No surprises on Board 6. I'm still trailing by five imps.
Board 7
Both sides vulnerable
♠ A 7 6 4 3 ♥ K J 6 ♦ 3 ♣ K Q 9 4 |
I open with one spade in first seat. LHO overcalls with two diamonds. Partner passes, and RHO bids two spades, showing at least a limit raise in support of diamonds.
We discussed doubles of artificial bids back on Board 2, so you know I think double here should be take-out of diamonds. With a singleton diamond and support for the other suits, I should act. And a double of two spades, which partner can pass if he has nothing, is the safest way to get back into the auction. Passing, then making a balancing double of three diamonds is considerably more dangerous. Unfortunately, the robots play this double shows rebiddable spades, so I have to pass.
LHO bids three diamonds--pass--pass back to me. This is why I wanted to double two spades for take-out. It could easily be right to compete. But forcing partner to act at the three-level when both opponents have shown good hands is too dangerous. I have no choice but to sell to three diamonds. Fortunately, Jazlene and I are forced to play the same methods, so I'm not at a disadvantage as I would be in a normal field.
Partner leads the king of spades, and the following dummy appears:
NORTH Robot ♠ Q J 9 2 ♥ Q 3 2 ♦ Q 10 2 ♣ A 10 6 |
||
EAST Phillip ♠ A 7 6 4 3 ♥ K J 6 ♦ 3 ♣ K Q 9 4 |
||
West | North | East | South |
Robot | Robot | Phillip | Robot |
1 ♠ | 2 ♦ | ||
Pass | 2 ♠ | Pass | 3 ♦ |
(All pass) |
Declarer plays the spade jack from dummy. Sure. Why not? He has the ten in his hand.
My agreement in a regular partnership is that discouraging suggests a heart shift. (When dummy's side suits are of equal length, discouraging suggests the suit with fewer honors. Clubs has two honors; hearts has one.) If I encourage, I'm saying I don't want a heart shift. Partner must use his judgment in deciding whether continuing spades or shifting to a club makes more sense. On this hand, I think he would decide to shift to a club, which is the suit I prefer. So I would play an encouraging seven.
Note there is no need to play suit preference here, as I'm sure some would. If you have well-defined rules for which suit a discouraging signal calls for, attitude works just fine. If you want the obvious shift (defined here as hearts), then you play low. You don't have to stop and ask yourself whether this is an attitude situation (where low asks for a heart shift) or a suit preference situation (where high asks for a heart shift). If you want the non-obvious shift, you encourage. If it's so clear that continuing the led suit makes no sense, partner will make the right shift, since he knows you don't want the obvious one.
There is nothing to gain by playing attitude sometimes and suit preference at other times, so why risk confusion? Even if it's clear this time which signal applies, there will always be borderline cases where you and partner won't agree. So why switch ever? If your card is always attitude, you can't have an accident.
Robots, however, play neither attitude nor suit preference, so it makes no difference which card I play. I choose the three.
Declarer plays the five, and partner continues with the spade eight. I wonder if declarer played the spade jack at trick one as a clever ploy to make West think I hold ace-ten over dummy's queen. Robots don't draw inferences, so partner won't realize I can't possibly hold the ten. Who better than another robot to understand that? I'll have to remember that trick.
Dummy plays the deuce. I win with the ace, and declarer plays the ten.
In bridge, as in many games, there are two general strategies of defense: Containment and Attack. The goal of Containment is to deprive declarer of tricks. The goal of an Attack is to take tricks ourselves before declarer can take his. The fundamental task of defense is deciding which strategy is better on a given deal. The reason for making this distinction is that we analyze differently depending on which strategy we adopt. For Containment, we focus on declarer's tricks. For Attack, we focus on our tricks.
On this deal, it may be easier to count declarer's tricks than ours, so let's start with Containment. What high cards does declarer have? It's hard to see his having less than ace, ace-king in the red suits for his two-level overcall. And if he's missing one of those cards, we might beat him whatever we do. So let's assume he has them.
What's his shape? If he has six diamonds, then he has eight top tricks (six diamonds and two aces), and we can't possibly stop him from eventually taking a spade trick. So we need to assume he has only five diamonds.
Ace-king fifth of diamonds and the heart ace gives him four or five diamond tricks (depending on who has the jack), the heart ace, the club ace, and two spades: eight or nine tricks in all. If we return a spade for partner to ruff, we eliminate one of his spade tricks, reducing him to eight tricks. (The diamond jack now becomes irrelevant. After partner ruffs, declarer will always have five diamond tricks.) Can declarer find a ninth trick somewhere? If he has the heart ten, he can. If not, I don't see where a ninth trick is coming from.
The next step is to double-check our plan by constructing a concrete layout. Sometimes an abstract plan has a flaw that is difficult to see unless you play through it. Let's give declarer
♠ 10 x ♥ A x x ♦ A K x x x ♣ x x x |
If we return a spade, declarer will pitch a club as partner ruffs. Partner will then shift to a club. Declarer will win his ace, draw trump ending in dummy, and pitch his last club on the fourth spade. If one of those heart x's is the 10, he can develop a heart trick and make his contract. If not, he's down. Yes, our analysis seems correct.
We now have a provisional plan. The next step is to try to improve on it. Can we defeat the contract if declarer has the heart ten?
Perhaps an Attack will do better. A successful Attack requires us to establish and cash five tricks. If partner has the club jack and declarer has three clubs, we can shift to the club king and establish two club tricks. That gives us two spades, a heart, and two clubs. Again, we need to test our plan against a concrete layout. Let's add the heart ten to declarer's hand above so that the spade return will fail:
♠ 10 x ♥ A 10 x ♦ A K x x x ♣ x x x |
We shift to the club king. Declarer wins and draws trump, ending in dummy. They don't split, so he can't take his spade pitches. He must lose two clubs and a heart. Possibly a diamond as well if partner has the jack.
So Containment (returning a spade) works if partner has the heart ten, and Attack (shifting to the club king) works if partner has the club jack and declarer has three clubs. Since Attack requires two assumptions instead of one, Containment is more likely to be right.
Or so it appears at first glance. Let's confirm we're right about declarer's needing three clubs for the club shift to work. Give declarer:
♠ 10 x ♥ A 10 x x ♦ A K x x x ♣ x x |
If we shift to the club king, his best play is to win and cash a spade, pitching his club loser and letting partner ruff. This won't hurt if diamonds split, but it saves a trick (compressing his diamond and club losers) if partner has jack fourth. Partner will now try to cash a club. Declarer will ruff, draw trump ending in dummy, pitch a heart on the last spade, then play a heart toward his ten. We get only four tricks: two spades, a heart, and a ruff.
Yes, a club shift fails if declarer has a doubleton club. What about our assumption that partner needs the club jack? If declarer has jack third of clubs, we can take only one club trick. But maybe that's enough. If partner has jack fourth of diamonds, perhaps we can take two spades, one club, one heart, and a diamond.
Let's check it out. Give declarer
♠ 10 x ♥ A 10 x ♦ A K x x x ♣ J x x |
Perhaps, instead of hopping with the club queen, we should duck and let declarer win his jack. This deprives him of using the club ten as a dummy entry. If we do that, declarer can continue with a third club. We win and find ourselves in this position:
NORTH Robot ♠ Q 9 ♥ Q 3 2 ♦ Q 10 2 ♣ -- |
||
WEST Robot ♠ -- ♥ x x x x ♦ J x x x ♣ -- |
EAST Phillip ♠ A 6 4 ♥ K J 6 ♦ 3 ♣ 9 |
|
SOUTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ A 10 x ♦ A K x x x ♣ -- |
We're endplayed. A heart or a club shift gives declarer a trick, taking care of one of his small hearts. He can then cash a spade, pitching his last heart as partner ruffs. He loses only four tricks: two spades, one club, and a ruff. Our only safe return is a diamond, and that gives declarer two dummy entries. Declarer can now pitch one heart on a spade as partner ruffs, and eventually pitch his last heart, again losing two spades, a club, and a ruff.
Yes, a club return does indeed require finding partner with the jack and finding declarer with three clubs while a spade continuation requires only finding partner with the heart ten. So a spade continuation is the better play.
I return a spade. Declarer pitches the three of clubs, and partner ruffs with the nine of diamonds. Partner shifts to the eight of hearts.
Hearts? Why are we breaking hearts, partner? Oh, I see. He's hoping I have the ace, so I can play another spade and kill that trick as well. Let's hope the shift is from ten-eight-seven. If so, we still have a heart trick coming.
Declarer plays the deuce from dummy, and my jack forces his ace. Declarer draws three rounds of trump, ending in his hand, and leads the nine of hearts--ten--queen--king. I return the six of hearts. Partner overtakes with the seven. Down one.
NORTH Robot ♠ Q J 9 2 ♥ Q 3 2 ♦ Q 10 2 ♣ A 10 6 |
||
WEST Robot ♠ K 8 ♥ 10 8 7 4 ♦ J 9 6 4 ♣ J 7 2 |
EAST Phillip ♠ A 7 6 4 3 ♥ K J 6 ♦ 3 ♣ K Q 9 4 |
|
SOUTH Robot ♠ 10 5 ♥ A 9 5 ♦ A K 8 7 5 ♣ 8 5 3 |
Partner had both the heart ten and the club jack, so either Containment or Attack would have worked.
Jazlene and I don't agree on this one. She initially played as I did but later decided later that a club shift was better. Watch her play on Jaz Plays Bridge, then watch her post mortem.