Free Super Sunday Daylong - May 29 - Board 7

Board 7
Both vulnerable

♠ A K 8 6 2  ♥ K 6 2  ♦ J 5 2  ♣ A 2

I'm in first seat. With the majors reversed, I must open with one notrump, since a one-heart opening leaves me with no good rebid after a one spade response. But with spades I don't have a rebid problem, so I can use my judgment. Aces and kings and the absence of spot cards makes this is a suit-oriented hand, so I open with one spade.

Partner bids two diamonds. I rebid two notrump, and partner raises to three notrump. West leads the club four.

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

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

If the club king is on my right, I'm not making this. So I play the queen and hold my breath. East plays the five. That's a relief. I haven't seen the three, so West might have led from a five-card suit. In fact, he probably did, since the robots don't like aggressive leads except from long suits--and sometimes not even then.

After I knock out the diamond ace, I'll have ten tricks. If the heart queen is onside and I'm willing to risk the finesse, I'll have eleven with excellent chances for a twelfth. Hearts could be three-three or the hand with long hearts could guard spades and be squeezed. 

One thing I should keep in mind is that I have received a favorable opening lead. That's less important in a robot individual than it would be in a real event, since presumably everyone who has the same auction will get the same opening lead. But not everyone will open with one spade. Perhaps West will lead a club after a one-notrump opening as well, but that's not certain. There is at least some chance that I already have an advantage that I must be careful not to throw away.

I lead the diamond king. East doesn't know clubs aren't running. So if he has the diamond ace he will likely take it and return a club. If this holds, the diamond ace is probably on my left. It holds. East plays the nine; West, the four.

The heart ace is my only dummy entry outside the diamond suit. So if West ducks the next diamond as well, he forces me to decide whether to take the heart finesse before I've had a chance to run diamonds.

I play the diamond six, and East discards the spade three. That could be from a five-card suit, making East 5-3-1-4. Or it could be from a three-card suit, making East 3-5-1-4. I doubt very much East would pitch a spade from any four-card holding. Even pitching from a five-card suit is unattractive, since he knows I have five spades. That suggests he's 3-5-1-4. On the other hand, I would expect him to pitch a heart with that pattern. So, for the moment, I'm keeping both possibilities in mind.

I play the diamond jack and West, surprisingly, takes his ace. He continues with the club king--seven--six--ace.

Since West is allowing me to reach dummy with a diamond, I might as well run a few diamonds and see what discards I get. When you run a suit, it's a good idea to make predictions about what the opponents will discard. That way, if they pitch something you don't expect, it will set off an alarm.

What does East know about my hand? He should work out my pattern. But I do have a king more than I need to open the bidding, so he doesn't know I have both major-suit kings. He will need to come down to six cards. He will want to save one club for communication with his partner. If he is 3-5-1-4, he will probably come down to 2-3-0-1. 

What if he is 5-3-1-4? Then he has a problem. Unless he has queen-ten-nine of spades, he must keep four spades to keep me from running the suit. But if he keeps four spades and a club, he will have to come down to a stiff heart. Now I can run the heart suit. If I cash the heart king and the queen doesn't drop, I'll know I can finesse. So with 5-3-1-4, he will need to throw all his clubs and come down to 4-2-0-0 to give me a problem.

On the diamond queen, East discards the club ten. He has one club left. On the next diamond, East pitches the heart nine. The nine? The robots' first pitch in a suit is almost always count. I know he has either five hearts or three, so the only holding the nine is consistent with is queen--ten--nine. If I've read the layout correctly, I have the rest.

I pitch the spade deuce. On the last diamond, East pitches the heart ten, presumably coming down to a stiff queen. I pitch the spade six; West, the heart four. I play a low heart from dummy. East, as expected, plays the queen and I claim.

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

Plus 690 is worth 79%.

The defense was soft. For starters, West should duck the second diamond. If he does that, I will play a third diamond. West will win this round as East pitches a club. West will then continue with a club to my ace. I have no reason to believe the heart queen is onside, and if I take the finesse and it loses, I'm down. So I would play a heart to the ace and cash a diamond, pitching a spade from my hand. East will probably pitch a spade as well, and we are down to this position:

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

On the last diamond, East has a problem. A pitch from either major gives me two tricks, so East will presumably let go of his last club. I can now make five by pitching a spade and endplaying him to force a lead from the heart queen. Or--better yet, since it's safer--by pitching a heart and playing ace, king, and another spade to set up my long spade.

So ducking the second diamond holds me to five. Once West fails to duck, there is no way to stop me from making six. It's probably impossible to work out at the time exactly what ducking the diamond accomplishes. But it's the right play on principle. Leaving me with a diamond entry to dummy allows me extra flexibility, which is usually a bad idea. It might cost to duck if I could profitably abandon the suit and go after tricks elsewhere. But, looking at that dummy, it's hard to imagine how that could be the case.