Weekly Free Instant Tournament - Apr 8, 2022 - Board 2

Board 2
Our side vulnerable

♠ K 8 4  ♥ A Q J 7  ♦ Q 10 6 3  ♣ A J

RHO passes. I open with one notrump and buy it. West leads the club five.

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

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

I have four club tricks, but it's not clear I can take all of them. If I cash the ace and jack of clubs and the diamond ace is offside, I may wind up with only two. It may be better to plan on overtaking the club jack to make sure I get three club tricks.

Even if the diamond ace is onside, I may break even squandering one of my club tricks. Overtaking the club jack gives me a second dummy entry either to repeat the heart finesse or to lead a diamond to the ten. So I may lose a club trick and gain a trick elsewhere. Since cashing the ace and jack of clubs is almost certainly wrong if the diamond ace is offside and might not gain even if it's onside, it seems like the wrong thing to do.

I play low from dummy, East plays the nine, and I win with the ace. The deuce is still out, so it's possible West led from a five-card suit.

I play the diamond three--nine--king--four. The nine might be West's lowest diamond. Or it might be a cowardly play from ace-jack-nine fourth for fear I was going to insert the eight. I doubt, however, that he would hop with the nine unless he also held the jack.

I play the heart four from dummy; East plays the five. I want West to win the king if he has it. If I play the queen, a brave West might duck, thinking I would be unlikely to play a heart to the queen this early on without holding the jack as well. If I play the jack, however, ducking is more dangerous, since I could have ace-jack-ten. I would not expect this West to duck the king no matter which card I play, but I play the jack just for practice. West plays the deuce. I haven't seen the three.

I play the club jack and overtake with the king. West plays the eight, the card he was known to hold. East follows to this trick with the deuce. Now that I've seen the deuce, I know West began with either three or four clubs. I suspect three, partly because the robots have a fondness for leading three-card suits against notrump and partly because both defenders' carding is consistent with the suit's splitting three-four. But that's merely a suspicion. The robots are perfectly capable of playing their spots at random.

I cash the club queen. East plays the ten, and I discard the spade four. West follows with the club six. I repeat the heart finesse: Eight--ten--queen--three. Here is the current position:

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

If East has king-nine of hearts left, I can exit with a diamond to West's jack. West will then have to lead a diamond or a spade into me, possibly after cashing the long club, on which I will pitch a heart. If hearts are three-three, however, West can simply exit with his third heart. That would be particularly embarrassing if he does so after I've pitched my heart winner. I'd like to cash the heart ace, both to make sure West is out of hearts and to find out if my long heart is a winner. But can I afford to do that? If they don't split, I'm setting up a trick for the defense.

Say I cash the heart and West pitches a spade. I exit with a diamond. If West has the spade ace, I'm in good shape. But what if East has it? Either West cashes a club and leads a spade to East's ace, or he leads a spade to East's ace and East cashes a club. Either way, I can pitch a heart on the club trick. But what do I do when East cashes the long heart? I guess that's not a problem. I can pitch a diamond. If diamonds are three-three, a diamond pitch doesn't hurt. And if West has four diamonds, he has no entry to cash them.

I cash the heart ace. West plays the nine; East the king. Great! Now I have another heart to cash before endplaying West.

I cash the heart seven, pitching dummy's club. West pitches the spade three; East, the spade six. Now I play the diamond six. Maybe I'll catch West with 5-3-2-3 and he'll win this trick with the ace. No such luck. West wins with the diamond jack and exits with the spade jack to my king. I'm out of tricks. Making three.

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

Plus 150 is worth 75%.  My score has dropped down to 87.5%, but that was a high bar I set on the first board. I'm still in first place.