The Gargoyle Chronicles: Zenith Daylong - Oct 14, 2021

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Zenith Daylong - Oct 14, 2021 - Board 15

Board 15
Our side vulnerable

♠ 6 ♥ 7 4 2 ♦ Q 10 8 2 ♣ K 10 8 3 2

I pass in first seat. LHO opens with one spade, RHO raises to three, and LHO goes on to four. Partner leads the ace of diamonds.The robots lead king from ace-king. So this is either an unsupported ace or ace-king doubleton.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Phillip	Robot
		Pass	1 ♠
Pass	3 ♠	Pass	4 ♠
(All pass)

I don't want partner shifting to hearts from the king, so I encourage with the diamond eight. This says less about my enthusiasm for diamonds than it does about my lack of tolerance for a heart shift. Declarer follows with the four.

Partner cashes the heart ace. I discourage with the deuce, and declarer follows with the nine. I expect partner to shift back to diamonds now. Having set up declarer's hearts, he needs to cash my diamond king if I have it. But he continues with the heart three--queen--seven--six. Apparently, he is playing me for the heart king despite my encouraging diamond at trick one. Fortunately, I have the diamond queen, not the king, so his play didn't matter. In partner's defense, my eight was a lazy play. It could have been my lowest from queen-ten-eight. I can afford the ten, so I should have played it.

Declarer leads the eight of spades from dummy and rides it to partner's king. Partner returns the spade five. Partner has shown up with two red aces and the spade king. With that much in high cards, he would have doubled one spade with the right shape. So obviously he has a doubleton club. That means I have a club trick coming and declarer is down one.

Wrong. Declarer has a stiff club. Making four.

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

This result is dead average. Every pair was minus 420. This is why it's hard to get a big score in non-best-hand tournaments. Sometimes you have no opportunity to do anything good--or even to screw anything up. In this deal, every decision of any consequence was made by a robot, who will presumably do the same thing at every table. So you are destined to get an average.

I'm not sure why partner didn't double one spade. It doesn't look close. Thirteen support points, three honor tricks, and support for all unbid suits-- including four hearts. I'm not sure what more the robots think you need.

Also, the diamond ace is a strange opening lead. If you lead a club, declarer has to guess diamonds to make it.

Or maybe not. How will the play go? Declarer wins with the club ace and floats the eight of spades. West wins and returns a spade. Declarer wins in dummy and leads the club queen. If East covers, declarer makes easily. He ruffs, plays a heart to the queen, and cashes a club, pitching a diamond. This is the position:

	NORTH Robot ♠ 7 3 2 ♥ 5 ♦ 5 3 ♣ 7

	SOUTH Robot ♠ A Q ♥ K 9 8 ♦ K J ♣ --

He then leads a heart to the eight. West wins with the ten, and, since he is out of clubs, he is endplayed.

What if East doesn't cover the club queen? Declarer will probably ruff and play a heart to the queen. Declarer can still endplay West by ruffing another club and exiting with a low heart, but that would be a strange line. More likely, he will play a heart to eight. West wins with the ten and exits with his last club. Declarer ruffs, reaching this position:

	NORTH Robot ♠ 7 3 2 ♥ -- ♦ 5 3 ♣ J

	SOUTH Robot ♠ A ♥ K 9 ♦ K J 4 ♣ --

Declarer ruffs a heart in dummy, guessing whether to play East for a stiff jack or West for a stiff ace. Whichever one he tries, it doesn't work. So he is left with a guess in diamonds. Given West's failure to double one spade, he will probably guess wrong.

So far we are averaging about 60%. We have one board to go.

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About This Blog

First, a word or two about who am I so you have some idea how seriously to take the advice you find here. I retired from tournament bridge in 1992 (coincidentally, the year my daughter was born). At the time, I had accumulated a little over 5000 masterpoints. I had won numerous regional events and had finished second or third in several national events. Annoyingly, I have never won a national event of any significance. (The qualification is necessary. I did win one national event of little significance.) My best result was second place in the Grand National Teams (with John Lowenthal, Michael Becker, Ron Rubin, Michael Rosenberg, and Brian Glubok). I have theories about why this is, but I won't bore you with them now.

I am still in contact with many of my friends from tournament days. So I still discuss bridge and, occasionally, still write articles for Bridge World magazine, some of which you can find reprinted here: Phillip Martin's Bridge Articles

I have always enjoyed writing about bridge and have, from time to time, considered starting a blog. I think there is a void in the bridge literature that I can make some attempt to fill. Bob Hamman has stated that most people play bridge by asking themselves what they should do. Instead, they should be asking themselves what is going on. Once you figure that out, what to do will often suggest itself. I think he is right about that, and I think bridge literature is partly responsible. Bridge books and articles focus on the unusual and the spectacular. They can get you in the habit of looking for opportunities to shine, which isn’t what you should be thinking about.

The late John Lowenthal, my partner for years, was perhaps the king of doing the unusual, especially on defense. But he always found these plays by being alert to what was going on, not by simply looking for opportunities to do something unexpected. If declarer spurned a finesse John expected him to take or failed to attack a suit that John expected him to attack, John would ask himself why. Frequently, the answer to this question would reveal the entire deal. Then John could be creative and think about finding some way to deflect declarer from the winning line. And, often, he succeeded.

What I am going to attempt to do in this blog is to show by example how one should think about the game. The focus will be on process, not on results. How do you figure out what is going on? How do you try to conceal what’s going on to the opponents? How do you try to clarify the position to partner? These are the skills that separate the expert from the intermediate player more than the ability to execute a backwash squeeze. And, for this purpose, almost any deal can provide material for discussion.

What I propose to do is to play in BBO robot individuals and report on each deal in detail, focusing on the questions I ask myself and how I reach each decision. I will report on each deal, not just the ones I find interesting or instructive. This blog will probably not be of much help to a beginner, but I think it will be instructive for an intermediate player. And my expert friends will finally see what is going on inside my head when I’m in one of my interminable huddles.

I will be South, but, following convention, I will always make South declarer in the diagrams. Thus my reported compass direction may change from deal to deal.

I should point out that not all of my ideas are mainstream. I considered including a catalog of quirks, but I decided that was unnecessary. They will become apparent in due time.

The Gargoyle Chronicles

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Zenith Daylong - Oct 14, 2021 - Board 15

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