Best Played Hand

Treble Top
By Paul Lamford

A month before this year’s Lederer Memorial Trophy, two of the Norwegian team who won the Bermuda Bowl and European Championships were scheduled to play in this year’s competition with Zia, but sadly Brogeland and Lundqvist had to withdraw. A junior team including a pair that won the silver medal in Beijing stepped in to the breach, and they benefited enormously from the experience, although they found it tough going. There was plenty of quality remaining, despite the absence of Zia, including Townsend and Gold, the best English pair in Beijing. The event had one of its most exciting last sessions, as the runaway Saturday leaders, the double winners of Forrester, Bakhshi, Robson and Allfrey, were bidding for what we think might be a unique treble of The Lederer, Crockfords and Gold Cup (readers with old copies of bridge magazines are invited to confirm this). They were being challenged by a charging Irish team.

In Zia’s absence, the ubiquitous Simpson and Silverstone had a chance to equal his record of seven wins, but heavy losses by England and the Presidents in early rounds put paid to that hope. After four rounds, the Forrester team (it always seemed to get called that, rather than its correct title of Gold Cup Winners) had a seemingly insurmountable lead, but they suffered a heavy loss to Ireland on Sunday morning, and the event was wide open again.

Grand Finale
By the last round, the gap between the leaders and the chasing pair of England and Ireland (who played each other in the last round) had closed, and the early exchanges between the Gold Cup Winners and Holders were roughly level. Come the last board, and the Vugraph audience knew that Forrester and Robson just had to bid a relatively simple small slam to win the event ... but the players did not know that would be enough, and there was another possible twist to the tale:

	N/S Vul. Dealer East
	A J 8 3 8 5 4 Q J 4 J 9 2
- Q 10 5 8 6 5 3 A Q 10 6 4 3		10 7 6 J 7 3 2 10 7 K 8 7 5
	K Q 9 5 4 2 A K 9 A K 9 2 -

West McIntosh	North Forrester	East Hallberg	South Bakhshi
		Pass	1
2	2	3	3
Pass	4	Dble	Rdble
5	Pass	Pass	6
Pass	6	Pass	6
Pass	7	All Pass

The key to the hand was Bakhshi’s 3D, showing his second suit, which made Forrester’s hand much better. He had nothing wasted in clubs, and a fourth trump which he had not promised. When Bakhshi made a grand-slam try with 6C, he was pleased to co-operate, and chose 6H as he did not want to play in diamonds. When Bakhshi indicated, completely in tempo, that he was not worth any more himself, Forrester re-evaluated the QJx and bid the grand. Interestingly, Gunnar could, and probably would, have sacrificed in 7C if Forrester had passed, and that would have won the board, and the event for Ireland on a split tie, winning the point-a-board, and winning 12 IMPs instead of losing 12 IMPs, a gigantic swing in VPs.

The Telltale Two
1NT is the contract for the connoisseur, and Ian Pagan justly won the best-played hand for an unusual but well-thought-out play in his part score:

	Love All. Dealer East
	J 9 K J 8 Q 10 6 5 A 10 6 2
10 5 2 A 9 2 A J 9 2 9 8 5		A Q 6 7 6 5 K 8 7 3 K Q J
	K 8 7 4 3 Q 10 4 3 4 7 4 3

West Pagan	North Teltscher	East Dhondy	South Priday
		1	Pass
1 NT	All Pass

It looked like West will go down in 1NT on a club lead here, as the textbook play in diamonds, finessing the jack on the first round, only makes six tricks. However, Ian Pagan looked more deeply into the position on the normal two of clubs lead, won in dummy. North had led a broken club suit, and a four-card one at that, on an auction that called for a major, or so he surmised. Surely, therefore, North was either 3-3-3-4 or had four diamonds? He backed his judgement by playing a diamond to the ace and running the jack of diamonds. A deserved swing as East opened a strong NT in the other room (all members of the Presidents team are too old to play anything other than a 15-17 NT, but I might have downgraded that East hand) and West bid the no-play game.

Escape from Alcatraz

The Alcatraz Coup is a term in bridge for a deceptive but illegal play by which declarer exploits a loophole (now blocked) in the revoke law. It is named after the island in San Francisco Bay which was a prison until 1963 and was known as The Rock. No illegal subterfuge took place on the following hand but Townsend and Gold did break a seemingly unbreakable contract. Deep Finesse or any self-respecting double-dummy program would have made 5H. How on earth could anyone break 4H?

	Love All. Dealer N
	9 8 6 5 K 9 6 3 10 9 8 3 7
10 4 J 5 Q 5 A K J 10 8 4 2		J 3 2 10 7 A 7 6 4 2 9 5 3
	A K Q 7 A Q 8 4 2 K J Q 6

West Townsend	North Dhondy	East Gold	South Pagan
3	Pass	4	Dble
Pass	4	All Pass

Townsend’s 3C pre-empt looks a bit heavy, but could be quite good, as they play 2S to show a bad preempt in any suit. Nonetheless, Gold was desperate for tricks against the heart game and tried the four of diamonds. Declarer got those wrong, putting in the jack, and Townsend won and cashed the king of clubs, asking for reverse count, which Gold showed with the nine, although Tom would have been pretty sure his partner had three clubs from the auction. Townsend went back to diamonds, and East won with the ace and continued to conceal the deuce by playing back the six of diamonds, consistent with an original four-card holding. Poor Jeremy guessed wrong to ruff with the eight of trumps, playing West for three diamonds (or any heart holding without an honour), rather than the less likely 2-2 lie of the trumps. One down. At the other table there was more in the way of conventional bidding:

West Rees	North Liggins	East Kurbalija	South Crouch
1	Pass	1	2 *
2NT*	3	Pass	4
All pass

1S showed diamonds, and 2D in the Crouch Natural System was takeout of diamonds and 2NT was a good or bad 3C bid. East led a mundane club and very soon Liggins wrapped up 11 tricks, playing the person who bid diamonds, or rather who claimed that he had them, to have the ace.

Pinning Lead

Glyn Liggins was another to find a deadly lead in the following hand, but there was a resource which declarer might have spotted:

	Game All. Dealer North
	K 10 8 6 J A K 9 A 9 8 7 4
A Q 9 7 A 8 3 Q 7 5 J 10 5		5 3 2 Q 10 9 6 5 8 6 3 2 3
	J 4 K 7 4 2 J 10 4 K Q 6 2

West Paske	North Allfrey	East Jones	South Robson
	1	Pass	1 *
Pass	1	Pass	3
Pass	3 NT	All Pass

Glyn did very well to find the lead of the heart queen, after South had shown four hearts with his transfer response to 1C. That worked like a charm and when Chris Dixon covered and the defence quickly took the first six tricks. The heart seven in dummy would have been enough to block the suit if declarer had covered the second heart (and yes, we all know that he could have ducked that as well, but Liggins could easily have led from

AQT9x). In the other room, on an identical auction (yes, everyone plays transfers in response to 1C these days) the lead was the ten of hearts, and declarer played low, making his contract exactly.

Cash Point

	North South Vul. Dealer East
	7 6 3 2 K Q 7 J 9 6 5 7 5
Q 10 A 9 6 5 4 A 10 9 6 3 2		J 8 3 2 K Q 3 2 A K Q 10 8
	A K 9 6 4 J 10 8 8 7 4 J 4

West Paske	North Allfrey	East Jones	South Robson
		1	Pass
1 *	Pass	2	Pass
3	Pass	3 NT	All Pass

The textbooks teach you to lead low from AKxxx against no-trumps when you have no outside entry, but Andrew Robson had more information than most of the South players on the above hand. East’s 1C was clubs or balanced, and West’s 1D was a transfer, a popular expert method which we have seen before. Now natural bidding took over, and Andrew started the defence with the ace of spades, asking for count. North showed an even number and Andrew continued with the King and six of spades, to avoid any chance of a blockage. One down. At the other table East opened a strong no-trump and West transferred to hearts and then bid 3NT which ended the auction. Here it was much more attractive to lead a low spade, as declarer with two hearts was unlikely to also have two spades, and West did indeed choose this. The declarer quickly scored 10 tricks for a game swing to the Gold Cup Winners, much more important than the point-a-board it also scored.

Down Payment

	North South Vul. Dealer North
	- A J 10 7 5 K 6 5 Q J 10 7 5
10 2 9 8 6 J 2 A K 9 8 4 3		K 8 5 4 K 3 2 A Q 9 4 3 2
	A Q J 9 7 6 3 Q 4 10 8 7 6

West McGann	North Pagan	East Hanlon	South Dhondy
	1	Pass	1
2	Pass	2	3
Pass	3 NT	Dble	4
Pass	Pass	Dble	All Pass

Sometimes one does not overbid by very much, if at all, but the defence extract a big penalty. This is doubly annoying as you know that the gruesome details are going to wing their way around the world in today’s cyberage. Such was the case with Dhondy and Pagan on the above board. Jeremy was unsure whether 3S was forcing – it would have been in an uncontested auction – but Pagan thought it was and tried 3NT. Tom Hanlon doubled this and doubled the run to 4S. West led a top club and switched to the jack of diamonds, covered and won by East with the ace. The defence continued with the queen and another diamond ruffed low by West and now the six of hearts. Dhondy saw no reason why this could not be from the king, and so he played low, trying to get out for two off. East won and played a fourth round of diamonds, and Dhondy guessed, unluckily, to ruff with the nine, playing East for KTxx rather than K8xx. Five down, and a bucketload of IMPs to the Irish.

Quick Cash
Continuing our monetary theme, the spotlight turned to North on the following hand

	North South Vul. Dealer North
	7 2 K 7 5 3 A Q J 5 K Q 8
10 9 Q 10 8 4 2 9 6 7 5 3 2		A K J 8 6 4 3 A 9 K A 9 6
	Q 5 J 6 10 8 7 4 3 2 J 10 4

West Paske Atthey	North Scoltock Owen	Eas Jones Small	South Hinden Cooke
	1NT	4	All Pass

The auction was identical in both rooms in the Juniors v Young Chelsea match, but the Juniors defended better, or at least more successfully. Both Easts could not double a strong NT for penalties, so bid what they thought they could make. South led a top club in both rooms, and John Atthey overtook and smartly cashed the ace of diamonds when East ducked. It is not clear that this is the right defence – East might have had a stiff ace of hearts and

Kx, but there is no arguing with success. The defence duly came to four tricks without raising a sweat.
Scoltock ducked Hinden’s top club lead and when South continued with the ten of clubs, there was surprisingly no further defence. Jones won and ran all his trumps. Poor North was triple squeezed and would have been thrown in with either minor winner. When he pitched a club, playing his partner for the nine of clubs, that card squeezed him again, and when he pitched a heart, declarer emerged with a most improbable +480.

Brian Callaghan gave a well-received talk about the best play and bidding awards at a closing ceremony, where LMBA President Bernard Teltscher presented the prizes to the winners.

vs.	Team:	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	TOTAL	RANK
1	GOLD CUP		16	48	41	40	42	42	48	277	1
2	IRELAND	44		36	40	49	18	26	48	261	2
3	ENGLAND	12	24		34	38	46	54	41	249	3
4	HOLDERS	19	20	26		27	39	38	37	206	4
5	SCHAPIRO SPRING 4S	20	11	22	33		31	37	38	192	5
6	YC CHAMPIONS	18	42	14	21	29		18	44	186	6
7	PRESIDENT'S TEAM	18	34	6	22	23	42		25	170	7
8	JUNIOR INT'NALS	12	12	19	23	22	16	35		139	8

The popular ‘Play with the Stars’ parallel event for the Teltscher Cups was held at the Andrew Robson, Roehampton and Wimbledon Bridge Clubs, and also at Sheffield athough they were not officially competing. Pairs played the first 24 Lederer boards on the Saturday and then scored up as teams-of-four with the top Lederer pairs in their direction. Stefanie Rohan, the organiser, selected the pairs that the players scored up with as Townsend and Gold in one direction, and one pair of the winning team in each of the first two sets in the other, which showed considerable perspicacity.

The winners were: North-South: Les and Irene Hough (teamed up with Townsend and Gold) on +29 IMPs, and East-West: Loulou van Geuns and Kate Manners (teamed with Robson, Allfrey, Forrester and Bakhshi) on +65 IMPs. Any club wanting to hold a heat of this fun event next year, or for any details of next year’s event, contact Stefanie Rohan at the LMBA (stefanie@metrobridge.co.uk).

Thanks are due to Brian Callaghan for help with finding interesting hands and Gordon Rainsford for photographs and the Young Chelsea Bridge Club for providing the venue.