The tiara for the Mixed at the Pula Festival!

A new partnership, thanks to Team Funbridge!

For the first time, I was able to take part in the Pula Festival, with the other members of Team Funbridge.

We stayed there for the whole week and changed partners throughout, alternating among the 7 members of the team that were there. Léo and I played the Mixed pairs together in one session, which started at 8pm.

It was the first time we were playing together. Alongside the other pairs from Team Funbridge: Andrea-Finn, Federica and Sibrand van Oosten and Sofie playing opposite Pato.

Margaux Kurek-Beaulieu aka
M.K.B.

Léo Rombaut aka
LÉLÉ

Margaux Kurek-Beaulieu aka
M.K.B.

Léo Rombaut aka
LÉLÉ

Link for the article on the Funbridge Team : Team Funbridge is seeking to conquer the world!

A stupid mistake on the first deal

We started off against Patricio Crisafulli Sádaba “Pato” and Sofie Græsholt Sjødal, member of Team Funbridge, all kibitzed by Bąk Wojtek, a young Pole who would stay to encourage us throughout the session.

I was North, on lead against a 2NT contract played by Pato, who was West. My partner had mentioned hearts in the auction, so I led the 5 from his suit. Léo’s king was beaten by Pato’s ace; he then played a club towards the dummy.

Without thinking, I rose with the queen to find Léo with the stiff ace! After the game, I of course told myself that there had been no rush to take the KQ of clubs since I held four of them.

Luckily, after making two clubs, two hearts and four diamonds, Pato did not want to try the spade finesse as, if it failed, he could lose one spade, three hearts and two clubs in all.

My stupidity was therefore compensated for by all those who took the spade finesse to make their eight tricks; or by those who did not overcall 1♥️ with 7 points. Phew!

Luckily, after making two clubs, two hearts and four diamonds, Pato did not want to try the spade finesse as, if it failed, he could lose one spade, three hearts and two clubs in all.

My stupidity was therefore compensated for by all those who took the spade finesse to make their eight tricks; or by those who did not overcall 1♥️ with 7 points. Phew!

One of Léo’s deals, interesting both as declarer and in defence!

(1) 2♦: Multi, either weak with a six-card major or 22-23 points and a balanced hand

(2) 2♥️: “pass or correct”

(3) 3♥️: transfer to spades

Léo: “I received the lead of the 4 of diamonds as 4^th best and I forgot to put in the 9 from the dummy in order to potentially have an entry to the dummy. I therefore found myself in hand with the 8 of diamonds.

I decided to play the king of spades, which East decided to duck: not a good play as I had denied a spade fit, so he knew that I either had KQ bare in spades, or his partner had the queen of spades. With the king of clubs sitting over dummy’s queen, he knew that I had no way of establishing the spades.

I continued with another spade, which West won with the queen. He decided to play a small heart to his partner’s jack, which I won with the ace. I now saw a potential re-entry to the dummy with my 9 of hearts. I therefore played the 10 of hearts to West’s queen; he returned the suit.

Finally in the dummy, I could now start with the queen of clubs to take the working finesse twice. I gave the lead up to West one last time with the king of diamonds, establishing my jack. With West having no more spades, the opponents could not take their ace and I therefore made 10 tricks, one in spades and three from each of the other suits, which earned us a lovely score of 90%.”

As natural as possible!

I chose to open 1♦ with 22 points to simplify the auction. Indeed, by opening 2♣, it would be difficult to describe my hand efficiently in the follow-up, with lots of steps missed if I bid 3♦ over a 2♦ relay!

I therefore preferred to open 1♦ with the aim of reversing next to show a two-suiter with 17-23 points.

I therefore preferred to open 1♦ with the aim of reversing next to show a two-suiter with 17-23 points.

Then, over the weak 3♦, I knew that I had no heart fit and few losers with diamonds as trumps whenever my partner had a doubleton heart or club, a big spade honour or a fitting heart holding! Sometimes, I would even be able to make a grand slam with the perfect hand opposite.

Difficult to know… I therefore simply bid the contract I wanted to play in: that was 6♦, praying to find a fitting hand opposite!

Difficult to know… I therefore simply bid the contract I wanted to play in: that was 6♦, praying to find a fitting hand opposite!

With the ace of spades and doubleton heart, I had a rather nice dummy. The card play is of no great interest with twelve tricks off the top; my greatest chance for a thirteenth was QJ of hearts onside. With the heart honours split, just twelve tricks for the good guys and a good deal for us 🙂

Better at the end than the beginning

I was playing in 2♠ in North on the lead of the queen of spades. The bidding: 1NT by East, Multi 2♦ by Léo, which showed a six-card major, and 2♠ from me (if Léo had spades, I wanted to play at the 2-level; and if Léo had hearts, I wanted to play in game).

I was therefore losing a diamond, two hearts for sure, a club and one or two spades, depending on whether they were 3-3 or 4-2. If the spades were 4-2, I would need to play clubs in order to discard a red-suit loser on my established 10.

I therefore cashed the ace and king of spades and saw a small card fall from East. So, I thought East had QJT-fourth because leading from QJ-third would be very risky. I therefore fell back on the clubs.

I was therefore able to make 2♠ exactly by conceding a club, two spades and two hearts. Finally, the risk of playing another spade was especially high if the 10 of diamonds was accompanying an honour with West, the only way of him gaining the lead to cash his tricks before I could free up the clubs.

You can see that I was more awake at the end of the tournament than the beginning, despite a few glasses of white wine 🍷

We finished the event first, two percentage points ahead and happy with our play overall 🙂

Léo: “We had quite a funny story in this tournament with a lucky-charm kibitzer, Bąk Wojtek, who is a young Pole I have a habit of meeting at youth championships. He had enjoyed too long a party the night before and was in no state to play. He therefore came along to kibitz us! The start was very good for us and he made a fair number of quite funny comments (such as saying “push” at the end of every deal, even when we had got a very good result) and entertained us in-between rounds. Unfortunately, he left in the middle of the session. He came back for the last three rounds, just after two bad tables in a row that we had thought fatal. And we were blessed at the end, which brought us back up to first place! We owe that to our kibitzer!”

Unfortunately, two final 10% rounds cost Andrea and Finn the podium. Nevertheless, they remained in the top 15 of 109 pairs.

By winning the Mixed Pairs, I was able to earn the emblematic tiara at the Pula Festival, awarded each year just to the female winner of the Mixed Pairs 🙂 We also left with a cup each!

Léo: “This was the first time I played opposite Margaux and it was a pleasure! We got on really well and understood each other well in the bridge too; I hope we get the opportunity to win more tournaments together; thanks to her.”