Vugraph Deals #141

Marc Smith visits the second day of the Lederer Memorial Trophy 

Ten invited all-star teams congregated at the RAC Club in London for the 2022 Lederer Memorial Trophy. For those who are not familiar with the event, the format is a complete round-robin of nine 10-board matches with a scoring method that is an unusual hybrid of Board-a-Match and IMPs. Each board is scored BAM style, with 2VPs for a win and 1 for a tie, giving a possible total of 20 VPs from each match. The IMP difference is then also converted to VPs on a 15-15 scale and each team’s two VP tallies are added together to produce an overall score for the match with a maximum win of 50-0. 

The pre-tournament favourites, ALLFREY, a team that includes two of the defending champions from the last pre-COVID running of the event two years ago, led overnight with five of the nine matches played. These were the standings going into the Sunday session: 

As usual, we begin with some problems for you to consider. Firstly, with just your side vulnerable, you are South holding: 

What action, if any, do you take?  

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you hold as North: 

What action, if any, do you take? 

Next, with your side only vulnerable, you are sitting East with: 

What do you bid? 

Finally, with just your side vulnerable, you hold as West: 

What action, if any, do you take? 

While you consider those, we start with the action in Round 6, where the BBO VuGraph match featured leaders ALLFREY against GILLIS who, although they had not started well on Saturday, are always dangerous opponents. The action began on the first board, with both South players having to decide how to proceed in some variation of the first problem situation above: 

Partner has shown some values and three-card heart support with his 2♣  cue-bid, but he has then bid only 2♥ after you have shown extra strength with a redouble. The first question is whether South is worth another bid and, if so, what? With poor hearts, a sound club stopper, and most of his values in the two unbid suits, Peter Crouch’s decision to advance with 2NT does not look unreasonable. Whether Erik Berg is worth a raise to game is questionable but, as it turned out, that was only the difference between one down and two.   

Andrew Robson led the ♣J, which held, and continued with a second club to ten, queen and king. When Crouch played ace and another heart next, Alexander Allfrey won with the ♥K and cashed his club winners. Declarer still had a second heart to lose: N/S -200. 

Tony Forrester did not redouble at his second turn, but his decision over Graham Osborne’s 2♥ was essentially the same. Forrester also decided that his hand warranted a further bid, but he chose an invitational heart raise, and Osborne decided he had enough to offer a choice of games with 3♠. Forrester correctly avoided the no-play 3NT, not that game is hearts is exactly a thing of beauty. Perhaps we can conclude that the right answer to the original problem is to pass? 

One of declarer’s problems on this deal is the lack of entries to dummy. With possible finesses to be taken in both black suits, a red suit lead would have sunk 4♥ at trick one, but Fredrik Helness had no reason not to lead his partner’s suit, so he tabled the ♣J. Forrester was now in with a chance, but he was not exactly out of the woods yet.  

Espen Erichsen won with the ♣A and switched to the ♦10. One option is to take the spade finesse through the opening bidder, but how does declarer both reach dummy to take the hook and then get back to cash the ♠A? Forrester’s answer was to play the ♣K and continue with a third round of the suit. When Robson ruffed in with the ♥10 from the West seat, declarer discarded a diamond from dummy. Robson continued with a second round of diamonds and, when East could not ruff this trick, declarer was just about home. A heart to the ace and a second round of trumps cleared that suit, leaving declarer with a trump in dummy with which to ruff his remaining club loser. Declarer had lost just one club and two hearts: N/S an excellent +620 and 13 IMPs to ALLFREY to open the match. 

Our next deal produced some close decisions in the bidding and the chance for an excellent play, perhaps. One North player had to solve the second of this week’s bidding problems: 

How good is this North hand? More to the point, how much of what you have has partner already bid for you. In reality, you have an ace, and that’s about it, as the odds are surely that partner knew about your spade shortage when he came in at the five-level. In theory, Graham Osborne’s raise to 6♥ cost only an extra 50-point undertrick, but it also robbed Forrester of the chance to put some serious pressure on the defenders. Frederik Helness led the ♣Q against 6♥. Forrester won, eliminated the black suits, drew trumps, and essentially conceded three diamond tricks. N/S -100. 

Playing in 5♥, declarer might have given the play options more serious consideration. One line is to simply rely on finding the ♦J with East which, as we can see, fails as the cards lie. Indeed, there is no legitimate way to make eleven tricks on this layout. That does not mean it cannot be done, though. Suppose declarer wins with the ♣A and immediately plays a diamond from dummy. How many East players do you think will rise with the ♦K? Assuming East follows low, whether declarer plays the queen or the eight from his hand, what odds would you give on West winning and returning a low diamond? If West does anything else, declarer can win, draw trumps, eliminate the black suits, and exit with a diamond. The defenders can crash their diamond honours or allow East to win with the singleton king and give a forced ruff-and-discard. Either way, declarer scores eleven tricks.  

The auction began much more sedately at this table, Robson opening 1♠ and Allfrey showing a good three-card spade raise with his 2♥ bid. This allowed Peter Crouch to jump to 4♥. Robson carried on to game and Erik Berg had a fairly clear 5♥ bid. When that came back to Robson, he chose to ignore the ‘five-level belongs to the opponents’ mantra and bid five-over-five. Having said his bit already, Berg had no reason to bid again, and Crouch had an obvious double. The defence had to come to a club and two trumps: N/S +100 and 5 IMPs to GILLIS.  

ALLFREY benefited from the only other double-digit swing when both sides reached 4♣ in a competitive auction. Presumably considering the B-a-M aspect of the scoring, Helness doubled holding A-Q-10 of trumps over the opening 1♣ bidder. When dummy, on his left, turned up with ♣K-J-9-x, though, that was -710 compared to -130 at the other table. GILLIS won the B-a-M 12-8 but ALLFREY edged the IMP result to win 26-24. However, even that narrow win was enough to extend the ALLFREY lead over the field. ANRESEN moved up into second place despite a 22-28 reverse against LONDON as HARRIS went down 17-33 against DeBOTTON.  

The leading scores after six matches are ALLFREY 183, ANDRESEN 165, HARRIS 163, DeBOTTON 159 but ALLFREY has still to play both HARRIS and DeBOTTON. HARRIS has perhaps the toughest remaining schedule: as well as the leaders, they also have to play ANDRESEN and the BBO VuGraph match for Round 7 is their meeting with ENGLAND OPEN. 

There was action aplenty for the large crowd watching live on BBO. Both East players had to answer the third of this week’s problem, and their choice had a huge impact on the result: 

Denis Bilde chose to start with a negative double on the East cards. When Zia rebid his diamonds, Bilde then advanced with a 4♣ cue-bid, agreeing his partner’s suit. Zia cue-bid his spade control and now Bilde rolled out RKCB and found the two missing key-cards but no ♦Q. The 5NT bid confirmed that all key cards were present and presumably invited Zia to bid a grand with extra trump length. 

North led a club. Zia won and played one top diamond noting the fall of the ten from North. Guarding against South holding all of the remaining trumps, Zia then cashed the ♠K, crossed to dummy in hearts, and pitched his club losers on dummy’s high spades. The diamond finesse lost to North’s queen, but that was all the defence could muster. E/W +1370. 

Michael Byrne chose to bid his hearts at his first turn. Kieran Dyke raised and thus locked the English pair into the major suit. Byrne used Blackwood and then confirmed that all key-cards were present via 5NT. That was sufficient for Dyke – if his partner was interested in a grand, he decided that he had what was needed. 

Byrne won the club lead, played a spade to the king, cashed the ♦A and played a trump to hand. He then ruffed his spade loser and drew the remaining trumps. Declarer then cashed all of his remaining winners, coming down to a club and a diamond in his hand, and the ♦K-J in dummy. North was known to hold one diamond and a high club, whilst South had two diamonds left. The odds obviously favoured taking the diamond finesse, so North took the last two tricks: E/W -200 and 16 IMPs to HARRIS. 

Good bidding judgement is sometimes a two-edged sword: even when the operation is a complete success, the patient still dies. Both West players in this match were faced with a variation of this week’s final problem hand: 

Zia showed excellent judgement in dealing with the problem situation, steering his partnership into the only contract that the defence cannot beat. On lead, Mike Bell avoided the ♥A lead, which gives the contract immediately, choosing instead a spade. Unfortunately for the defence, declarer’s spades are just too good, and the ♠8 comes into play. Suppose declarer captures North’s ♠10 and returns the ♠8 to the queen. He can then win a diamond switch with the king, cross to dummy in trumps, and take a ruffing finesse with the ♠J-9 against North’s king to establish a discard for his second diamond loser. Declarer can produce the same position on an opening trump lead, so perhaps the opening that works for the defence is a diamond? No, that’s no good either – declarer wins the second round of diamonds with the king and immediately plays a third round. The thirteenth diamond in dummy is then established and, after drawing trumps, away goes declarer’s spade loser. 

At the table, though, the spade lead was just good enough. North played the ten and declarer won with the ace. When North later gained the lead with the ♠Q, he switched to a low diamond and declarer misguessed, ducking to South’s queen. With two red aces still to come, the defence had four tricks: E/W -100. 

Surely Zia deserved at least a flat board for his excellent judgement, and it seemed things were heading that way until one of the Swedish stars made an unfortunate choice. 

Mikael Rimstedt entered with a jump overcall in hearts, and Kieran Dyke showed his spades via a negative double. When Ola Rimstedt’s raise to 3♥ came back to him, Dyke was in a position similar to Zia at the other table. Dyke’s solution was a value-showing double, and with a solid heart stopper the 3NT bid by Michael Byrne was clearcut.  

Looking at all four hands, it is clear that leading the ♥J against 3NT leaves declarer with no chance. Indeed, if South knew that his partner held four hearts, the jack would be the automatic choice. Here, though, partner could easily have only three hearts, or even a doubleton perhaps. Maybe if partner has Q-x and declarer K-9-x-x and your ♦Q is an entry, for example, it is essential that you lead a low heart rather than wasting the jack at trick one. On the layout at the table, though, Mikael’s opening lead of the ♥3 was disastrous, dummy’s ♥9 winning the trick and leaving declarer with the ♥K-Q. Now declarer just needed to find the ♦A onside to give him nine tricks via five clubs, two hearts, one diamond and one spade: E/W +600 and 12 IMPs to ENGLAND OPEN.  

The rest of the match was one-way traffic, though, HARRIS eventually winning 39-11 to climb back into second place ahead of the Swedes, who also won, but only 29-21 against BLACK. Meanwhile, the gap at the top widened even further, ALLFREY defeating LONDON 42-8. With two matches left to play, these were the standings: 

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the final two matches. Will we be witnessing a coronation of the defending champions, or is there still a twist in the tail with the event drawing to an exciting climax?