Free Weekly Instant Tournament - May 30 - Board 3

Board 3
Opponents vulnerable

♠ J 6 2  ♥ K Q 4 3  ♦ 8  ♣ A K J 7 6

I open with one club in first seat. LHO doubles, partner passes, and RHO bids two clubs.

Partner can't bid at the one level, and the opponents are cue-bidding. I'm out of the auction. Bidding two hearts would be foolish. We aren't going to outbid them, and showing my shape will help declarer more than partner in whatever contract they end up in.

What about doubling? Double should be take-out of spades, but the robots don't play that way. They play it shows good clubs. Given that, there is something to said for doubling to help partner with the opening lead. But I've already bid clubs, so partner will be inclined to lead them anyway. And doubling gives West two options he doesn't have if I pass, so it may make the opponents' auction easier. There is probably more to lose than to gain by doubling.

I pass. LHO bids two diamonds, RHO bids two heart, and LHO jumps to three spades. The auction so far is:

West	North	East	South
Phillip	Robot	Robot	Robot
1 ♣	Double	Pass	2 ♣
Pass	2 ♦	Pass	2 ♥
Pass	3 ♠

What should three spades mean?

Advancer's cue-bid after a take-out double creates a force until a fit is found. So two diamonds and two hearts were both forcing. If LHO bids two spades now, that would be forcing as well. So there is no need to jump to make a forcing bid in spades. Three hearts, however, would not be forcing. Once a suit has been bid and raised, the force is over. If the doubler wants to ensure reaching game, he must bid four hearts. That means he has no way to make a forcing bid in hearts should he hold a hand too good to bid four hearts. Should three spades show that hand? Should it be what some call an "out-of-the-blue cue-bid"?

Why not bid three clubs with that hand? Because cue-bidding the opponent's suit after a take-out double shows doubt about strain. A typical hand for three clubs at this point would be a 3-3-5-2 without a club stopper. So three spades as an artificial forcing heart raise makes a lot of sense.

Still, it's one thing for an interpretation to make a lot of sense. It's another for you and your partner to be on the same wavelength in an undiscussed auction. Without a clear understanding, I can't imagine throwing this auction at partner. 

In any event, I'm pretty sure a forcing heart raise is not what my robot opponent intends. Let's see what the tooltip says. It says, "6+ spades, 3+ hearts, 4+ diamonds, and 2- clubs," leaving open the possibility of having 15 cards. I don't know how he can have six spades when he bid two diamonds. Perhaps he thinks he's supposed to bid up the line regardless of suit length.

I'll find out soon enough what he has. Partner passes, RHO bids four hearts and buys it. I lead the king of clubs.

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

West	North	East	South
Phillip	Robot	Robot	Robot
1 ♣	Double	Pass	2 ♣
Pass	2 ♦	Pass	2 ♥
Pass	3 ♠	Pass	4 ♥
(All pass)

North lost his mind. Several times. The take-out double was insane. When you have two suits, you start bidding them. Double accomplishes nothing.

Two diamonds was also insane. It does appear North thought he was supposed to bid his suits up-the-line. Even so, any time you double offshape with an independent suit, you must jump at your next turn to advise partner you did something foolish. Unless you jump, partner is entitled to assume you have three-card support for his suit. So the proper continuation over two clubs is three spades.

North did try to catch up by bidding three spades at his next turn, but South didn't get the message. He still assumed his partner had heart support.

North's final action, passing four hearts, was suicide. Or perhaps fratricide, since partner has to play it. True, it's going to be impossible to get intelligent cooperation from partner now. But simply blasting six spades has to be better than passing four hearts. It might make. And even if it doesn't, it's going down less than four hearts.

What is South's hand? He should have five or six hearts. But he didn't open with a weak two bid. And he might have bid four hearts earlier with six of them. So I'll assume he has five hearts and around 10 HCP, leaving partner with around 3 HCP.

Partner plays the ten on my king; declarer follows with the three. According to the BBO system notes, the robots might encourage at trick one with an ace, king, or queen but won't encourage with a doubleton. So apparently two of partners HCP are the queen of clubs. If declarer is 2-5-2-4, I can underlead to partner's club queen, win the club return, and let partner pitch a spade on the fourth club. Then I can give him a spade ruff.  Or I can play declarer for 1-5-3-4. If he has that hand, I can play five rounds of clubs, letting partner pitch two spades, then give him a ruff when I win a trump trick.

No need to worry yet about which hand to play for. First let's see if declarer has four clubs. I lead the six of clubs. Declarer pitches the three of spades from dummy. Partner wins with the queen, and declarer follows with the four. Partner returns the five of clubs--eight--jack--four of spades from dummy.

I cash the club ace. Dummy pitches the diamond six, and partner pitches the seven of spades.

OK. Which layout do I play for? If that was a stiff spade, I can give partner two ruffs by leading a spade now. But if I lead a spade and partner follows, I've allowed declarer to score a spade trick he wasn't entitled to.

I don't see any way to resolve this other than play the odds. Spades are just as likely to be two-one as to be one-two. But if declarer has two spades, he has a doubleton diamond. With seven diamonds missing, declarer is more likely to have three than two. Much more likely if I assume declarer has the king-queen of diamonds, as seems likely. There is only one way for him to hold king-queen tight and seven ways to hold king-queen third.

I go with the odds and play a fifth club. Dummy pitches the eight of spades, and partner pitches the spade ten. Yay! I got it right.

Declarer ruffs with the five of hearts and plays a spade to dummy's ace. What's that all about? Why isn't he drawing trumps? Perhaps he's trying to score trump tricks by ruffing spades in his hand. Partner beats him to it. He ruffs with the six of hearts. Wait. Who has the deuce? Why did neither of them ruff with the deuce?

Partner leads the seven of diamonds--three--eight--ten. Declarer plays a diamond back to his king and I ruff with the three. We are down to his position with me on lead:

	NORTH Robot ♠ K Q 9 ♥ -- ♦ A 4 ♣ --
WEST Phillip ♠ J 6 ♥ K Q 4 ♦ -- ♣ --

Declarer presumably has four hearts and one diamond, leaving partner with three hearts and two diamonds.

Declarer will score the heart ace and whatever low hearts we allow him score with spade ruffs. If partner's trumps are good enough, we might hold him to one ruff. Let's say partner has 109x of trumps. When I lead a spade, he can ruff with the nine, forcing declarer's jack. When declarer plays a diamond, I ruff and play another spade. Now partner can ruff with the ten, forcing declarer's ace. My king and queen are now high.

I lead the six of spades. Partner ruffs with the eight and declarer overruffs with the ten. If partner has the heart nine, then the position must be as follows, with declarer on lead:

	NORTH Robot ♠ K Q ♥ -- ♦ 4 ♣ --
WEST Phillip ♠ J ♥ K Q 4 ♦ -- ♣ --		EAST Robot ♠ -- ♥ 9 x ♦ J x ♣ --
	SOUTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ A J 7 ♦ Q ♣ --

We can't stop declarer from scoring two more tricks.

Declarer surprises me by leading the jack of hearts. I take the queen, and partner follows with the nine. The nine? If partner is playing the nine, his last heart must be the seven, so the diagram above is wrong. I don't know why partner didn't ruff with the seven rather than the eight on the previous round. Lowest from equals when playing third hand, partner. In any event, if lead a spade, partner can ruff with the seven, forcing declarer's ace, and I'll take the last two tricks. 

I lead the jack of spades. Partner ruffs with the seven, and declarer pitches the jack of diamonds. The jack? OK. My construction was wrong again. Partner shifts to the five of diamonds. Declarer plays the queen and I ruff it. Declarer has the trump ace left. Down six.

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

Declarer had only four hearts? That never occurred to me. So North wasn't the only one who lost his mind. I'm not sure what South should bid over three spades, but I'm pretty sure his bid should have the word "diamonds" in it.

In the end position above, we were actually down to,

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

Declarer should have exited with the queen of diamonds instead of the jack of hearts. I can still beat it six by ruffing and leading the heart king. But if I carelessly return my last spade, declarer will score a ruff with his jack of hearts for down five. I should be able to work it out. But who knows? The hand wasn't making any sense. It's easy to make a mistake when you don't know what's going on.

Plus 600 when the opponents are cold for two slams can't be a bad result. In fact it's worth 100%. Most of the field was defending four hearts, but we were the only pair who took all our tricks.

No one reached six spades, but a few pairs did reach six diamonds when West decided to act at his second turn. Hats off to the guy who salvaged the board by doubling five diamonds. Going minus 950 instead of 1370 was worth 43%. Lowenthal (who invented that maneuver in case you didn't know) would have been proud.