Free Weekly Instant Tournament - December 13 - Board 5

Board 5
Our side vulnerable

♠ 10 8 5  ♥ A K Q 3  ♦ 6 5  ♣ A Q 7 6

Partner passes, and RHO opens with two diamonds, weak. I double. LHO bids two spades, a one-round force. Partner passes, and RHO bids three diamonds. If you look just at high-card points, I don't have much beyond my initial double. But I do have four-card support for both unbid suits and all my high cards are in those suits, which means point count under-evaluates the hand. So I double again.

Partner bids three hearts and everyone passes. RHO leads the seven of spades.

	NORTH Phillip ♠ 10 8 5 ♥ A K Q 3 ♦ 6 5 ♣ A Q 7 6
	SOUTH Robot ♠ 6 2 ♥ 9 5 4 2 ♦ J 9 7 2 ♣ K 9 4

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
			Pass
2 ♦	Double	2 ♠	Pass
3 ♦	Double	Pass	3 ♥
(All pass)

Do I have any shot at making this? Given West's failure to lead a high diamond, East probably has a singleton diamond honor. So East will cash two spades, cash his diamond honor, then play a third spade. West will score an overruff, cash another diamond for the setting trick, then play a third one. I'll need to ruff high and hope the remaining trumps are two-two to hold it to down one. If they aren't, I'm down two.

Down one will be OK if three diamonds makes. Does it? To hold this to down one, I need West to have three hearts. So let's give him 2-3-6-2. If we cash our four tricks and tap dummy with a heart, he can't avoid a trump loser. That shouldn't be a hard defense to find, and tapping dummy might not even be necessary. But there's no reason I need to figure that out right now. I don't think is going to be a good result.

I play a low spade from dummy. East overtakes his partner's seven with the nine and cashes the jack of spades, as West follows with the three. East then shifts to the eight of diamonds. The eight? West led a doubleton in his partner's suit rather than a diamond from ace-king-queen-ten? How come the robots never lead my suit?

I cover with nine of diamonds. West wins with the ten and cashes the queen. At least he tries to cash it. East ruffs with the eight of hearts and leads the spade queen. I ruff with the nine of hearts and West pitches the four of diamonds. Really? East has both high hearts? That was lucky.

Am I making this now? Here is the current position, with the lead in my hand. I need the rest of the tricks.

	NORTH Phillip ♠ -- ♥ A K Q 3 ♦ -- ♣ A Q 7 6
	SOUTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ 5 4 2 ♦ J 7 ♣ K 9 4

East wouldn't have ruffed with jack-ten fourth of hearts. So he must have jack-ten third. That means West is 2-2-6-3 and dummy's clubs are good. Even if East made a bizarre play of ruffing with his natural trump trick and West is 2-1-6-4, then four rounds of trumps will squeeze West in the minors. So it appears I've made this.

I cash two hearts. Both opponents follow, and I claim. The robots know I have a complete count, so they accept. Making three.

	NORTH Phillip ♠ 10 8 5 ♥ A K Q 3 ♦ 6 5 ♣ A Q 7 6
WEST Robot ♠ 7 3 ♥ 7 6 ♦ A K Q 10 4 3 ♣ J 3 2		EAST Robot ♠ A K Q J 9 4 ♥ J 10 8 ♦ 8 ♣ 10 8 5
	SOUTH Robot ♠ 6 2 ♥ 9 5 4 2 ♦ J 9 7 2 ♣ K 9 4

Both opponents misdefended. West knows he doesn't want his partner to ruff the second diamond, so he should play the ace, not the queen. The queen asks partner to ruff. It's the card to play if you aren't sure if partner has a singleton diamond (so you can't afford to lead a low one) but you want him to ruff if he does. It would be the right play, for instance, holding the jack of hearts to ensure you get your overruff.

Even so, East, holding jack-ten third of hearts, should ignore his partner's request. He can see that ruffing never gains. But if he lets his partner's queen hold, he gets a trump promotion for down one. For his ruff to make any sense at all, he must have thought I had the diamond ace. I can't imagine why I would duck the diamond ace if I had it, but the robots don't draw such inferences.

Plus 140 is worth 100%. No one else doubled three diamonds, so had I gone down in three hearts, I would have had a near zero.

Getting 100% from your own actions should always be a cause for concern, since it means no one else did what you did. In a good field, that probably means you made a mistake and got away with it. That isn't necessarily true in a bad field, like this one. But you should still take a second look at your decision.

Was I wrong to double three diamonds? My double is certainly wrong at IMPs. We don't have a game when partner couldn't act. And with my holding such a flat hand, there is little likelihood that both our contract and their contract are making, which is the only scenario where you must compete for the partscore at IMPs. But at matchpoints, you want to compete if either contract is making. Am I right to double at matchpoints?

It's true I got lucky that the opponents misdefended. But the possibility that the opponents will misdefend is part of the vig in bidding aggressively. You don't want to count on misdefense. But it's OK if you catch an unlucky layout and misdefense rescues you.

Is that what happened? What would I need for my double to be right without misdefense? Suppose partner held the heart jack instead of the diamond jack. Now if clubs are three-three, three hearts makes. And if clubs are four-two, three diamonds makes. If all you have to do to make your decision right is to switch a jack from one suit to another in partner's hand, it's hard to criticize your action.

My second double was aggressive, but not crazy. So I stand by it.