Vugraph Deals #142

Marc Smith visits the final matches 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, had led throughout the competition so far. With just two matches remaining, these were the standings: 

Fittingly, third-placed HARRIS still have to play both of the teams ahead of them, whilst ALLFREY also has a match against the dangerous DeBOTTON team. 

As usual, we begin with some problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are East holding: 

What do you bid?  

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

What do you bid? 

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting South with: 

What action, if any, do you take? 

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you are in the West seat after this start to the auction: 

What do you bid? 

The two BBO VuGraph matches in Round 8 were ALLFREY against DeBOTTON and BLACK vs IRELAND. Both East players in the top-of-the-table match had to deal with the first of the problems above: 

When Alexander Allfrey raised to 3♠, there was little doubt where the auction would end. Artur Malinowski did not double 4♠, but probably only because his opponents were in the one game contract that he was fairly sure was going down.  

A club lead to South’s ace established two discards from dummy on high clubs. Janet DeBotton switched to a diamond, taken by declarer in hand, and a spade to the jack revealed the bad news in that suit. When Robson then led the ♥K from dummy, Malinowski won with the ♥A and exited safely in the same suit. After pitching dummy’s remaining hearts on his high clubs, Robson tried to cash a diamond, but Malinowski ruffed. He had safe club exits, the ruff-and-discard proving no assistance to declarer. North still had to make two more trump tricks: E/W -100. 

After the same start, David Bakhshi raised only to 2♠ on the East cards. Tony Forrester had a clear takeout double at this level, and Thor Erik Hoftaniska redoubled to how his extra values. Graham Osborne bid his clubs and now Bakhshi competed to 3♠. This is not a regular partnership, so both Hoftaniska’s 3NT bid and Bakhshi’s pass of North’s double showed admirable faith in their partner. And quite right they both were too, as 3NT-X proved to be unbeatable with an expert declarer at the helm. 

The ♣J lead was allowed to run around to declarer’s queen. The ♠Q was covered by king and ace, and declarer crossed back to hand with the ♦A to lead a second spade, ducking when North inserted the ♠9. Osborne exited with the ♥10, which ran around to declarer’s queen. Declarer now took the marked spade finesse and cashed the ♠J. Three rounds of diamonds then left South on play. Forrester could cash his two aces, but had then to surrender the ninth trick either to declarer’s ♣K or dummy’s ♥K. Well bid and well played: E/W +550 and 12 IMPs to DeBOTTON. 

The very next deal was another 3NT or major-suit game decision, but this time both games were making. Then came the third bus in a row... 

Arthur Malinowski opened 1♥, rebid his six-card suit over his partner’s 1♠ response, then later showed his three-card spade support. With no eight-card major-suit fit, 3NT is inevitably where such auctions usually finish, and this deal proved no exception. 

Robson led a club to dummy’s bare ace, and declarer crossed to the ♥A, unblocking that suit. To make the contract, declarer now needs to exit with a club, endplaying East in three suits. If he exits with a heart, that gives declarer an entry to set up the long cards in the suit, and East is then endplayed again with the fourth round of hearts, and has to surrender the lead back to dummy. That is hardly an obvious line of play and, when DeBotton led a diamond to dummy’s king, East was off the hook. Allfrey won with the ♦A, cashed the ♣K, and exited safely with a diamond. There was no way home for declarer now and she finished two down: N/S -100. 

After an identical auction, Tony Forrester judged to let his partner play game in the 6-1 heart fit and Bakhshi led the ♣K to declarer’s lone ace. A heart to the ace and a club ruff then bought down the ♣10. Osborne cashed his high trumps, took a successful spade finesse, and advanced the ♣8 from dummy. When West did not cover, away went a diamond loser as Bakhshi ruffed with his high trump. Endplayed, Bakhshi tried a low diamond, but Osborne rose dummy’s queen and ruffed out West’s ♣Q. The ♠A provided an entry to dummy’s remaining club winner, taking care of declarer’s losing spade. N/S +650 and 11 IMPs to ALLFREY. 

The match ended with an IMP tally of 24-21 to DeBOTTON, They also won the B-a-M scoring 11-9 to produce a VP score of 27-23 in favour of DeBOTTON. With HARRIS defeating ANDRESEN 29-21 and BLACK beating IRELAND 39-11, the top of the leaderboard looked like this going into the final match: 

In Round 9, it was ALLFREY vs HARRIS and ANDRESEN vs CHAIRMAN’s TEAM on BBO VuGraph, Elsewhere, it was BLACK against GILLIS, and DeBOTTON playing IRELAND. 

The set began with a 4♥ contract that depended on a King-Jack guess in a side-suit. Ola Rimstedt guessed right but Robson did not, so that was a fairly random 12 IMPs to HARRIS. Then came a deal on which both pairs could nearly make game: 

It looks like E/W can make eight tricks in notrumps and ten in diamonds (assuming declarer guesses the clubs), whilst N/S have nine tricks in hearts. 

In the problem position posed earlier, Tony Forrester started with a quiet 1♥ overcall. Mikael Rimstedt doubled to show spades and Ola’s 1♠ bid then showed three-card support. As Tom Townsend pointed out in commentary on BBO VuGraph, those diamonds are presumably not quite good enough to rebid! Forrester bid his hearts again and Mikael found a second double from somewhere: perhaps a tactical move to try to keep South quiet? The effect, though, was to galvanize Ola into looking for game – his 3♥ cue-bid asked for a stopper and thus Mikael found himself declaring 3NT. The play did not take long, Osborne leading a heart and declarer quickly claimed his eight top tricks: N/S +50. 

Dennis Bilde first represented Denmark in 2004. In a glittering career as a junior, he won medals of all three colours at major championships, including gold at the 2008 World Teams and in the Junior Individual at the 2010 World Series. Since his junior eligibility ended in 2011, he has won the 2015 European Champions Cup, the Open Teams at the 2018 European Winter Games, and the Open Pairs at the 2019 European Transnational Championships. 

On this deal, Bilde wasted no time on the auction, jumping directly to 4♥ over Robson’s 1♦ opening. It appears that declarer has only nine tricks, but the defence needs to be careful. Allfrey led a diamond and Robson cashed two rounds before switching to the ♥J, Bilde covering with the ♥K.  

There are two ways to defeat the contract: East can duck the first round of trumps or, if he takes the ♥A, he must then continue with a second round of hearts. Not that it is easy to appreciate the danger, and Allfrey’s decision to take the ♥ A and switch to the ♠Q is probably one that many players would make. It was fatal, though.  

Bilde won the spade switch in hand, cashed the ♣A, and crossed to dummy with the ♥8. When he then ruffed a club, down came Robson’s king. It was now a simple matter of drawing the remaining trumps and re-entering dummy with the ♠A to pitch the spade loser on the ♣Q. N/S +420 and 9 IMPs to HARRIS. 

Making what is theoretically the correct decision does not always produce a good result. Faced with the third of this week’s bidding problems, Graham Osborne was perhaps unlucky on this deal: 

The first question is “Should 3♠ be forcing?” We will find out in a future month, when the BBO Bidding Challenge panel are presented with the problem, and I suspect the verdict will be that it is forcing, in which case what should you bid? It seems that bidding one of the minors, perhaps a 4♣ cue-bid, should be offering a choice of games with this sort of major-suit shape. A cue of the other minor would then, presumably, show some sort of interest and agree partner’s suit. A situation worth discussing with your regular partner, for sure! 

On this layout, Osborne’s decision to pass was technically correct, as the defenders can cash three aces and then strand declarer in his hand, unable to take the trump finesse. Perhaps actually doing that is trickier than it looks, though: even if East leads a club, West must either duck his ace, or win and switch so that his partner can cash his red-suit aces before exiting a second round of clubs. If West simply plays ace and another club, declarer can counter by exiting with a red suit, leaving East endplayed to provide an entry to dummy. At this table, though, Mikael Rimstedt solved declarer’s problem by leading a spade at trick one: N/S +170. 

With East not even potentially claiming the club suit at this table, Dennis Bilde took matters into his own hands and jumped directly to game in his long suit. Alexander Allfrey overcame step one of the defensive conundrum when he opened the ♦A. His diamond continuation at trick two, though, not only gave declarer an entry for the trump finesse, but also allowed him to dispose of his heart loser. When the finesse worked and trumps split, declarer had eleven tricks: N/S +450 and another 10 IMPs to HARRIS. Definitely a case of operation successful but patient deceased. 

After eight of the ten boards, HARRIS led 38-6 in IMPs and was also 11-5 ahead on the B-a-M, but The Great Dealer still had one large firecracker in store for those watching on BBO VuGraph. The West player at all four tables had to decide what to do on this week’s final bidding problem. Let’s start with the action from the other VuGraph match: 

Sally Brock decided to raise diamonds via a 3♥ cue-bid. When Christian Bakke then raised himself to 4♥, Barry Meyers doubled and Brock saw no reason to overrule her partner. The defence could get just the ♣K and their two major-suit aces: E/W -790. 

In the replay, Geir Helgemo opted for a pre-emptive raise directly to game in diamonds. No one else had anything to contribute to the auction, which left Brian Callaghan with the task of finding the winning lead. Having no particular reason to lead anything other than his partner’s suit, Callaghan opened the ♥2. Now Martin Andresen was in with a chance.  

He won with the ♥A, drew two rounds of trumps, and led a club towards dummy. Callaghan played low, and Andresen could have made the contract right then and there by rising with the ♣K but, with the opening bidder on his right, he understandably put in the ♣10 from dummy, and David Burn won with the ♣J and switched to the ♠K. Andresen won, ruffed a heart, ruffed a club, ruffed his last heart, and now had to guess the clubs. Was the ace coming down, or could declarer pin the now-singleton queen in the South hand? Andresen elected to lead the low club from dummy and ruff. Unfortunately for the English pair, this brought down South’s ♣A, and thus declarer was able to return to dummy with the last trump to pitch a spade loser on the established ♣K. An exciting E/W +600 and a massive 16 IMPs to ANDRESEN. 

Like Helgemo, Ola Rimstedt also raised directly to 5♦ in the problem position. Like Callaghan, Graham Osborne saw no reason to lead anything but a heart. At this table, Mikael Rimstedt won with the ♥A and immediately led his club up. Osborne rose with the ♣A, and that was all she wrote: a less-dramatic E/W +600 here. 

Andrew Robson chose a third option, raising diamonds via a 4♥ splinter bid. Allfrey cue-bid his spade control and now Robson showed the limited nature of his ambitions with 4NT (a direct 5♦ would have shown serious slam interest). Allfrey signed off in game, but the damage had already been done. Warned of the singleton heart in dummy, Zia produced the ♠Q at trick one. Dennis Bilde overtook with the ♠K, which was allowed to win, and returned the suit, leaving declarer with no winning option. When Allfrey eventually led his club towards dummy, Zia rose with the ♣A and cashed the ♠J to beat the contract by a trick: E/W -100 and yet another 12 IMPs to HARRIS. 

HARRIS won the match 55-6 in IMPs, collecting all 30 available VPs from that part of the scoring, and also won the B-a-M aspect 15-5, to win the match 45-5 overall. And they needed every one of those VPs, as ANDRESEN won the other VuGraph match 43-7. That left us with a final leaderboard that looked like this: 

Congratulations on an exciting victory to Jonathan Harris, Dennis Bilde, Ola Rimstedt, Mikael Rimstedt, Zia Mahmood and Steve Root. 

Next week, we will return to the Alt, and the best of the action from Event-X, the special finale event for the 2021 monthly Alt New-Co.