IMP League Start Page

Unit 430 runs an annual extended teams competition each year that we call the IMP League.  Play begins in October and continues through the winter to mid-April, with playoffs in each division following in April and May (and sometimes slightly beyond).  Teams of 4-6 players play a match against another team two or three times a month, usually at a bridge club or occasionally at someone's home.  Usually there are two or three divisions to separate the top players from the more casual or social players, and in some years we have enough interest to have a division of newer players.

The 'blue' pages contain the most recent information about the IMP League, its history, rules, and the members of the teams competing this year.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, February 25, snow fell in many parts of greater Vancouver.  I was working when the white stuff began to fall and immediately said "it'll melt when it hits -- it's still several degrees above freezing."  I also figured it would be a small crowd at bridge that evening -- snow does tend to keep people at home.

With predictions like that, I should be a weatherman.

By gametime, the VBC had seventeen tables of players ready (or almost ready) to begin, seven in the pairs game, and no less than five IMP League matches.  The snow was still on the ground.

Mark Eddy insisted on using a different set of boards for each of the matches, so that teams could play 1-28 and review boards in the first half if necessary.  A rainbow of board colours brightened up the IMP League tables, but IMP League players are creatures of habit and all five matches shuffled their boards at halftime, even Mark's teammates while he was out smoking.  One match was played in the main room, with one table of another match taking place in the front room.  Nigel Fullbrook was a 69th player and didn't get into the pairs game, but set himself up in the side room in a position from which he could kibitz his choice of four different matches.  If he'd had a swivel chair it would have been perfect.

The results, combined with a pair of matches from earlier in the week, set the tone for the final run to the playoffs:

• Litwin extended their unbeaten record to 9-0, defeating Feng.
• Isfeld continued to be the VP leader with eleven matches in, after defeating Lee.
• Bart completed a quick two-game series in which they scored 57 VPs and moved up to the fourth and final Flight A playoff spot.
• Slow starters Takemori, who were near the bottom until Christmas, also completed a quick two-game series in which they scored 50 VPs and moved into playoff contention.
• Larry Hicks played his eighth IMP League match without a single loss to continue to lead the All-Star rankings.  John Bryden and Cam Doner moved onto the Flight A First All-Star Team, while Brad Bart moved onto the Flight A Second All-Star Team.
• The Flight X standings tightened up a bit, with Williams losing to Takemori, Fenton losing to Bart, and Feng losing to Litwin.  These bumps in the road for the Flight X leaders left Segal within striking range of second spot, and none of the Flight X teams completely out of the running.
• Walker became the first team to mathematically clinch a playoff spot, defeating Lai in Flight B for their sixth win in seventh matches.
• A deal was played in the second half of a Flight A match during which the declarer (one of Vancouver's best players) and dummy had 14 cards and both defenders had 12.  Nobody noticed this and an early claim was accepted and the board passed to the other table.

The seven-table pairs game went without incident.  (Something had to.)  Only one Director call was made by the matchpoint players.

The fireworks in the IMP League, however, began in the Isfeld - Lee match on Board 1.  The foiling of Mark Eddy's plan to play Boards 1-28 meant we had to reconstruct the deal later, after we stopped laughing ourselves to tears over the story that emerged.

Your first board of an important match and you pick up this hand:

♠  Q 6 4
♥  J 8 5
♦  Q T
♣  K 9 8 7 6

It's Board 1 and nobody is vulnerable.  Partner opens 1NT and you have Puppet Stayman in your arsenal, so you bid 2♣.  Partner's 2♦ response shows at least one four-card major but no five-card major.  With no chance of an eight-card major suit fit, you invite with 2NT and it stops there.

Remember, you are dummy.  Important matches are taking place all around you and you want to get off to a good start.  The opening lead is the A♦ and you lay your hand on the table.  Partner gives a half-hearted "thank you" and plays low, following with the six.  The K♦ follows, and partner drops the jack, with the other defender playing the 8 followed by the 9.

Diamonds appear to be either set up for the opening leader, or perhaps blocked if the other defender has started with 987.  Can partner get out of this?  Possibly: the other defender has just discovered that he has played the 9♥ instead of the 9♦!

A Director is summoned and rules that the 9♥ a major penalty card. This gives partner these options:

• Compel a heart lead from the opening leader at trick three (the penalty card would be picked up)
• Forbid a heart lead from the opening leader at trick three (the penalty card would be picked up)
• Let the opening leader lead anything at trick three, and leave the 9♥ on the table as a major penalty card, to be played at the first legal opportunity.

Partner, of course, is going to take the second option and use it to stop diamonds from being continued.  Unlucky distribution, lucky break, maybe a few IMPs to our side if this produces a swing.  But...what's this?  Partner has chosen to let the opening leader lead anything?  Are you kidding me?

"Can I say something at this point," you ask the Director in desperation.

"Not at this point," says the Director.  The killer 7♦ is the next card, with four more diamonds coming as the other defender plays the penalty card to trick three.

At this point the dummy decided to speak anyhow, calling Nigel over to play the dummy's cards and announcing that after not quite one board, a break was required.  Off he went.

The Director (who had not asked what the contract was) watched the third diamond cash.  When declarer discarded the leftmost suit from dummy and failed to win the trick he perceived the notion that the hand was being played in notrump.  The magnitude of declarer's blunder slowly dawned on the Director, and he rushed out to find the overheating player outside before snow began to melt or fuel began to ignite.  To the Director, only one logical possibility remained: he had misexplained the options to declarer.

But this too was wrong.  The absent player stopped his furious pacing in the parking lot long enough to assure the Director that the explanation was clear and his partner had just proven himself to be a — well, there's no point in quoting exactly what was said.

The Director returned to the main room to deal with the one pairs game Director call of the evening.  By the time that was settled, the exasperated player was back in his seat only to find that his partner and the opening leader were gone.  They caught up to me (I was the Director) at the desk.

"What would happen," asked the opening leader, "if declarer had requested a heart lead?"

"You'd have to lead a heart, no matter what your holding was," I replied.

"But wait," she exclaimed, "I didn't have one!"

"Ah!" I said, "so then you would have no restrictions at all and you could lead anything."

"Is that really the rule?" asked the declarer.  "No restrictions if I ask for a suit in which she is void!"

"Absolutely.  I can look up the actual text in the Laws if you wish."

"Forget about that," said the declarer.  "Would you come back to the table and let my partner know that this is the case?"

The complete hand (rotated for convenience)

So on the very first board, Martin and Gray got to 2NT with their opponents cold for 3NT (seven diamonds, two major suit aces and a club stopper) as the cards lie.  Who knows how high they would have gotten had either of them held the stray jack of spades, useless to both sides but adding a highcard point to the North-South total.

The final result was 2NT down four, for 200.  Gray claimed that when he saw dummy and the opening lead, he knew he was going to lose a bunch of diamonds amid two aces sooner or later: forcing a heart lead at trick three seemed to be merely postponing the inevitable.

We're not sure why both defenders chose to play green cards instead of bidding their suits, but the strategy worked very well for East-West!.  Except...

At the other table the result is still unknown, but the board was ... a PUSH!

Before we get to the All-Star teams, a quick clarification and a note.  We have fourteen teams in Flight A, six of which are also eligible for strat X.  Any strat X team finishing in one of the top four places overall DOES take a Flight A playoff spot.  The Flight A playoff spots are for the best four of all fourteen teams, not just the eight with more than 2000 masterpoints per player.  This does mean that there is a possibility that a Flight X team may have to compete in two playoffs simultaneously, which is like a Flight B pair finishing first overall in an Open Pairs and taking #1 in both strats (no extra overall is awarded in Flight A because a B pair took #1).  The strat X teams are playing the same schedule everyone else plays, a complete round-robin against all 13 other teams.  Why shouldn't they be eligible if successful?

Now for the note: there is a growing concern among some players that some teams are quite lax at ensuring that all of their players arrive on time.  Captains need to ensure that their team members know the scheduled start time.  The last thing we want to do is start penalizing teams for having a player or a pair arrive late.  But one team has seen opponents arrive significantly late on three separate occasions, so you can imagine their frustration.  Let's ensure that all players arrive on time, keeping in mind that at the VBC on most weeknights that means 7:00 and not 7:30.  If you are held up in traffic and can call the VBC on a mobile phone, please do so -- it eases the frustration levels when we know that you're on the way.

The rules for the Flight A and X All-Star team selections are as follows:

• There are six slots on the First and Second All-Star team for Flight A and Flight X.
• In Flight A, no team may have more than one player on the First All-Star team, nor more than one player on the Second.
• In Flight X, no team may have more than two players on the First or Second All-Star team, nor more than three players total on both.
• The rankings are by Earned VPs per match, which is how many VPs you have earned for your team. (See the team pages for an explanation on how this works when there are halftime replacements.)
• You cannot be on any All-Star Team unless you have played at least half of your team's matches, but 40% is OK until the end of the season.
• Ties in Earned VPs are broken by IMPs plus or minus.
• When two or more people have played the same matches/halves, their ranking will be equal, which is why some entries are listed as A or B, or A, B or C.
• This is strictly for fun, and is not statistically relevant until all matches have been played (and probably not even then).

We have checked all of the teams for eligibility in Flight X and they all comply (assuming there are no late additions).

In Flight A/X, participants must play at least TEN halves to qualify for playoff participation.  We can make exceptions if there are good reasons, but the following players (plus any late additions who have not yet played) need to play more to be eligible:

Team Captains please note: you need to contact the Commissioner - in advance, with reasons - to have an exception from this rule.  The Bart team has done so for Paul Hagen.  No exceptions will be granted once the season ends: there's no excuse for not seeing this coming.

The rules for the Flight B All-Star team selections are as follows:

• There are six slots on the First and Second All-Star team for Flight B.
• No team may have more than two players on the First or Second All-Star team, nor more than three players total on both.
• The rankings are by Earned VPs per match, which is how many VPs you have earned for your team. (See the team pages for an explanation on how this works when there are halftime replacements.)
• You cannot be on any All-Star Team unless you have played at least half of your team's matches, but 40% is OK until the end of the season.
• Ties in Earned VPs are broken by IMPs plus or minus.
• When two or more people have played the same matches/halves, their ranking will be equal, which is why some entries are listed as A or B, or A, B or C.
• This is strictly for fun, and is not statistically relevant until all matches have been played (and probably not even then).

In Flight B, participants must play at least EIGHT halves to qualify for playoff participation.  We can make exceptions if there are good reasons, but the following players (plus any late additions who have not yet played) need to play more to be eligible:

Team Captains please note: you need to contact the Commissioner - in advance, with reasons - to have an exception from this rule.  No exceptions will be granted once the season ends: there's no excuse for not seeing this coming.