BBO Daylong Tournament 1 - Jun 1, 2021 - Board 8

Board 8
Neither vulnerable

♠ Q  ♥ A K J 6 5  ♦ A J 10 6  ♣ A Q 2

Three passes to me. This looks like enough casino points to open in fourth seat. Some are going to count their HCP and open two clubs. But this is a five-loser hand. It's not worth opening two clubs. And, even if it were, I would be hesitant to open two clubs with this pattern. Two club auctions are awkward when you have a variety of strains to explore. 

I open one heart, and partner raises to four. Could we have a slam? It's certainly possible. Partner could have a stiff diamond and the club king, for example. But that's a magic hand. Four losers is a lot for partner to cover when he couldn't open the bidding. I pass. West leads the six of spades

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

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

Hmm. I'm not sure I care for partner's four heart bid. Two hearts looks more to the point, five-card support notwithstanding. With both opponents being passed hands, you need some expectation of making four hearts to bid it. Fortunately, I have partner covered.

I play a low spade from dummy, hoping East inserts the jack. But no. He wins the ace and shifts to the seven of clubs. I try the queen, which loses to the king. West continues with the club ten, East plays the eight, and I win with my ace. I don't think West would lead the ten holding jack-ten, so I suspect the club jack is on my right. Other than that, I don't know much about the lie of the club suit. The fact that East led the seven from a suit headed by jack-eight-seven doesn't mean much. The robots' choice of spots when shifting in the middle of the hand appears to be random.

I can draw trump and pitch my club on the spade king. Assuming no surprise in the trump suit, I'm left with finding the diamond queen for an overtrick.

Everyone follows small to the first round of trumps. West pitches the spade three on the second round, and East follows with the queen. Six of spades, then the three. Usually the robots conceal the fifth card when they have led fourth best from a five-card suit. I don't know if they do this for deceptive purposes or because they don't know any better, thinking they are supposed to give present count. 

For the record, present count on your second play in the suit you have led works fine if you are playing third-and-lowest opening leads. But not if you are playing fourth best, as the robots do. In that case, if you play high from four (originally five), then partner can't tell whether you started with four or five. So you should play low, your original fifth best. Think of this as a "clarifying" card rather than a count card. It clarifies your holding, because it's a card you can't have if you began with four. What if you began with six? Then you should play high. If you play low, partner will assume you began with five. This means you are carding the same way with an original holding of four or six. But partner can probably work that out. It's certainly better than carding the same way with five or six. In general, two-card ambiguities are easier to resolve than one-card ambiguities. 

Given the popularity of third-and-lowest opening leads, many players never learned the proper continuations when playing old-fashioned fourth best. I suspect the BBO programmers are among them. Of course, you can always decide that count is more important to declarer than to partner and choose to card "incorrectly" for deceptive purposes. This, in fact, is one advantage of fourth-best leads. It is easier to conceal your count later if you decide to do so.

Anyway, the robots card incorrectly as a matter of routine, so I suspect West began with six spades.

I play a heart to dummy. West pitches the diamond nine; East, the spade deuce. Their first discard in a suit is usually honest count, so it appears West is either 6-1-4-2 or 6-1-2-4. I'm inclined to think the former. I don't think West would have continued with the club ten at trick three if he began with king-ten fourth. In any event, I 'll get confirmation when I ruff a club to my hand.

I pitch my club on the spade king. East plays the spade ten; West, the seven. When I play the club nine from dummy, East follows with the three. What? Not the jack? Maybe West is 6-1-2-4 after all? No. When I ruff, West pitches the spade eight. Cute. East knew he didn't need to cover the club nine, since I had no useful discard.  

Now that's a play I don't think many humans would make. I might fail to cover if I thought I had something to gain, like getting declarer to misplace high cards. But when declarer is going to find out what you've done right away, what's the point? We all make mistakes. What if you have misanalyzed the position and not covering turns out to give away a trick? It would be hard to explain to your partner.

Here is the current position:

	NORTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ 10 8 ♦ K 7 5 ♣ --
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ -- ♥ J ♦ A J 10 6 ♣ --

Assuming my construction is correct,West has two spades and three diamonds left, and East has a spade, two diamonds, and two clubs. Against humans, I would go with the odds and hook West for the diamond queen. But the robots always assume I can see their cards. If West began with Q98x of diamonds, he will cover my jack when I lead it in case his partner has 10x. The robots don't always cover an honor with an honor, as we just saw. But they will always do so if it can't cost double-dummy and might gain. I lead the diamond jack, and West plays the three. I go up with king. East thoughtfully relieves the suspense by dropping the queen. Making five.

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

Plus 450 is worth 71%. Almost everyone found the diamond queen, but some reached six hearts. Some optimistically blasting it after one heart--four hearts and some after North took South's two-club opening seriously.

I finish fourth once again (out of 995) with a score of 77%. This time it took 85% to win. I don't think I could have managed that. Even if I had guessed to bid six clubs on board two, that would have been enough only for second place.

I've scored over 75% in both of these events. Just so you know, that's not typical. My average score in robot individuals is somewhere in the low sixties. I don't know if I concentrate better when I know I'm going to write the deal up or if I've just been lucky.