The French National Pairs Division 1 was held on 28-29 September and 5-6 October. Jérôme Rombaut participated with his son Léo. In this article, he talks about some of the deals he played with Funbridge staff member Vincent Gallais.
Put yourself in the shoes of the champions and take part in the discussions too!
Jérôme: Léo chose to jump to 5 diamonds, which I wouldn’t have done, but it’s the winning contract!
Vincent: Nice inspiration from Léo. What would you have done with his hand? In your position, I like to play a variation of Good-Bad: I say 3♣/3♦ with encouraging hands and 2NT (which is a relay to 3♣, then I can pass or say 3♦) with competitive hands.
Jérôme: I would have settled for 4♦️ but Léo explained to me that as his hand was very unbalanced and with few losers, he was making game with very little in my hand as long as I had enough trumps. In this situation, we kept standard bids: 3♣/3♦ with competitive hands, natural 2NT – the base for me 🙂 – and double or cuebid with more powerful hands.
Jérôme: Léo only said 4 clubs, I would have been tempted to take the bid to the next level to get rid of the hand. Unfortunately, he was forced to say 5 clubs (doubled) on the next round when the tray returned with 4 spades.
Vincent: What reasons do you think led him to bid only 4?
Jérôme: 4♣️ shows a nice hand with a big fit, 5♣️ allows to get rid of the hand, 3♥️ indicates both the long heart suit and a club fit but his hand lacked some points 😊. I think that with his diamond void, he could have anticipated a bid in diamonds from opener and therefore saying 5♣️ almost forced opener to bid 5♦️. Whereas after 4♣️ 4♦️, opener’s partner could make the right decision to bid on or not.
Jérôme: Here Léo made a nice double, and I would surely have cracked and bid 3 clubs.
Vincent: Later, Léo succeeded in bidding his clubs at the 4-level, protected by his double which obviously limits his point range. Final contract: 4 clubs on tiptoe!
Jérôme: I chose to pre-empt to 5 diamonds but it was bad timing as my partner had all the cards to defeat 4 spades. Saying 4 diamonds was normal and reasonable. (But I’m not.)
Vincent: If it’s any consolation, you wouldn’t have been the only one if I’d been in the room! With 3 cards in the major and no defensive tricks, it’s hard to imagine that you can take the opponent’s game down…
Jérôme: Here Léo chose to double for take-out, it’s very aggressive. I wouldn’t have done that but it pushes me to play the contract of 2 spades in 4/3, taking advantage of an error made by the opponents in defence.
Vincent: What do you think is missing in Léo’s hand to double? A fourth spade, favourable vulnerability?
Jérôme: Simply not having both a big honour in hearts and only 3 cards in spades. I would have accepted one disadvantage but not both. Once again, however, the deal proved Léo right.
Jérôme: Léo signed off in game after bidding 1NT. I must admit that on this deal, I would have done everything differently, starting by bidding 2 diamonds instead of 1NT and then I would have passed on 3 spades. But well done Léo! The cards speak for themselves. The jack of spades is onside and the contract of 4 spades makes!
Vincent: It is clear that Léo is present at the table! The 1NT rebid seems to have a few advantages anyway: showing the club stop while protecting the king on the lead, avoiding bidding flimsy diamonds but also… leaving room for partner to use two-way checkback! But should it be played in this situation?
Jérôme: No more two-way checkback after an overcall. As soon as a suit has been bid, the cuebid is used with hands looking for 3-card support or asking for a stop. Saying 2♦️ could have made it possible to find a diamond fit and especially with the quality of the hearts, this often leads to the contract of 2♥️ which seems reasonable.
Jérôme: I didn’t want to say 1 heart with 4 diamonds and only 2 clubs on the first round… So, I found myself reopening with 4 cards at the 3-level. The opponents made the right decision by bidding up to 4 diamonds. Unfortunately for us, 3 hearts was a winning contract and guaranteed us a good score.
Vincent: It’s worth noting that Léo has finally found his Pass card! He knew that you had the exact count of diamonds (and therefore knew about his shortage in diamonds), which is enough for you to find a reopening bid by yourself.
Jérôme: The opening of 2 hearts shows 8-12 points with 6 cards. I do not approve this bid by Léo who, in my opinion, should have pre-empted with this hand with no defensive tricks (either 3 hearts or multi 2 diamonds).
Vincent: I’ve never played this opening of 2 hearts. What’s the interest? Finally, although you didn’t think you were defending, it looks like you’ve found a nice defence against 4 spades! What were the opponents doing in this contract?
Jérôme: The advantage of the convention is that you can open all the pre-emptive hands with QJxxxx and a yarborough as well as with AQxxxx and a side-suit king. We therefore have a two-speed weak two: the 3-7 range and the 8-12 one. As this bid is very precise, partner can jump to the final contract directly, which puts enormous pressure on the opponents. On the deal in question, we could make 4♠️ or not. I think it went down on good defence but here are the frequencies: 4♠️ +1: twice, 4♠️ =: five times, 4♠️ -1: three times, 3NT -3: six times. The other 6 defended in clubs.
Jérôme: Léo decided to pass. He could perhaps have invited to game on 2 hearts but in pairs, it’s not easy. In the same situation, Julien Bernard also passed.
Vincent: What’s the point range of the 2 hearts bid? Do you have any tip for showing a weak hand with 6 cards in the major on the minor opening?
Jérôme: The bid of 2♥️ is quite wide, between 5 and 10 points. In response to a minor opening, we play that 2♥️ shows 5 cards in spades and 4 in hearts and that 2♠️ shows a weak hand in spades. So if the major rebid is in spades, this shows an encouraging hand: 8-10 HCP. But in hearts, it’s more flexible.
Jérôme: Léo chose to say 4 hearts, which is his biggest mistake in my opinion. Here the double is compulsory. Of course, I wouldn’t always have 6 cards in clubs and only 2 cards in hearts, but here it was a real jackpot. I had the perfect hand to score a big penalty!
Vincent: Damn it! A missed opportunity… Out of curiosity, on the first round, Léo bid 2 clubs, but what would the 1NT and 2NT bids have meant for you?
Jérôme: 1NT shows a balanced hand of 15-17 HCP. 2NT would show a very unbalanced two-suiter like 6/5 or 6/6 but not very strong in points, rather defensive.
Jérôme: I chose to underlead the jack-ten of clubs, which gave the 11th trick away to declarer. I was looking for the king of clubs in Léo’s hand rather than the queen of hearts, but it came at a bad time…
Vincent: I imagine you were visualising declarer discarding to remove two cards in clubs in the dummy, probably in hearts given the quality of your diamonds! To discard two cards, declarer therefore had to hold ♥KQT8 and therefore Léo ♥7653, a holding with which he would also have led the 6… Perhaps he could help you by leading the 7 on this deal?
Jérôme: Yes, normally with 6 cards, we should lead the second card with no honour and the fifth one with an honour, so rather the 5 of hearts here.
Please review boards 10 & 11. Unless you play counterclockwise I think the lead is in South for board 11. Same situation for 10. Are the N / S hands reversed?
Please review boards 10 & 11. Unless you play counterclockwise I think the lead is in South for board 11. Same situation for 10. Are the N / S hands reversed?
Great article!