Board 4
Both sides vulnerable
| ♠ A K 10 4 ♥ A 9 2 ♦ A 10 2 ♣ A 10 9 |
LHO opens with one heart, partner passes, and RHO bids one spade. My hand is too good for a one notrump overcall. And doubling and bidding two notrump over partner's advance will get us too high if partner is broke. I could underbid with one notrump. That will work out well if partner has enough to raise. But he probably doesn't, so one notrump is likely to end the auction. Since I have a good chance of collecting 200 wherever the opponents end up, I don't want to risk playing in a partscore.
Accordingly, I pass. LHO bids one notrump. Partner passes, and RHO bids two spades. I hover the mouse over double to see how the robots play it. They say it's take-out. That's nonsense. If I had a take-out double, I would have doubled on the previous round. This should be a penalty double. If it were, I would certainly choose it. On a bad day, they might make two spades. But I probably have it beat and my own hand, and I could collect a number if partner has anything to contribute. Unfortunately, with the methods I'm saddled with, I have no option but to pass.
LHO and partner pass as well. My best choice on opening lead is to hit partner's minor to start a tap. There is no particular reason to believe partner has one minor or the other, but I have more help in clubs, so I'll try that suit. I lead the club ace.
| NORTH Robot ♠ Q J 6 ♥ Q 10 8 7 3 ♦ Q 5 3 ♣ K Q |
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| WEST Phillip ♠ A K 10 4 ♥ A 9 2 ♦ A 10 2 ♣ A 10 9 |
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| West | North | East | South |
| Phillip | Robot | Robot | Robot |
| |
1 ♥ | Pass | 1 ♠ |
| Pass | 1 NT | Pass | 2 ♠ |
| (All pass) | |
|
|
I have three spade tricks, so unless one of my aces is ruffed, declarer is down at least one. Partner plays the club deuce and declarer plays the three. I might as well continue clubs. If declarer has three or four small clubs, we may be able to take additional club tricks after drawing dummy's trumps. I play the club ten--king--seven--eight.
What will declarer do now? If he has the heart king, he will probably play a heart from dummy. He doesn't. He leads the diamond five. Partner plays the six, and declarer plays the jack. The fact that declarer didn't play hearts, doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have the king. But I can be pretty sure he has the diamond king. He must have at least one red king, and if the had only the heart king, he wouldn't be playing a diamond to the jack. So either he has only the diamond king or he has both red kings.
I don't see any route to taking four trump tricks. So I might as well draw dummy's trumps now. I win the diamond ace and play king, ace, and a third trump. Partner pitches the heart six on the second trump and the diamond seven on the third. Partner wouldn't be clutching his clubs if he started with six of them, so declarer must have at least one club left. Let hope it's not the jack.
Declarer play the three of diamonds from dummy--nine--king--deuce, then a diamond back to dummy's queen as partner pitches the club four. So declarer is five-four in spades and diamonds, probably 5-1-4-3.
Declarer plays the eight of hearts from dummy. Partner hops with the jack and declarer follows with the four. Partner cashes the club jack, and declarer follows with the nine. Declarer has two trumps and a good diamond left. I can take my high trump, but declarer has two tricks coming to him. Down two.
| NORTH Robot ♠ Q J 6 ♥ Q 10 8 7 3 ♦ Q 5 3 ♣ K Q |
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| WEST Phillip ♠ A K 10 4 ♥ A 9 2 ♦ A 10 2 ♣ A 10 9 |
EAST Robot ♠ 7 ♥ K J 6 5 ♦ 9 7 6 ♣ J 7 6 4 2 |
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| SOUTH Robot ♠ 9 8 5 3 2 ♥ 4 ♦ K J 8 4 ♣ 8 5 3 |
Plus 200 is worth 75%. While you can make a game, no one managed to bid it. As I predicted, if you overcall with one notrump, you play it there. What I didn't predict is that I didn't necessarily do better defending. I beat most of the one-notrump declarers, but some of them scored 210. Of course, had I been able to double two spades for penalties, as I should be, I would have beat those declarers as well.
Several good players I discussed this board with didn't even consider passing over one spade, which I find surprising. When the opponents are in a forcing auction and have just bid my best suit, passing is the first option that comes to mind. Even without the ability to double two spades, I think it is far and away the percentage action with this hand.
I'm still in first place, with 82%.
I doubled, my LHO redoubled, and partner bid 2 clubs. Over this, RHO bid 2S! I wanted to double this, but evidently that was also takeout, so I passed. Unfortunately(?), partner bid 3C. I didn't think my hearts were good enough to bid 3NT, so I passed. In retrospect, that was too timid. My +150 was worth just 43%.
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