Free Weekly Instant Tournament - January 27 - Board 7

Board 6
Opponents vulnerable

♠ A 7 6  ♥ J 10 9 2  ♦ A 8 5  ♣ Q 9 4

I pass in first seat, LHO opens with one club, partner bids one heart, and RHO doubles.

My choices are two clubs, showing a limit raise, or three clubs, showing a "mixed raise," that is, a good pre-emptive raise. Is this hand worth a  limit raise? I have 11 HCP, but the club queen may be worthless and I'm "4333." I also have nine losers. A typical limit raise has only eight. Still, I do have four good trumps, and my two aces mean loser count will undervalue my hand. So I'm going to value this hand as a limit raise and bid two clubs.

LHO passes, and partner bids two hearts. With four trumps, I will compete to three hearts if pushed. But they don't push. Partner buys it at two hearts, and RHO leads the club three.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
	Pass	1 ♣	1 ♥
Double	2 ♣	Pass	2 ♥
(All pass)

I have five losers: one in each suit plus a second loser in spades. Four losers are unavoidable. Is there any way to avoid the second spade loser? If diamonds are three-three, I can pitch one of dummy's spades on a diamond, then ruff a spade. If they aren't, perhaps I can strip the hand and endplay someone. I'll need both spade honors in the same hand for that to work. If someone has both spade honors, it's probably East, since West might have led a spade from king-queen.

What are the opponents' shapes? I know spades are four-three. What about clubs? West might have competed to three clubs with four-card support. On the other hand, East might have competed--or at least have doubled two clubs--with six. One of the opponents seems to have one more club than he should.

I play a low club from dummy. East takes the ace, and I follow with the ten. I haven't seen the robots falsecard at trick one, so West should have the king. What about the jack? If East had the jack, he would normally play it unless he was afraid I had a stiff king.

When might he worry about that? If East expects his partner to compete with four-card club support, then the only time he would worry was if he had six clubs. But even then it's not clear letting me score a stiff king would cost. If I have a useful discard on the club queen, losing the club ace wouldn't matter. All in all, it's highly likely that the club jack is on my left.

At trick two, East shifts to the spade three. I play the jack, West plays the queen, and I take the ace. If East has the spade king, I have avoided my second spade loser.

If East does have the spade king, as seems likely, that was a dangerous shift. It suggests East has ace fifth of clubs and was afraid I could set up my club queen for a spade pitch. So I suspect clubs are four-five and it was West who under-competed.

I lead the heart jack--three--five--ace. Ace? I'm surprised that card is on my left. That gives West the spade queen, the heart ace, and the king-jack of clubs, leaving East with the spade king, queen-jack of diamonds, and the club ace. Would he have opened with that hand? The robots don't typically open with ten high-card points unless they have a fair amount of shape. Maybe I'm wrong about the club jack.

West shifts to the diamond deuce. I'm making one overtrick already. Is there any way to take a second one? Maybe if West is 4-2-4-3, I can squeeze him in the minors. For that to work, I'll need to keep the diamond ace as an entry to the club threat. So I play low from dummy. East plays the jack, and I win with the king. I play a heart to dummy. East pitches the club deuce. 

Here is the current position:

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

West has four spades, three hearts, and at least three clubs, so he can't have four diamonds. There is nothing to do but draw the last trump and concede a spade and a diamond. Making three.

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

As you may have noticed, there was no squeeze even if West held four diamonds. To come to nine tricks, I need to concede a spade and a diamond. And once I concede two tricks, I can't possibly take ten.

But the point of this blog is to discuss what goes through my mind as I'm playing, and retaining an entry to the club threat did pass through my mind, even though on closer examination it makes no sense. Should my lack of rigorous thinking worry me? I don't believe so. Retaining the right matrix to facilitate a squeeze is the bridge equivalent of putting your rooks on open files. You don't necessarily need to see an immediate benefit. It's just a good idea.

East's spade shift didn't cost and was arguably the right play. I rated to be 3-5-4-1. So with diamonds three-three, he was never going to enjoy a third-round spade trick on a passive defense. If his partner had held the spade ten instead of me, a spade shift would stop the overtrick. Of course, if that were the case, he would be wishing he had pushed us to the three level.

I'm not sure what the best use is for a double of two clubs, but I know from past experience that the robots play it as showing rebiddable clubs. I don't know why East didn't take advantage of that agreement here. If he had, his partner would have competed to three clubs.

This result is worth 82%, which seems generous. Apparently most declarers got a different defense, prompted by a different auction, and didn't see how to take nine tricks. It's true that one generally pitches losers from one's hand, not from dummy. Pitching a loser from dummy to enable a ruff isn't a theme one sees every day, so it's easy to have a blind spot.