The Rombauts third in the French National Pairs Division 1

Let me introduce myself

My name is Léo Rombaut. I am currently a member of the French Junior U26 team, of the French Open team and of Team Funbridge.

You probably know me under the pseudonym ŁéŁé.

Consistency in the French National Pairs Division 1

I would like to talk to you about the National Pairs Division 1, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the French calendar.
This year, because of a change in the tournament calendar, the event arrived earlier than usual in the season. I have played in this tournament four years running now, always with my father, with results that can be considered very good (2^nd – 7^th – 1^st – 3^rd).

The objective this year was not to do better than last year (when we won the event), but rather to build our confidence as we prepared for the World bridge Games in Buenos Aires a few weeks later.

Jérôme Rombaut Léo Rombaut Team Funbridge

This particular pairs competition is by far the most demanding in France. Some 90 boards are played per weekend, meaning 4 hands against each of the best pairs in France. For each of the 44 pairs taking part, apart from wishing to be on the podium at the end, the main objective is to finish in the top 30, in order to be retained for the same event the following year. Those finishing below this threshold are relegated to the second division for the next year.

A shaky start

I shall not be very expansive about the first weekend which did not go very well for us. I had just finished a week of exams (outside bridge, I am studying to become a physiotherapist combining as best I can my two passions) and a few minor irritations between me and my father meant we were not in the best frame of mind for playing. The weekend was a roller-coaster with some very good hands, but also some very bad ones. We finished with 53% on Saturday evening having, at times, been at more than 60%, but frequently below half way.

On Sunday, we started well but the last twenty boards were just terrible – we were glad when it was all over! We finished 23^rd out of 44, with 50.15%, way below what we had been hoping, but totally logical given the way the weekend played out.

An interesting hand from this first weekend

It was the last hand of the Saturday and I had these cards with six clubs but few points.

When East overcalls my father with 1♠, I decided to pass considering I did not have enough strength to mention my clubs (2♣️ would be forcing and would be treated as at least a proposition).

My left-hand opponent offered a cuebid of 2♥️, pass from dad, followed by 2♠ repeated on my right. If I now passed, there was a huge chance that the auction would stop there. With my six fine clubs I decided to bid 3♣️ provoking an immediate double on my left. This did not smell at all good…

As we were vulnerable, going one down would mean 200 for our opponents and probably a very poor score – even a real zero.

The ace of spades was led. Surveying dummy, I could see a faint chance of making the contract by giving up one spade, one diamond and two clubs. But it would need giving it all my attention right to the end. It was clearly one of those hands which could cost us dearly – a top/zero as we bridge enthusiasts say.

After the ace of spades, West played the nine of hearts. It would appear that partner had signalled this suit by playing a suit preference high spade on the ace. Add to this the speed with which the nine of hearts was played and it was clear that the king was offside and that the finesse would not work so I rose with the ace.

I cashed the king and queen of spades, discarding my losing heart, and then started on trumps. East played the ace and led another spade hoping for an uppercut (to promote a trump in partner’s hand which would not have won otherwise). Fortunately, I had good intermediate clubs and, as I had already lost three aces and would probably lose to the queen of clubs, I could not afford to lose another trump. So I ruffed with the 9, my opponent did not over-ruff and discarded a heart (surely the last in that suit).
Now I played towards my king-queen of diamonds, and my left-hand opponent, after a few moments’ thought, played low. My king held.

It was now time to take stock and not play too quickly. Without much thinking, one would probably now play clubs, then lead to dummy’s diamonds. But I saw it coming. If my opponent rises with the ace and then plays a diamond, I am blocked in dummy. This would mean that I have to play hearts and, if the clubs are 4-1 which seems to be the case, I really would face an uppercut and would lose two trump tricks at the end.

After a couple of minutes’ thought, I had found the solution! Leaving my club in dummy, I played hearts myself, ruffing with the 10. Now, if the opponent over-ruffs, that will leave just two trumps in his hand which I can take with my king-jack. If there is no over-ruff (as happened at the table), I could set up an interesting end-game. So I now played a diamond to dummy’s queen. As expected, West rose with the ace and replayed a diamond to dummy’s queen.

So I was now able to play my club, carefully left in dummy, and when East discarded, I played low from hand, allowing West to take the trick. But my opponent was obliged to give me the last two tricks, leading into my king-jack tenace.

Here is the full deal:

I really enjoyed this one and shall no doubt regale my friends with it over dinner.

A more enjoyable second weekend!

The second weekend gets under way. We approached this weekend in a better frame of mind with the objective of getting an excellent score to boost our confidence because, in two weeks’ time, we set off for Argentina to play the World Mind Games as part of the France Open team! Being really competitive, I told my father that I was confident we could be on the podium if we had a good weekend with a bit of luck this time.

The weekend consisted of three sessions, and we started very well with more than 62% in the first session, putting us into 6^th place. There was a rather amusing hand here where I discovered a score I had never seen before – it was against some juniors, of course!

I passed initially, as did my left-hand opponent. My father opened 1♥️, followed by pass on my right. I decided not to jump straight to 4♥️ and chose to bid 2NT, showing my pass to have been a maximum holding with four hearts and a short suit. The tray returned with X and XX from my father. In this situation, his XX indicates he holds a maximum hand and suggests punishing the opponents. In addition, with our opponents being red against green, it looked like a good opportunity.

My right-hand opponent spent a long time thinking before eventually passing. I too passed, being sure my partner had spades. The tray spent ages before returning and, to everyone’s surprise, appeared with no new bids – I was therefore to play 2NTXX! I immediately realised this as one of those hands that produces either a top or a zero but, although confident, I was not 100% sure as my hand was hardly ideal for playing 2NT.

But the sight of dummy after the queen of diamonds lead immediately reassured me. I ducked twice, won the third round and played a heart, hoping and expecting to see one honour card appear.

Bingo, the ace of hearts dropped immediately! North played a diamond and, as the suit was 4-4, I was able to claim nine tricks (four hearts, three spades and the two minor-suit aces): +880! With everyone else in the room having played 4♥️ and even making 2 overtricks, we really stood out. NB: the opponents were a bit groggy since, even if they were to make progress in some hands, they had already had a 500-point loss and this was a top for us.

The right decision

The auction started with 1♠️ from dad and an overcall of 2♥️. I had two possible options here: bid immediately my clubs or double and bid them next time round. Bidding them now would, however, be game-forcing and this worried me a lot with such a fragile hand. So I doubled. Pass on my left, 2♠️ from dad and 3♥️ on my right. Perfectly happy with the auction so far, I was now able to bid 4♣️ with the sentiment of having correctly assessed the situation. The auction ended there.

The auction:

The play was not particularly interesting. In theory, we had four losers with ace-king of hearts, an ace and the king of diamonds. But with the king of diamonds being singleton and our opponents making a mess of their defence, I made 4♣️ +1 and we had a very good score. Afterwards, my father said I had got the bidding right and admitted that he would have bid 3♣️ first time round.

The second session was slightly less successful than the first, but nothing to alarm us. It was more the fact that our opponents caused us more problems than earlier, as seen in the following example of an excellent defence.

Ensure the trump promotion?

We were sitting E/W but we are going to place ourselves in South to explain the winning defensive line, for this description.

The auction:

South leads from the doubleton spade, partner takes this with the king, cashes the ace and plays another spade for us to ruff, with the declarer playing the queen on the 3^rd round. What suit should be led now? You will say that that depends on the card played by partner since, in this situation, it is preferential. With a bit more thought, in this situation the answer is no. Declarer has shown three spades and has surely seven hearts probably headed by ace-king to justify bidding 3♥️ vulnerable and therefore, at best, is 2-1 in the minor suits. North has therefore fairly clearly the two minor aces. South retains Jxx of hearts, which could be a source of tricks if one could organise an uppercut with spades. To achieve this, we needed to remove the queen of hearts in dummy. But if we play a minor and that is the suit where declarer is singleton, when partner plays a heart to remove dummy’s queen, the declarer will return in hand with a ruff to clear trumps and our jack of hearts will be useless.

However, if we play hearts from South, it is 100% certain that we make our jack as we flush out dummy’s queen. Declarer is now obliged to play a minor, putting North on lead who duly plays a spade to promote South’s jack of hearts. This fine defence gave a score of 800, producing a result of 86% on the hand, whereas if it had only been 500, the result would have been close to average at 55%.

At the table, my father bid 3♥️, although he could have settled for 2♥️ given the vulnerability but it was unlucky that we suffered such a good defence here.

We ended this Saturday evening session in a state of shock and fear as our good bridge friend Philippe Molina, also playing in the tournament, suffered an epileptic fit during the penultimate hand and play was instantly suspended and the room evacuated. Priority for everyone’s health. Happily, later that evening, we had reassuring news from the hospital where Philippe would be staying the night for a series of tests. A bit of a scare but nothing serious.

To round off the day, we congregated in the JB, a restaurant close to the Federation, for dinner with our usual group of khos (slang to describe a friend or brother) comprising Batou, Pierrot, Thildou and Clemclem. We were 7^th overall after winning this particular session which augured well for rest of the weekend. As long as we played at least as well the next day!

All’s well that ends well

The final day of the competition passed off quite well and we were close to a medal position some 20 hands from the end, and were even 2^nd with only eight boards to go. Unfortunately, the tournament ended badly for us with a hand where we bid a normal slam, quite logical given the bidding. But our opponents found the killing lead and we were obliged to try a finesse that failed later in the play, so that we went down. With the leaders being too far ahead, our hopes of winning the tournament again were dashed, but we kept in mind that it was important to achieve the best possible result. And why not arrive in a medal position after such a good weekend.

The last hand was almost fatal for us. Whereas 7NT was cold and was bid and made by several pairs, we played 6♥️ after a misunderstanding with my father, something that is fairly rare, it must be said.

Here is the deal and the auction:

I will explain in detail what each bid means in our system and what went on in our heads.

(1) 1♥️: shows an unbalanced hand.
(2) 2♦️: is a game-forcing transfer (Double Two).
(3) 2♥️: indicates a problem with spades (here I did not have a problem in spades but, with Axx, I wanted a possible NT contract to be played from my father’s hand).
(4) 3♠️: not really discussed in this sequence, it should be a “yes but” bid, at least that is what we play now.
(5) 4♦️: second ambiguity so, as dad has already denied controlling spades by not bidding 3NT, 4♦️ is the first indication of spade control.
(6) 4♠️: I now thought that if I had had only control in spades, I would have said 4♠️ on the previous round and that here I showed both control in ♠️ and control in ♦️.
(7) 5♦️: 1 or 3 key cards with hearts as trumps.
(8) 6♥️: as I have announced a control in ♦️, dad’s suit, for me 6♦️ would show a certain strength and length in diamonds, something I wanted to avoid at all costs with only a singleton king.

Unfortunately, we were not on the same wavelength in this hand. Yes, it happens – and it helps us to rediscuss similar sequences and to be better armed the next time.

Fortunately, this accident did not deprive us of a medal because we finished 3^rd, just 0.01 percentage points above the 4^th placed pair. We had too much to make up over the winners because of our poor showing in the first weekend. That’s bridge! But we shall remember the positives – we won this weekend, and finished the tournament with a medal which, by the way, was the only medal that I had yet to win in this competition. In 4 years, we have finished 2^nd, 7^th, 1^st and 3^rd in the most exacting pairs competition in France. This shows a very pleasing consistency, despite our bridge being quite aggressive, which sometimes creates rather fluctuating fortunes in some sessions.