kaapo: Finnish Pairs Final is about to resume kaapo: Welcome back kaapo: We are in Vaasa Western-Finland at Vasa Bridgeklubb's playing venue Bridge-Center kaapo: The operators are Juho Granström and Pinja Pyykkönen, who are taking turns zebutin: so of to last 5 rounds... kaapo: Rehi Seppo Sauvola zebutin: Timo Sairanen and Osmo Haljoki from Oulu playing against leaders kaapo: The web site is at http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/index.php kaapo: Antti (N) and Tiina (S, lady) Elsinen are on top kaapo: Timo Sairanen (W) - Osmo Haljoki (E) were 16th after R30 with just over 50% zebutin: yes, they have had bit of a hard time last rounds, diving towards bottom of standings kaapo: Hi also to Pekka Viitasalo, who we hope will continue to make an occasional remark bagman: This was playing against the odds kaapo: Osmo and Timo are from Oulu, Northern-Finland, as is Seppo, so you should know these guys well bagman: Should have played the T, if that loses, she has fluid entry position in clubs zebutin: im just hoping they dont get too nervous playing under the vugraph lights... bagman: according to the law of restricted choice there is a much bigger chance that the !CQ is singleton than it is from QJ doubleton bagman: She has still time to attack the spades kaapo: The Elsinens as well as Koistinen - Nyberg have lots of experience playing on vugraph. They might get some advantage playing here bagman: She cannot play clubs now bagman: because defense could have set up a heart bagman: Lucky make with misplay and couple of misdefenses :) zebutin: well, not optimal on either side... kaapo: NS play 14-16 NT with 4-card majors zebutin: i think Haljoki will bid this atleast on 3!H... bagman: South's negative X was on the aggressive side zebutin: well, no double no trouble... bagman: South was probably happy that East saved her from guessing what to do to 3!D zebutin: !H 5? bagman: It was unlikely that there was a duck from Ax or Qx zebutin: most likely doesnt matter, because elsinen has to play !D or !C now... would have lost 2 !C otherwise... zebutin: but still weird bagman: NS were in quite a deep trouble when in 3!D so I guess they are very happy with that +100 kaapo: 1NT = 14-16 bagman: West cannot play clubs profitably zebutin: good !S shift, couple give something to think about... bagman: No North must play the Q or A bagman: even the 7 is tempting to protect the spade zebutin: if small, !C back and were rolling bagman: There is a strip squeeze coming bagman: !Sk cannot be blank behind bagman: must discard a spade now kaapo: East would lead 9 from QT9 so North is sure West has the Q zebutin: well done bagman: well played after the revealing lead kaapo: 3-board rounds in this competition kaapo: So this was the end of round 31 kaapo: Results after R30 are here http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/results.php kaapo: We should have a very interesting round coming soon kaapo: Elsinen - Elsinen will continue here kaapo: and unless I'm mistaken, they should play against Kari Noponen - Mikko Toivonen who are currently 3rd kaapo: Noponen - Toivonen have made an appearance on the vugraph once already. It was early on Saturday. Koistinen - Nyberg got a pretty good table from them kaapo: After that they've been playing much better, and we can hope to see a good performance in their second visit here kaapo: So Kari Noponen (W) - Mikko Toivonen (E) vs Antti (N) and Tiina (S) kaapo: EW play 5-card majors with some cadgets of their own zebutin: !H lead... bagman: North happy to X with his defensive hand bagman: this is par as 4!S can be held to 10 tricks with minor suit lead zebutin: still seems like -3 zebutin: nor can crossruff quite a lot zebutin: nor=now bagman: This might be -3 but I believe in -2 or even less bagman: the clubs are breaking so declarer can set up the dummy zebutin: now -1 it seems bagman: Now declarer takes the rest bagman: Vugraph effect? kaapo: Noponen would likely lead the singleton club against a spade contract and then should be able to lead away from !HAQJ to get the ruff bagman: now the !DK and bagman: !H9 scores bagman: NS were really lucky here bagman: brb kaapo: Apparently 2!C was something in the Gazilli-style, but 3!C looks a bit odd then kaapo: I think most Wests will open 1NT and play in 1 or 2 kaapo: So this looks to be another good result for NS kaapo: Normally in Gazilli, East would bid 2!D to show 8+ and then pehaps West could bid 2NT to show 15-16 NT kaapo: 6NT by West perhaps kaapo: Some Souths might bid 4!S here, and I quite expected West to bid 3NT with some extras and double stop kaapo: Our operator considers 3!H from South, but I think she should have a little more cards for that bagman: this round might give the title to NS kaapo: R31 results are there http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/results.php kaapo: Elsinen - Elsinen 1915 and Niemmi - Valta 1864 kaapo: So they were getting very close kaapo: But this round was clearly excellent for the leaders kaapo: Koistinen - Nyberg 3rd after R31 kaapo: Next round I believe with players from Salo, Jarmo Laakso - Veijo Lösönen kaapo: R32 Jarmo Laakso (N) - Veijo Lösönen (S) vs Antti and "Tintti" kaapo: Oh dear, there comes the errors, sorry Pinja :) kaapo: 2!C 4th suit forcing to game kaapo: I'd play a jump to 4NT as a quantitative invite to slam here bagman: Now she's forced to bid the slam without a club control kaapo: With !D support, you can bid 3!D and RCKB later bagman: sorry partner, no problem :) kaapo: How good a result was that? kaapo: With 6!H also a make bagman: generally a slam is at least 50% kaapo: 11 tricks now kaapo: South could take ace and return a heart but that's difficult kaapo: R32 http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/results.php kaapo: 2001 MP versus 1915 kaapo: Strong club kaapo: And positive 1!D kaapo: 1!H would be the negative response for NS kaapo: And from 1!S and up they'd show controls, so I think 1!H denies 3 controls (A=2, K=1) kaapo: *1!D kaapo: Again there's also a heart fit but the contract is in diamonds kaapo: This time it's much better that way, of course kaapo: 99 boards have been played, 6 remain kaapo: South could have the perfect hand with !DK and !HK so 7!D was also possible from North's point of view kaapo: Perhaps he could've shown his void via a splinter to try for the grand kaapo: Next we should see Elsinens against Raimo Honkavuori - Ranan Rimon kaapo: We have two sponsors kindly paying for the expenses of the vugraph operators. Their banners are at our web site http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/ kaapo: Unfortunately we couldn't find the correct drivers for the webcam, so we had to give that up kaapo: At least from the BBO point of view, this competition has been running very smothly kaapo: Lots of thanks to the tournament director, Paul Martinsson for running it kaapo: The Bridgemate scoring devises cannot easily handle tournaments with this many boards kaapo: And without much help outside, Paul have survived it very well kaapo: The competition has been played in Vaasa, at Vasa Bridgeklubbs playing locale Bridge-Center kaapo: Thanks a lot also for everyone involved there: Tack! kaapo: We should soon switch to R34 kaapo: We'll see two pairs from Hämeenlinna kaapo: Raimo Honkavuori (N) - Ranan Rimon (S) vs Antti (E) and Tiina (W) kaapo: Honkavuori recently won the Finnish mixed pairs with her wife kaapo: Some might just overcall 1!S on the North cards kaapo: He does have 18 high but !HQJ stiff are bad kaapo: Also South's 1!S is odd, I'd just bid 1NT even though the !H stop isn't the best kaapo: Of course bidding 1NT might turn out badly if I ended up at 3NT bagman: Declarer is going to lose a club and a diamond. -100 might be a good score as there's a fast route to 3NT -2 bagman: Actually there might be a heart diamond squeeze bagman: for 10 tricks kaapo: It does look like that. Give up a club now bagman: Declarer needs to duck a club for the squeeze to operate bagman: now a diamond switch breaks the squeeze kaapo: If he takes it in dummy, there's no entry any more kaapo: And now dummy is squeezed first if he plays on !S kaapo: Overcalling 1NT looks better here than bidding those bad diamonds bagman: 3!S would have gone down on a top defense so NS are not scoring well for -1 kaapo: R33 is there http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/results.php kaapo: EW play 4-card majors so West cannot be sure of an 8-card fit bagman: This is likely to go down as declarer loses !C, !S and two hearts bagman: A club back now might give chance for misplay bagman: Declarer is playing the !HA to be right bagman: Now there is a squeeze bagman: or declarer can take trump and ruff a heart bagman: or finesse the hearts kaapo: Well, that was round 34 kaapo: Boards are getting few before they're all out bagman: EW probably scored at least average for the three boards cenglund: I Can be made by two rounds of trumps and ruffing finesse in diamonds retaining J of spades as an entry to established diamonds kaapo: We should see old national team players Pesonen - Stubb here for the last round kaapo: Hi Christer! I see you've gotten the boat ready :) kaapo: Where are you going to sail (or sailed to)? cenglund: Sure, it's in a mothbag now (tarpaulin) bagman: Not if south returns the !DQ kaapo: Or end of the sailing season? kaapo: Tiina Elsinen was in the ladies team when Finland took silver in this summer's Nordics in Turku kaapo: In Nordics play Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and the Faroe Islands bagman: Tiina Elsinen has quite a many Nordic medals; Antti Elsinen has one silver from 1984 Elsinore kaapo: Finland has been doing pretty well there. The open team took bronze this year, and previously in Lillehammer Norway we were the best of all kaapo: Pekka was in the bronze team this year, congrats to you too kaapo: Last round should start any time now kaapo: And we try to keep transmitting until we have the final results kaapo: This board might offer potential for swings kaapo: West is Jukka Pesonen, East Sakari Stubb kaapo: I've been announcing the player names mostly so that a record is kept in the vugraph archives cenglund: Bad break in spades kills the slam despite Sp K onside kaapo: Which you'll find here http://web04.bridgebase.com/vug/?C=M;O=D bagman: Only with a diamond lead bagman: now declarer can draw trumps and score 4 spades, 5 clubs and 4 red tricks bagman: there is an entry problem -> cannot draw trumps kaapo: Current standings http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/results.php bagman: South needs to duck !ST cenglund: There is an entry problem to draw trumps bagman: Then declarer is unable to draw trumps cenglund: 11 tricks on correct defence bagman: Now declarer might get only 10 tricks bagman: South needs to ruff and play a diamond cenglund: I guess the score is yet good for E-W bagman: 6NT makes cenglund: Not so good any more cergal: time to congratulate mr. and mrs. Elsinen I suppose. cenglund: Depends on how many times 6Sp has been played kaapo: A kib says we should already congratulate Mr. Mrs. Elsinen bagman: The raise was unnecessary kaapo: They had 2121 MPs after R34 vs 2042 of Niemi - Valta cenglund: Not necessarily if S pulls a double bagman: NS are probaly scoring well on this one, too cenglund: 3Sp is cold kaapo: Last board coming up kaapo: Thanks Juho Granstöm and Pinja Pyykkönen, our marvellous operators kaapo: And SBL and Vasa BK for organising kaapo: BBO for letting as broadcast kaapo: Commentators: Pekka Viitasalo, Seppo Sauvola, Christer Englund + Kippari kaapo: And all the kibs and players bagman: EW can probably make 4!S bagman: At least with this lead they can make it cenglund: At least on this lead bagman: this is going to be 650 and a bad board for NS kaapo: The results will be posted at http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/results.php soon after the round finishes kaapo: We try to keep that table open till then cenglund: On a heart lead declarer needs to guess spades, the percentage play is finesse bagman: North trying to create something with the !Q play bagman: He knows that he probably blew a trick with the lead bagman: now this is practically over cenglund: Now it's 11 tricks, for sure bagman: ??? cenglund: Now, this went beyond my imagination cenglund: Why not SpJ? bagman: North got his trick back cenglund: Why not SpJ kaapo: So this might be an OK board too for the leaders bagman: W was afraid that N had AQ bare of spades and there was diamond ruff coming kaapo: So it seems quite safe to congratulate Antti and Tiina Elsinen for winning the pairs champs 2009 bagman: that woud have been so deep game that defenders require to set the contract cenglund: That would have been to far-fetched defence bagman: Especially there was a legitimate play to beat it kaapo: More vugraph action still to come today, from India and England kaapo: Full schedule is it http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php bagman: thx all; been an interesting day kaapo: We have two sponsors paying the BBO operators' expenses. Their banner can be found at http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/index.php . Final results will also be there soon kaapo: But we try to announce them here at the table too cenglund: I suppose the winners won by a substantial margin cenglund: They played wery well when I watching, but this did not go for the opposition who were very, very generous kaapo: Elsinens have played good bridge throughout the tourney, with just small mistakes bagman: to win this tournament one needs to play well and be a bit lucky cenglund: In pairs competrition like this you need also tailwind to win, usually good play is not enough bagman: because if you are only playing well there is always a pair both playing well and being lucky kaapo: and we have the results! Congrats Antti and Tiina Elsinen! http://bridgefinland.com/sm/pari09/results/35.html kaapo: Matti Niemi - Jorma Valta second kaapo: Kauko Koistinen - Clas Nyberg third kaapo: Thanks a lot all kaapo: We'll close for now kaapo: Kiitos ja hei bagman: thx, bye