The Dorks won Finnish Open Team Championships

Tuomo Väliaho's report from the 2024 Finnish Teams Championships (2024-06-16 12:41:38)

The Finnish Open Team Championships were played on the 4th and 5th of May at Bridge Areena in Helsinki. The winning team was simply baptized as Dorkat (The Dorks). Dorkat led the two-day tournament from the beginning and won the title with a notable margin. The champions are: Juha Granström, Erik Hansson, Castor Mann, Mauri Saastamoinen and Ronan Valentine.

This was the first time that the Finnish championships had been won by a foreign player. In fact, there were two of them: Castor Mann, a Swedish junior, and Ronan Valentine, who is Scottish. Erik Hansson has both Finnish and Swedish citizenship and even Granström has dual citizenship being also a citizen of the USA. However, it is easy to predict that foreign names will become less rare in Finnish bridge in the future because of the country’s low birth rate and increased immigration.

Castor Mann and Erik Hansson have played together since 2015 and together have won titles in World, European and Nordic Junior Championships, representing Sweden. Ronan Valentine has won the Junior Camrose for Scotland. Erik Hansson studies economic sciences, and Ronan Valentine is a teacher living in Finland. Castor Mann studies information technology and lives in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. Erik and Castor have taken their first steps in professional bridge. The photo is from Atlanta where the Fall NABC tournament was held in 2023.

The Team’s name, Dorkat, was not chosen by accident. When you take a bunch of young players and add in one older geezer (56-year-old Saastamoinen), you will certainly get some action at the table. Some of the antics could even be described as unusual, weird or just dorky. This next deal proves the point.

Sitting in the East chair, Erik Hansson was dealt with ♠86 ♥K10843 ♦K64 ♣QJ5. He passed, as did the next player, before Castor Mann opened 1NT in third seat (east-west vulnerable). 1NT showed 15-17 HCP. Hansson bid a two-diamond transfer to show his heart length and was surprised to hear partner pass! Umm, it seemed that 1NT was not a normal notrump opening after all... North reopened with two spades and after two passes Mann doubled. Hansson fell into the tank. There had to be a reason for partner’s strange action...

In an earlier match, Mann had already opened a third-seat-vulnerable 1NT, causing the opponents to miss a minor suit game, with ♠xx ♥AQJxxxx ♦xxx ♣x. The reopening double promised at least a little more, Hansson thought. Nevertheless, he decided to take the safe road and bid three diamonds. The whole deal was:

        ♠KQJ53
EW      ♥J7
East    ♦97
        ♣AK72
♠A92            ♠86
♥A              ♥K10843
♦AJ8532         ♦K64
♣843            ♣QJ5
        ♠1074
        ♥Q9652
        ♦Q10
        ♣1096    

In this case, 3NT makes due to a favourable diamond-split. In the post mortem Hansson thought that he should have investigated and bid three spades. His reasoning was that if Mann had a seven-card diamond suit (!) and a spade stopper, 3NT would be a good contract. ”Next time I’ll be awake, when Castor tries his gimmicks,” Hansson commented.

In the next deal, it was Mauri Saastamoinen’s turn to make a bid in true Dorkat style. Juho Granström opened one club sitting west (north-south vulnerable) and Saastamoinen replied one heart with: ♠8 ♥98652 ♦53 ♣KQJ94. Granström rebid one spade. What would you do in Saastamoinen’s shoes?

Whatever you thought, you probably would’t find the bid Saastamoinen did. He jumped to five clubs! It is something you could expect from a beginner — or a dork — but Saastamoinen had his reasons.

He knew that his partner had an unbalanced hand and a five-card club suit (the partnership opens one diamond with 4=4 in the minors). If Granström had a minimum, he did not have three-card heart support. At worst, he had 4=2=2=5, but he could also have 4=1=3=5 (or even a six-card club suit). If partner had short hearts, the vulnerable game could make with as little as the spade ace, the diamond king and the club ace. Granström, of course, could still have extras. In the pair’s system, a one-spade rebid can be even stronger than in standard bidding because a jump rebid to two spades is artificial.

First, Saastamoinen thought about bidding four clubs, but the partnership hadn’t discussed the meaning of that bid. In addition, even if Granström interpreted it to show an invitational two-suiter, he probably would not value his heart shortness, if he had one. To Saastamoinen’s surprise, Granström bid six clubs. Indeed, Granström had a true maximum for his rebid: ♠K932 ♥AK ♦AQ ♣A10652. This was the deal:

        ♠QJ106
NS      ♥Q743
West    ♦J1083
        ♣3
♠K932           ♠8
♥AK             ♥98652
♦AQ             ♦53
♣A10652         ♣KQJ94
        ♠A754
        ♥J10 
        ♦K9764
        ♣87     

Slam was excellent because north was on lead and the diamond suit was well-controlled. North actually led the diamond jack into Granström’s tenace, but it didn’t matter. South had both the spade ace and the diamond king, so the slam always makes. However, Saastamoinen-Granström were the only pair to find it.

Dorkat mixed their pairs during the tournament. In the next deal, Ronan Valentine played with Castor Mann. Valentine opened one club which got Mann on his toes: he was looking at ♠AKQ10975 ♥KJ97 ♦5 ♣Q in his hand. Mann replied one spade and saw his left-hand opponent jump to three diamonds. Valentine bid four clubs.

Mann thought that his partner couldn’t have much wastage in diamonds because he didn’t bid 3NT. The Swede decided to forget his nationality for a moment, using ”Norwegian” slam-bidding style, by promtply jumping to six spades. Valentine helped declarer with a nice collection: ♠84 ♥A52 ♦63 ♣AK10762. Spades behaved, and the slam was made, but no IMPs were swung. Only two other pairs found the slam, one of them at the other table of the match.

Despite all of the extravaganza, Dorkat could also use highly technical methods. Granström-Saastamoinen and Hansson-Mann play a complicated, but very efficient, relay system. The latter pair was able to put it to good use in the deal that would be good material for The Challenge of the Champs. There is a grand slam in hearts–but how to bid it?

W / E–W
♠KJ653 ♠A9
♥KJ102 ♥AQ943
♦A8   ♦32
♣K7   ♣AQ103

Mann opened one spade as west, and Hansson started relaying with two clubs. The auction continued:

1♠–2♣
2♥–2♠
3♣–3♦
3♥

After three asking bids, Hansson knew that Mann had 5=4=2=2 shape and 14+ HCP. Next, Hansson set hearts as trump with four clubs, and Mann bid four diamonds to show positive values. Hansson asked about key-cards with four spades and found two without the heart queen. Hansson figured that if Mann had ♠Kxxxx ♥Kxxx ♦Ax ♣Kx, grand slam would be excellent. On the other hand, if partner had ♠KJxxx ♥KJxx ♦AK ♣xx, it relied on a club finesse, or spades 3-3 on a non-club lead, and that wasn’t good enough.

Fortunately, there were still tools to use. Hansson asked for kings with five spades, with Mann showing the spade king with 5NT. He checked for the club king with six clubs. Mann had the wanted honor and bid seven hearts. This was a winning board, as the opponents in the other room settled for six hearts.

In the next deal, Saastamoinen had a chance to shine. He heard a pass from his right and passed with ♠64 ♥1093 ♦AK103 ♣10843. His left-hand opponent opened one spade, and Saastamoinen saw his partner, Ronan Valentine, jump to three clubs. The opponent on the right doubled. What would you bid with Saastamoinen’s cards?

Saastamoinen knew that Valentine’s three clubs could be very aggressive, but he still decided to drive the auction to the five-level. However, he did not raise clubs immediately. He chose to jump to four diamonds, to give partner information about the lead. This was the whole auction:

N     E     S     W
Pass  Pass  1♠   3♣
X     4♦    4♥   Pass
Pass  5♣    5♥   All pass

Valentine was on the lead against five hearts and held: ♠J953 ♥J ♦94 ♣KQJ962. Thanks to partner’s four-diamond bid, he chose the diamond nine instead of the club king.

        ♠Q7
NS      ♥7654
West    ♦QJ762
        ♣A7
♠J953           ♠64
♥J              ♥1093
♦94             ♦AK103
♣KQJ962         ♣10843
        ♠AK1082
        ♥AKQ82
        ♦85
        ♣5      

The diamond lead was a killer. Saastamoinen took the diamond king and ace, before playing a third round of the suit. Declarer was helpless; if he ruffed small, Valentine could overruff. If he ruffed high, a trump trick would be established for the defence. Declarer opted to ruff high. When trumps split 3–1, Saastamoinen’s heart ten became a third trick for defense. On this deal, +50 was a lonely marking for the east-west’s side. Other declarers in 4♥or 5♥made their contracts easily.

In team photo are the Finnish team champions 2024 (from left to right): Juho Granström, Ronan Valentine, Mauri Saastamoinen, Erik Hansson and Castor Mann. Valentine is holding her baby girl Emeli. Emeli didn't attend the tournament (because she is too smart to play for The Dorks...).

Medalists of the Finnish Open Team Championships 2024 are:
1. Dorkat (Erik Hansson, Mauri Saastamoinen, Ronan Valentine, Juho Granström, Castor Mann): 108,51 points
2. Salonen (Kauko Koistinen, Jari Salonen, Jouni Juuri-Oja, Clas Nyberg, Vesa Fagerlund): 93,88 points
3. Piraija (Pia Erkkilä, Raija Tuomi, Pekka Viitasalo, Mika Salomaa, Markku Pekkinen, Jorma Valta): 70,52 points

Tuomo Väliaho

Photos: home albums of Mauri and Erik

Erik Hansson, Castor Mann
Granström, Valentines, Saastamoinen, Hansson, Mann

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