BBO Daylong Tournament 1 - Jun 1, 2021 - Board 6

Board 6
Their side vulnerable

♠ 7 6 4  ♥ A K J 6 5 2  ♦ 9  ♣ A 10 2

I open one heart in second seat. LHO bids one spade. Partner bids two spades, showing a limit raise or better in hearts, and RHO bids four spades. I have six and a half losers, which suggest five hearts will go down one opposite a typical limit raise. But partner rates to have a stiff spade opposite my three small, so the hand might play a trick better than loser count indicates. Since five hearts might make and it wouldn't surprise me if four spades makes, bidding five hearts has two ways to win. I bid five hearts, and everyone passes.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Robot	Phillip
		Pass	1 ♥
1 ♠	2 ♠	4 ♠	5 ♥
(All pass)

West leads the ace of spades. East plays the three, and I follow with the four. I can ruff two spades and pitch one club on the king of diamonds to make five. Is there any way I can set up a long diamond to make six? I not only need diamond to be four-three, I need trumps to be two-one. If I ruff two spades, I can't draw three rounds of trump and wind up in dummy.

At trick two, West shifts to the five of clubs. East plays the king, and I win with my ace.

I need to ruff two diamonds. How do I handle my entries to do that? Say I ruff a spade and play a heart to my hand. If trumps are three-zero, I abandon the idea of setting up diamonds. I ruff my last spade, then overtake the queen of hearts to finish drawing trumps. I still might take the rest if someone has five diamonds and queen-jack of clubs and is squeezed. But at least five is safe. 

If everyone follows to the first heart, I can play a diamond to the ace and ruff a diamond high. Now a trump to the queen and ruff another diamond. I still have one dummy entry left via a spade ruff to cash dummy's diamond king and potentially the long diamond. The only way this plan fails is if someone is void in diamonds. The opponents would probably have bid more if that were the case. And in any event, I don't see how to avoid that risk. If I draw two rounds of trump before playing diamonds, I'm an entry short.

I ruff a spade in dummy. West follows with the five; East, with the jack. I play the heart seven to my jack. East plays the ten, West the nine. Now diamond nine--eight--ace--three. The hands is over. Nothing left to do except see if diamonds set up. They don't. Making five.

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

64% for plus 450. It's unfortunate six didn't make. My experience in these robot individuals is that the field tends to draw trumps first, then look around for what to do next. The fact that you need to ruff one diamond before finishing the trumps means you would probably score around 90% if it worked.

Four spades was going down one. Three players chose to double it instead of bidding five hearts. That's a strange decision, since this hand clearly has better offense than defense. One chose to pass, perhaps thinking it was forcing, but his partner didn't agree and passed it out.

One player chose an optimistic six hearts. Four-three diamonds a priori is 62%. If that's all you needed, slam would be fine. But you need two-one trumps as well, which brings to slam slightly under 50%. Actually worse than that, since the fact that the opponents bid four spades vulnerable with 19 HCP combined means a four-three diamond split is less likely than normal. Add to that the fact that some pairs will choose to defend four spades, making the odds you need to bid slam higher, and slam becomes a terrible bet.

Playing my preferred methods, I would bid a fit-showing three diamonds with the North hand on the first round. I prefer reserving the cue-bid for balanced raises. Over four spades, it's not clear what South's proper action is. The diamond misfit and club ace suggest defending. The three small spades and sixth heart suggest bidding on. I would probably pass, which I do play as forcing. (My rule is: A game-invitational raise sets up a force unless you have a chance to decline the invitation. Since East's four spade bid deprives me of that chance, my pass is forcing.) The fit-showing jumper usually bids on with a singleton in the opponents' suit and doubles with two or more, so partner would bid five hearts. On the actual auction, I inferred partner's singleton spade. But I could have been wrong. The opponents don't always have the trump length they promise.