Zenith Daylong - Oct 14, 2021 - Board 11

Board 11
Neither vulnerable

♠ Q J 9 7 3  ♥ A K  ♦ --  ♣ K Q J 10 9 7

Some would open with one spade, believing that immediately showing the fifth spade takes precedence over showing the relative length of your suits. But I believe your suit length is critical. If you can be tapped out, the six-card suit can play many tricks better than the five-card suit. So I bid one club. LHO bids one diamond, partner bids one spade, and RHO raises to two diamonds.

I have three losers: the ace and king of spades and the ace of clubs. If partner has two of those cards, I want to be in slam. Since we have at least nine spades, I'm willing to risk the five level to investigate. So opening one club worked out well. If I had opened one spade and partner had raised, I would have to worry we had a five-three fit, in which case the possibility of a four-one spade break would make reaching the five level off two keycards dangerous.

How can I find out if partner has the cards I need? Five diamonds as exclusion Blackwood would be nice, but that's not part of the robots' methods. I could bid Blackwood and hope that, if partner has two keycards, the diamond ace isn't one of them. But that's probably against the odds. Maybe the thing to do is to trust partner to use his judgment. If I splinter with four diamonds, then bid five diamonds over partner's probable four spades, will he do the right thing? I think he should. If he's looking at two working keycards, he should reason as follows: "Partner might gamble on my having one keycard for a one-level response, but gambling on my having two would be exceedingly optimistic. If he can't make slam opposite this hand, then we would be going down at the five level if I were missing one of these cards. That's a risk he wouldn't have taken."

So he should make the right decision with two keycards. What is the risk he will bid slam with only one? He will know all his diamond honors are useless. The only other cover card he can have is the heart queen, and it's hard to see how that card is critical in this auction. I don't think he is likely to bid slam with only one working keycard and the heart queen.

In general, I don't like to splinter then bid again. Splinters, in theory, are limit bids and should therefore surrender captaincy. But, while I like following such rules as much as the next pedant, sometimes you have to make exceptions. Four diamonds, then five diamonds, should accomplish exactly what I want.

I bid four diamonds; partner bids four spades. I bid five diamonds; partner bids five spades, and I give up. West leads the heart four. 

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

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

I fully approve of partner's one spade bid, but I'm a little surprised he made it. I've seen the robots pass as responder with similar hands. 

East plays the five of hearts under my ace, and I drop the three. That was sloppy. I know from the auction that West can't have a doubleton heart. And now East knows that also. I should have played the eight, concealing the card below West's lead, to retain the possibility that the lead was from a doubleton. I can't imagine how it could matter on this deal, but the next sloppy play might. I need to wake up before I go down in a contract that appears to be cold.

How might I go down? The only bad thing I can see happening is someone's getting a surprise club ruff. Say, for example, I lead a spade to the king and ace. West plays a club to the ace, and East returns a club. I ruff and get overruffed with the ten. To avoid that, I need to lead the spade queen from dummy. That will neutralize the spade ten unless trumps are three-zero.

It turns out they are. I lead the spade queen, East pitches the diamond five, and West plays the spade four. Am I in trouble if West has a stiff club? If I lead a spade to the king, West can win, lead a club to his partner's ace, and overruff the club return with his ten. If I lead the spade jack from dummy, he gets a trump promotion instead of an overruff. What if I lead a club myself now? East wins and plays another club. I can ruff with the king and lead a spade toward the jack. Yes, that works.

I lead the king of clubs. No worries. West has the ace. He wins and returns a heart, and I claim.

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

Plus 450 is worth 69%. Some players blasted six spades. If you're going to do that, surely you should bid Blackwood first and at least avoid slam if partner has only one keycard. While bidding Blackwood with a void is not advisable, it's still better than simply blasting.

A number of players did bid Blackwood and stopped in five spades. One effect of that decision was that it induced West to lead a diamond, since he is not privy to your void. While my handling of the spade suit turned out not to matter, it does matter if dummy is tapped with a diamond at trick one. Now if you carelessly lead a spade to the king, you go down, since West can tap dummy twice more to promote his spade ten. This, in fact, happened to a few declarers.

I'm not sure why learning about the diamond void steered West away from a diamond lead. You know declarer is off two aces since you are looking at them. Would he really drive to the five level with a heart loser as well? A heart lead can hardly be productive. But that ace-ten third of spades might be an annoyance if you attack the trump suit with diamond taps. So learning about the void should make a diamond lead even more attractive.