ACBL Daylong 1 - Jul 29, 2021 - Board 7

Board 7
Neither vulnerable

♠ A 3  ♥ A 8 5  ♦ J 7 4  ♣ K 8 6 4 3

I open one club in first seat, partner responds one diamond, and East doubles. The robots play that redouble here shows three-card support. This makes sense opposite a response of one of a major, but I don't see the point of that agreement after one diamond. If you have only three diamonds and an unbalanced hand, you surely have something more interesting to say, such as showing a major or rebidding a six-card club suit. And if you're balanced, the fact that you are balanced seems more important than your puny support. 

I think the right call with this hand is pass. There is no reason to bid when you have a weak notrump, so passing allows you to reserve a one notrump rebid for some more useful purpose, like showing an offshape strong notrump. Even if you haven't agreed on a special meaning for one notrump, passing seems like the wiser choice. Rebidding one notrump conveys no additional information. All it does is leave you exposed to a possible double by LHO.

Still, I haven't had much success passing with these hands opposite robots. The auction always seems to get tangled up, because they find themselves in unfamiliar territory. If I rebid one notrump, at least partner knows what his rebids mean. So I bid one notrump to keep him happy. 

West bids three hearts--pass--pass to me. I have nothing further to say. I pass, and partner leads the deuce of hearts.

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

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

Partner appears to have led a singleton heart. A singleton trump is not generally an attractive lead, so I suspect he has a spade stack.

Declarer plays the seven from dummy and follows with the five when I take my ace. I follow partner's plan and return a heart. Declarer wins with the nine in dummy as partner discards the five of diamonds. The robots signal count with their discards, so if partner has five diamonds, he will discard his lowest. The only way that can be his lowest is if he began with specifically AQ985, so it's more likely he has six. 

I do wish partner would signal louder. When you choose to play high--whatever high means in your methods--you should play the highest spot you can afford. If partner could be counted on to do that, then I would know for a fact this was his lowest diamond, however unlikely that was a priori. Unfortunately, the robots are fond of these bloodless count cards, so one can never be sure what they have. In any event, I'm assuming for the time being that partner is 4-1-6-2, which makes declarer 2-4-3-4. 

Declarer plays a trump to his ten, and partner pitches the spade four. That's a bit of a surprise. Partner has plenty of diamonds he can pitch. Pitching a spade from any holding seems like a bad idea. 

Declarer cashes the ace and king of diamonds, pitching a club from dummy. Partner follows with the three (told you) and the eight. Declarer now leads the deuce of spades--nine--ten--ace. I can't believe partner pitched a spade from queen forth. He must have been 3-1-6-3 and his queen is now dropping. But even if it isn't, declarer can ruff it out. I return a club. Declarer wins with dummy's ace, plays a trump to his king, and leads the seven of spades. Partner plays the queen. Declarer has the rest. Making five.

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

This is a good example of how the robots' assumption of double-dummy play by declarer leads them astray. Yes, double dummy, pitching from queen-nine third of spades can't cost. So why not? At the tables where partner didn't pitch a spade (by pure chance presumably) declarer went wrong in the spade suit and took only ten tricks. Losing eleven tricks placed us slightly below average at 42%. 

I don't see that there was much I could do here. Well, I suppose I could have made that support redouble I complained about. A couple of players did raise diamonds (although, weirdly, they chose two diamonds, promising four, rather than redouble, showing three). This prompted partner to compete to four diamonds, down one. Fortunately for them, the opponents sold out rather than bid their game. Since no one redoubled, I can't say what would have happened had I chosen to do that.