Free Super Sunday Daylong - May 29 - Board 1

Every Sunday BBO offers a free robot individual. Since it's free, it attracts over 15,000 entrants, so it's a chance to see how you do in an enormous field. I decided to try it for my next set.

Board 1
Neither vulnerable

♠ A 5 2  ♥ A K 7 6 2  ♦ 7 3  ♣ A J 6

Partner opens with one club, I bid one heart, and partner bids two clubs. I prefer to play that a two-club rebid denies three-card heart support, but the robots refuse to play that way, so partner might have three hearts. If he does, he will have a sixth club or be 1-3-4-5. Either way my chances for slam are good. King-queen sixth of clubs, queen third of hearts, and the diamond ace is a minimum opening bid and we have a grand slam on normal breaks. If partner doesn't have a heart fit, we still might make a slam in clubs, but that will be hard to investigate. I'll check for a heart fit first and worry about how to find a club slam later.

I suspect partner expects me to bid my better pointed suit to check back, but I want to keep the auction low to make investigation easier. It's hard to see how it can hurt to bid two diamonds rather than two spades, and it allows partner to show heart support at the two level.

I bid two diamonds, and partner bids three diamonds. This should show four-card "support." If I were sure partner was four-six in the minors, I would be very interested in a club slam now. But he could be four-five.

I would not be four-five myself. I open one diamond with four-five in the minors and insufficient values to reverse. While I don't generally like to bid suits out of order, one doesn't usually end up playing in minor suits. So ambiguity about your relative minor-suit lengths will often prove unimportant. And there are two benefits to bidding this way: (1) If your opponent overcalls, responder will often have an easier time after a one-diamond opening than after a one-club opening. (2) It can be helpful to know opener has six clubs on an auction such has this one. Still, I believe I'm in the minority here. This is a more common approach in Acol. I used to play Acol, and this is one of the quirks I've retained from that style.

In any event, my robot partner could easily be four-five, which makes slam less likely. At matchpoints, I don't want to risk getting past three notrump in pursuit of a speculative slam. So I settle for a timid three notrump, which ends the auction. West leads the spade nine.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Robot	Phillip
	1 ♣	Pass	1 ♥
Pass	2 ♣	Pass	2 ♦
Pass	3 ♦	Pass	3 NT
(All pass)

Partner has more than a minimum in high cards, but the lack of a sixth club makes slam problematic. While six clubs might make, I'm happy to be in three notrump.

The opening lead appears to be from a doubleton. I wonder if bidding and raising diamonds steered him off a normal diamond lead. Good thing I'm not playing against humans. If a diamond lead turns out to be better, I can already hear the opponents calling the director, claiming I psyched. I didn't. I chose two diamonds for purposes of economy--not deception.

I have ten cashing tricks. Can I find an eleventh? Even if hearts are four-three, I don't have the tempo to establish a long heart trick. I could try to find the king-queen of diamonds onside, or I could duck a couple of tricks and try for a squeeze.

Suppose I win the spade in dummy and duck a heart. The opponents will probably continue spades. To correct the count for a squeeze, I'll have to duck, eliminating my spade threat. Now a diamond shift will destroy any remaining squeeze chances. In fact, even a spade continuation destroys any squeeze chances, since I will have no entry to my hand after running clubs.

If a squeeze isn't going to work, my only reasonable shot at an eleventh trick is finding the king-queen of diamonds onside. I play a low spade from dummy, and East encourages with the eight. I take the spade ace and lead the diamond three. West plays the queen. That looks promising. West appears to be splitting with king-queen. I duck, and East follows with the ten.

West continues with the spade seven. I win with dummy's king, and East follows with the four. Assuming West has the diamond king, I now have eleven cashing tricks. And if West began with four or more diamonds, I have a double squeeze for twelve. West stops diamonds and East stops spades. So neither can stop hearts. Thankfully, West didn't find a heart shift, which would have killed the double squeeze.

How confident am I that West has the diamond king? Might he be inserting the queen from queen doubleton or third? If I take the diamond finesse and it loses, East will have three spades to cash.

Since I know East had the diamond ten, I'm pretty confident West was splitting. West might insert the queen from queen-ten doubleton. Maybe even from queen-ten third. But without the ten, inserting an isolated queen would be a strange play. Of course, one never knows what strange plays the robots are capable of. But it seems unlikely the king is offside.

I play the club deuce to my ace. East plays the nine, West the three. I lead the seven of diamonds. West plays the nine. The moment of truth. I play the jack. East follows with the five. When I cash the diamond ace, East discards the club four. I can't claim, because I'm only inferring East has the rest of the spades. But of course he does, so I wind up making six.

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

Plus 490 is worth 82%. Squeezes tend to be worth a lot in these events. The field doesn't do squeezes. It might have been worth more, but some players bid and made six clubs.

Quite a number of players simply bid three notrump over two clubs. With 16 HCP, it's probably true that, if we stop in game, three notrump is better than four hearts--even if partner has heart support. But blasting three notrump is giving up on slam too easily.

Leaping to three notrump works out badly for a strange reason. It induces West to lead a club, giving declarer the tempo to go after a long heart trick. With that option available, playing for king-queen of diamonds onside is no longer the best line. You do establish an eleventh trick in hearts, but you can no longer find a twelfth.

In retrospect, perhaps I played too quickly when I ducked the diamond queen. Since I haven't seen East play the ten yet, there is a real possibility that West played the queen without the king. If he did, I would go down on the line I took.

A safer way to try for an extra trick is to take the diamond ace, then return to my hand with a club to play another diamond. If West hops with the diamond king and doesn't find a heart shift, I still have a double squeeze for twelve tricks. But if he plays low, I might decide he doesn't have the king. After all,  what's the point of splitting if you're willing to let me score the jack on the next diamond play anyway? If I decide West doesn't have the king, I can duck, ensuring the opponents can't take more than three diamond tricks. That way, at least I take the ten tricks I started with.