Weekly Free Instant Tournament - Feb. 11, 2022 - Board 8

Board 8
Neither vulnerable

♠ A J  ♥ A 7 4 3  ♦ A Q 10 8 2  ♣ A 10

LHO passes, partner passes, and RHO opens with one spade. I’m not a fan of offshape take-out doubles, but it seems like the right action here. If partner bids clubs, I can rebid two notrump, showing better than a strong notrump. 

I double. LHO passes, and partner bids one notrump. The tooltip says this shows 5 to 10 HCP. I prefer to play it more constructive than that--more like 8 to 11. But even opposite 5 to 10 I’m worth raising to three. The spade jack was a doubtful value before partner bid notrump. Now it may be worth a full trick. 

I bid three notrump, everyone passes, and RHO leads the club three.

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

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

We have 29 HCP between us. Obviously West has the rest. I have three club tricks, five diamond tricks, a heart, and two spades--eleven tricks. It’s hard to imagine taking any more.

Does it matter whether I finesse the club ten or hop with the ace and lead the ten? The former forces me to use a diamond entry to my hand to continue clubs. If I hop and return a club, West may take his king, allowing me to keep my diamond holding a mystery for a while longer. It's hard to see how it will matter. But keeping the opponents in the dark whenever possible is good policy.

I play the club ace. East plays the six; I play the deuce. Now ten of clubs--nine--four--king.

West shifts to the spade three. I play the jack; East plays the deuce. The queen is the card I'm known to hold, so I overtake. I have all the tricks but one. But since I have no entries to either threat suit in my hand, and since I can't cash all my tricks ending in my hand, there is no possibility of a squeeze. Is there any chance of inducing a misdefense? The line that applies the most pressure on West is to cash the spade ace, run four diamonds, ending in my hand, then cash two clubs. The position will then be:

	NORTH Phillip ♠ -- ♥ A 7 ♦ 2 ♣ --
	SOUTH Robot ♠ 10 ♥ J 6 ♦ -- ♣ --

West will be down to the spade king and king-queen of hearts. I can't think of any way to persuade West that he needs to hold three hearts or that he needs to hold two spades. So it appears I'm destined to make five. I cash my tricks in the order I stated. West of course holds onto the right cards. Making five.

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

86%! Why wasn’t this average? Lots of declarers found creative lines to hold themselves to ten tricks, mostly involving playing diamonds too early so that they could no longer manage three club tricks. The standard of declarer play is not high in these instant tournaments.

I finish first, with 75%. This appears to be a popular format, so I'll try it once more. Play in the Weekly Free Instant Tournament that becomes available on BBO on Friday morning, April 8, and we can compare results in the coming eight weeks.

Since there wasn't much of interest in that deal, I'll offer another, from which I recently learned an important lesson:

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

You find yourself in six diamonds with a spade lead. From the auction, you place East with eight hearts. You draw trumps. East is void. Then you cash spades. They are three-three. So East is presumably 3-8-0-2. You have no legitimate chance for an overtrick. But if East has the club king, you may be able to bamboozle him.

I cashed the long spade and all my diamonds but one, coming down to this position:

	NORTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ A 6 4 ♦ -- ♣ A
	SOUTH Phillip ♠ -- ♥ -- ♦ 2 ♣ Q 9 3

If East thinks I have a heart, then he can't afford to come down to a doubleton heart, else I can establish a heart trick by ruffing. So he may stiff his club king, hoping his partner has the queen. West can solve the problem for East by pitching both his hearts, disclosing my void. But he didn't. Still, East got the end position right, holding two hearts and king doubleton of clubs. So I made only six.

It turns out there was a flaw in my plan. The auction had been,

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Robot	Phillip
	1 ♦	4 ♥	5 ♥
Double	6 ♦	(All pass)

My five heart bid might have tipped East off to my void. But, more importantly, my hand was dummy. It's hard to fool the opponents about what cards you hold when your hand is lying on the table. It would be nice if BBO were to flip directions when North becomes declarer. But they don't.

So here is my Bols Bridge Tip: Remember which hand is dummy. Had I followed that advice, I would have ruffed a heart, stripping advancer of his stopper, then run all my tricks, coming down to this position (properly rotated):

	NORTH Phillip ♠ -- ♥ -- ♦ -- ♣ Q 9 3
	SOUTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ A 6 ♦ -- ♣ A

The pre-empter (now West) must decide whether my thirteenth card is a low heart or a low club. There are, of course, ways for the defense to solve this problem. But I should put them to the test.