulalie to play in the Patton teams event, the pairs IMP event and finally the mixed pairs event, which I played with Colin (I will not say much about it because I made one mistake after another, and we had a very poor result because of me).
Here is our Patton team, with Alain on the right of the photo. He kindly covered our entry fees (as he did for all the juniors) and offered us three nights with half board at the Hôtel Royal. We certainly made the most of it! ✨
The Patton teams event
During the Patton event, I played half the boards with Zoey Mauberquez and the other half with Elise Nugues. They are both members of the French Girls team, and we actually became European champions together two years ago 👑
I am going to tell you about a defensive deal on which I could have defeated the opponents’ game, but I did not find the winning play at the table (warning: this deal is difficult!). I am sitting South:
I led the Queen of Hearts against 4♠. Before the opening lead, I knew I was going to take three spade tricks, since I could see two spades in dummy. I still had to find the fourth defensive trick (spoiler: I did not manage it).
After winning with the Ace of Hearts, East (Marc Mus) played a spade, then left me on lead with the Jack of Spades after the bad news of the 4-0 spade break. And this is where everything was decided. I thought that he had not tried to ruff a heart, so perhaps he had no particular reason to do so, maybe because the clubs were running… I knew my partner held an honour in a minor suit, and I was more inclined to place it in clubs than diamonds because she had played the 2 of Hearts on the opening lead, then discarded another small heart (a suit-preference signal for the lower-ranking suit).
But I could not picture all four hands, nor find the winning defence of cashing the Ace of Spades before playing the King of Diamonds. That line would have prevented declarer both from ruffing a heart and from establishing the clubs with a finesse against the King, because there would no longer have been an entry to reach them!
By playing a diamond without first cashing the Ace of Spades, I failed to stop declarer from ruffing a heart and therefore handed over the tenth trick. It was very difficult to find at the table, and I was already pleased to spot the solution once the result had been entered into the Bridgemate…
At the Deauville Festival, all entry fees are redistributed to the participants as prizes or cash awards.
The Patton event is played over three days, with the first two serving as qualifying rounds. The aim is to reach the strongest possible group of four teams. There are six groups: the “Aces Group” followed by five others.
We ended up in Group 6, where we played ten boards against each of the other three teams to determine the final standings.
By finishing third in the last group, the five of us shared €230!
Pairs IMPs: an unusual format
I played this IMP event with Elise, with whom I am not at all used to playing. We had already had a small system misunderstanding during the Patton event: Elise opened 2♦ Multi (showing six cards in an unspecified major), right-hand opponent bid 2♥, and I doubled, thinking we played it as “pass or correct”—meaning she would pass with hearts and bid 2♠ otherwise. Unfortunately, she played the double as penalty… 2♥ doubled plus one, so we did not score many points on that board! 😉
All of that meant we were much better prepared for this one-day IMP event. It is a fun format in which you have to work out how to defeat games, push a little when deciding whether to bid game or slam… and where losing an overtrick is not too costly.
We started with an interesting competitive auction for everyone at the table.
I was sitting West. Elise opened 1NT and the opponents came in with 2♦ Multi. I then bid 2♥, showing five cards in the suit and a desire to play there (a non-forcing bid). North bid 2♠, and it was my turn again. I decided to make a take-out double: if my partner bid 3♥, I would know she had support, and with my spade void I would then have ten distributional points instead of my original seven! That is exactly what happened, so I bid game and made it.
Our opponents were not very competitive, as they could also make a major-suit game their way… and should have reached it by applying the Law of Total Tricks.
Pushing to game to win IMPs!
We played this deal against festival president Alain Bekerman, who was partnering Marc Bompis, a senior silver medallist two weeks earlier. Despite Alain’s kindness towards us, Elise was determined to score as many points as possible against this excellent pair! Here was her hand in East, and what she thought:
I chose to bid 3♥ over 2♦. It may not have been the best bid, but I thought that, as we were vulnerable, we should not miss game.
Mr Bekerman led a trump, and I could now see dummy. I realised that we were going to lose two club tricks and two diamond tricks.
I played the 8 from dummy and won with the Jack in my hand. I decided to draw a second round of trumps, and the Queen appeared. I then played a small heart towards the 10 so that I could be in dummy to lead towards my club honours and potentially establish one of them to discard a diamond.
North won with the King of Clubs and returned the Queen of Diamonds. I played the Ace, and South followed with the King, to avoid blocking the suit if partner held Q-J-9.
The appearance of the King was excellent news. I would now lose only one diamond and therefore make my contract: I could discard one spade on the Jack of Clubs and another on the established diamonds.
We therefore made 4♥ exactly, and only a very small number of pairs had bid game, allowing us to score 9 IMPs. To defeat the contract, it’s Ace of Clubs and King of Diamonds, or the lead of the doubleton King of Diamonds at trick one—an impossible choice without any information, especially with the points on the right!
Elise and I finished joint sixth in the pairs IMP event, and we would have won it had we not played 7♠ down one with a heart loser… (we were both at fault on that deal).
An excellent performance nonetheless, out of 180 participating pairs! 🔥 I should also mention that attendance at the festival increased significantly, with 224 pairs in the Open and 80 teams in the Patton event… a resounding success!
At a festival, bridge is only played in the afternoon… leaving plenty of time to enjoy the beach in the morning and evening!
My most forgivable mistake while partnering Colin in the mixed pairs
Your turn to play!
You will be able to see my score at the end of the deal. I played this board opposite Colin Deheeger, the Under-31 world champion :).
Zoey shares some deals from the mixed pairs!
Hi everyone, Zoey here! I am going to show you two deals from the Deauville mixed pairs.
I was lucky enough to take part in the festival with my father, Erick Mauberquez. My mother, Donatella Halfon, who was playing with Michel Bessis, won the festival. Here is a deal my mother played as South.
From her partner’s double, my mother knew that he held four spades.
The opening lead was the 10 of Spades, covered by dummy’s King and North’s Ace. North then returned a small diamond, won by declarer’s Queen, while South followed with a small diamond.
This diamond return allowed declarer to place the Ace and King of Diamonds with North. In addition, the lead of the 10 of Spades located the Ace and Jack of Spades with the same player. Since the Queen of Hearts was the only remaining honour, it was probably with South to justify the 1♥ bid.
My mother therefore played the 10 of Hearts from hand. South covered with the Queen, won by dummy’s Ace. She then cashed the Jack of Hearts, and North’s 9 appeared: all her hearts were now winners. She next cashed her five club winners, followed by her two heart winners, forcing North to discard the Ace and King of Diamonds in order to keep the Jack of Spades. She could then score the Jack of Diamonds and finish with twelve tricks.
She is not France’s top female player for nothing! 😉
To finish, a deal played opposite her father, Erick…
On this second deal, we played 3NT after the following auction: 1♦ – Pass – 3NT. I decided to bid 3NT so that I would receive the opening lead and protect my doubleton Queen of Hearts.
The 10 of Hearts was led. I played a small heart from dummy, and North followed with the 5. Since the suit was divided 5-3, I thought the diamonds were quite likely to be split 3-1 in defence.
I therefore played the Jack of Diamonds from my hand. When it was not covered, I decided to play the Ace and then lead another diamond towards the 10.
While cashing the diamonds, I deliberately discarded dummy’s clubs first to give the defenders the impression that I had no interest in the suit. This allowed me to score my 6 of Clubs after East discarded twice from the suit. I was therefore able to make ten tricks and leave the table smiling!
See you soon, Deauville! 🧡
We had a wonderful time in Deauville, and we would once again like to thank the festival for inviting us in recognition of our recent international results and for supporting youth bridge.
If you enjoyed our article, please let us know in the comments—it would mean a lot to Zoey and me!
