Pre - Bulletin

Peter Fredin, the sixty thousand dollar man

Sweden’s Peter Fredin, playing here with Dutch star Jan Jansma, has quite a reputation. First of all, he is a great player. For instance, his latest success was winning the Yeh Brothers Cup in Taiwan last week. His team gratefully collected sixty thousand $US.

Peter Fredin makes more noteworthy moves, making him an ideal player for bridge journalists. It all started at the 1997 European Championships at Montecatini. Four spades, bid by his German opponents, was passed round to Peter. He doubled for penalties as he had four sure trump tricks. A solid double? Not quite. The Germans ‘escaped’ to seven clubs, which turned out to be ironclad (vulnerable). This marked the beginning of the Fredin double era.

Quite a few Fredin doubles and redoubles came along in the following decade. Peter handed your editor one of his latest creations from last year’s Cavendish Pairs. Playing with Mike Moss and very much in contention for the big money, the pair met Bertheau and Nyström in the last session. The scene was set: three Swedes and a New Yorker all ready for the slaughterhouse. Both sides were vulnerable and Peter heard his partner open the bidding with Two Spades (Muiderberg-ish). Bertheau (RHO) overcalled Three Clubs and Peter jumped to Five Spades on:

  K 7 6 4 3 2
  K 10 8 6
  9 6 2        
  -

Much to Peter’s surprise, Nyström (LHO) bid Six Hearts, which was passed round to him and he doubled. The rest, of course, is according to the script with Peter Fredin at the table. The opponents ran to Seven Clubs, doubled by Moss and made by Bertheau. The full lay-out:

West / Both
	-   9 4   7 5 4            A K Q J 10 8 7 2
A Q J 9 5        3    J 10 8 3    9 6 3		K 7 6 4 3 2    K 10 8 6    9 6 2    -
	10 8    A Q J 7 5 2    A K Q    5 4

Moss-Fredin finished tenth in Las Vegas. In the money, but the difference between Six Hearts undoubled minus one and the actual result amounted to exactly sixty thousand dollars.

Saturday, February 16th, 2008
Red and White groups

The WHITT16’s format is that there is a round robin on Friday and Saturday. The field is divided into two groups:

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

Dutch Juniors A  (Bob Drijver-Merijn Groenenboom, Jacco Hop-Vincent de Pagter) won today the qualifications for the upcoming  White House Teams Top 16. The Juniors are therefore entitled to battle the world bridge top on February 22-24, 2008 in Amsterdam.
The results of the qualifications: 1. Juniors A 55 vips,  Dutch ladies 47, Viva 41 and Juniors B 37.