BBO Daylong Tournament 1 - Apr 7, 2021 - Board 5

Board 5
Our side vulnerable

♠ A K Q 6  ♥ J 10 8  ♦ Q J 7 4 2  ♣ 6

Partner passes, and RHO opens one club. Double seems routine. I'm not good enough to bid one diamond and double later. I'm sure some will overcall one spade, but I think that would be a mistake. There is nothing about this hand that suggests a 4-3 spade fit will play well. I may have a spade loser that I could avoid in other contracts. And my long suit has top losers, not slow losers, suggesting there is little to gain by ruffing the suit in dummy. A hand with AQJ10 of spades and Axxxx of diamonds would be a different story. With this hand, if partner can't bid spades after a take-out double, we probably don't belong there.

I double. LHO bids one diamond. Partner passes, and RHO bids one heart. I pass, and LHO bids one notrump, which is passed around to me. My long suit is stacked behind me, and partner could have bid spades at the one-level yet chose not to. This hand doesn't appear to have much future on offense. I pass, and partner leads the spade three.

	NORTH Robot ♠ J 10 8 7 ♥ A K 7 2 ♦ 8 ♣ K J 10 2
		EAST Phillip ♠ A K Q 6 ♥ J 10 8 ♦ Q J 7 4 2 ♣ 6

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Phillip	Robot
Pass	1 ♣	Double	1 ♦
Pass	1 ♥	Pass	1 NT
(All pass)

Declarer plays the jack, I win with the queen, and declarer follows with the five. I haven't seen the deuce, so partner's lead could be from 32 doubleton or from 943. 

Partner and declarer have 15 HCP between them. Declarer is limited to ten, so partner has at least five, which means he probably would have bid one heart over one diamond if he had four of them. So hearts aren't a source of tricks for us. Diamonds, on the other hand, might be. Give declarer something like

♠ x x  ♥ Q x x  ♦ A 10 9 x x  ♣ Q x x

On a heart return, he can take eight tricks. A diamond switch will hold him to seven. And if his diamonds are a little worse than that, say, A9xxx, we can actually beat this contract.

I switch to the deuce of diamonds. (I know partner pays no attention to my carding. But in the middle of the hand, you should lead lowest, not fourth best, when you want the suit returned.) Declarer plays the ace; partner, the five. Declarer would probably duck this trick with just the ace, so I suspect he has the king as well. Declarer plays the club three, and partner hops with the ace. Declarer plays the ten from dummy. This suggests declarer has the nine-eight in his hand and is unblocking so he can repeat a finesse against the queen. It also suggest he has the heart queen, since he seems to think there is some way he is getting to his hand, both to finesse against the club queen and to cash his stranded diamond king. That last inference is less certain though. If he doesn't have the heart queen, he doesn't appear to have many good options.

Partner shifts to the heart six--deuce--ten--queen. Declarer leads the club eight--seven--deuce. It indeed appears declarer began with 983 of clubs. Here is the current position, with me still to play:

	NORTH Robot ♠ 10 8 7 ♥ A K 7 ♦ -- ♣ K J
		EAST Phillip ♠ A K 6 ♥ J 8 ♦ Q J 7 4 ♣ --

If I'm right that partner would have bid one heart with four, then declarer has six of the last eight tricks--two clubs, three hearts, and the diamond king. But he doesn't know the heart seven is a winner. Is there any way to convince him to pitch a heart on the diamond king and go after a spade trick? The only way that line of play makes any sense is if I pitch a diamond now and he believes I started with three. Otherwise, I will have diamonds to cash when he knocks out my spade honors. I doubt that will work; but if I pitch either major, he can't possibly go wrong. He knows I began with at least three diamonds.

I pitch the diamond four. Declarer cashes the diamond king. Partner follows with the ten, and declarer pitches the spade seven from dummy. Oh, well. Declarer repeats the club finesse, and I take the last two tricks. Making three. 

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

Hopping with the club ace, was an error. Partner should just duck, letting declarer win in dummy. Declarer can't get back to his hand twice. One way or another, the defense will come to five tricks. Frankly that doesn't seem all that difficult a play to find.

Minus 150 was, thankfully, above average: 57.4%. Quite a few players overcalled with one diamond, then, when LHO bid 1NT, balanced with a double, which partner passed. The hand is not good enough for that auction. Overcalling might make sense if you switched diamonds with one of the majors. But the fifth diamond is probably not that important. Better to get all three unbid suits into the auction with one call, then leave any further bidding up to partner.

Three pairs held declarer to eight tricks. They shifted to the diamond queen at trick two. Somehow, this seems to have startled declarer, who then forgot to unblock the ten of clubs when West hopped with the ace. It's weird how seemingly irrelevant choices of plays can have a butterfly effect on the bots' thinking. Why declarer sees the need to unblock when you lead a low diamond but not when you lead the queen escapes me.