Free Weekly Instant Tournament - March 24 - Board 7

Board 7
Both vulnerable

♠ A K Q 5 3  ♥ Q 9 5  ♦ J 7  ♣ K 7 3

I have 15 HCP, so I can open either with one notrump or with one spade.

When I was a beginner, I once opened one notrump with a five-card major and got a stern lecture from an opponent, who apparently considered it his duty to educate young players. "It's anti-field," he said groundlessly.

I've never understood equating "anti-field" with "bad." If you think an action has negative expectation, I'll listen to your reasoning. But what do I care if it's anti-field? If it has positive expectation and the field doesn't know that, "anti-field" is good.

In my experience, the fear of missing a five-three fit when you open with one notrump is overblown. Odds are, partner doesn't have precisely three cards in your major. And, even if he does, it's not necessarily right to play in the major. If you're worried about it, you can play Puppet Stayman. But I prefer simply not to worry about it. If  we miss a five-three fit, so be it. My primary concern in is whether opening the major will give me a rebid problem.

I usually open with the major when I have 17 HCP, since I have an easy two-notrump rebid. But with 15 or 16 HCP, I tend to open with one notrump. That's an awkward range for opening with one of a suit. It's not good enough for aggressive action later on, but it is good enough that you can miss a game if you treat the hand as a minimum.  

Some players use other criteria. Larry Edwards, for example, once told me he avoids one notrump with five cards in one major and a doubleton in the other. That way, if his partner transfers to the other major and passes, at least he isn't playing his five-two fit instead of his five-three fit.

Recently, I encountered Steve Robinson's advice. Like me, he is concerned primarily with avoiding rebid problems. With 17 HCP, he opens with the major and rebids two notrump. With 16 HCP, he opens with one notrump. With 15 HCP, his choice depends upon the major. With hearts, he opens with one notrump to avoid a problem after one heart--one spade. But with spades he prefers one spade. With 15 HCP, he says, you can rebid a three-card minor over a forcing notrump without too much fear of missing a game.

I decided to give Steve's approach a try. I bid one spade, partner bids one notrump, forcing, and I rebid two clubs. Partner bids three spades, showing a three-card invitational raise. Obviously I'm accepting. But I might as well offer partner a choice of games. I bid three notrump, and partner corrects to four spades. LHO leads the club queen.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Robot	Phillip
			1 ♠
Pass	1 NT	Pass	2 ♣
Pass	3 ♠	Pass	3 NT
Pass	4 ♠	(All pass)

The one spade opening got us to our five-three fit. Had I opened with one notrump, partner would have raised to three. I'll decide later whether I'm happy about that or not.

If spades break, I have nine tricks after knocking out the diamond ace. To make ten, I need a heart trick, a heart ruff, or a third diamond trick. If I go after a heart ruff, I must knock out the diamond ace first and take my club discard. If I play a heart first, they can win and lead another club, setting up a fourth winner for the defense.

Knocking out the diamond ace before drawing trump can fail in a number of ways. Someone may have a doubleton diamond, preventing me from taking my club pitch. Or someone may have a stiff club and get a club ruff. Even if neither of those things happens, they can stop the heart ruff simply by leading trumps every time they get in. I have to lose the lead three times, so they can take all the trumps off the table.

It looks better simply to draw trump and hope I can find a tenth trick somewhere. I can try to drop the diamond ten in three rounds. Failing that, I can finesse against the heart ten.

I must win this trick in my hand to preserve an entry to the diamonds, so I play low. East plays the deuce, and I win with the king. I cash three trumps. East pitches the heart deuce on the third round. I lead the diamond jack--deuce--eight--ace. East shifts to the eight of hearts. That gives me my tenth trick. Making four.

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

61%. The diamond ten was dropping, so I didn't need the heart shift.

How did the one spade opening work out? As I said earlier, if I open with one notrump, partner will raise to three. Which contract is better?

If spades split, three notrump requires four-four hearts or no heart lead. Four spades requires some luck in one of the red suits, although an opening lead in one of them is all the luck you need. It appears that four spades is better at IMPs. But three notrump does have some chances if spades don't split, so it's not clear.

It's even less clear at matchpoints. Today, however, three notrump was better. West can beat it with a heart lead, but he has a normal club lead. And, with the diamond ten dropping, three notrump makes four. Actually, it's somewhat surprising that plus 420 is above average.

On an empirical basis then, we have to credit the win to opening with one notrump and accidentally missing the five-three spade fit.

Free Weekly Instant Tournament - March 17 - Board 6

Board 6
Opponents vulnerable

♠ Q 9 8  ♥ A 9  ♦ A Q J 8 7 2  ♣ 6 5

Partner opens with one diamond. I bid two diamonds, showing a limit raise or better in diamonds. Partner bids four hearts. I should have thought that was a splinter, but the tooltip says it shows four or more hearts and 7 to 12 total points. That makes no sense. Then I notice that it was RHO who opened with one diamond, not partner. My two-diamond bid was Michaels, showing a major two-suiter.

Now what? Since it's a Weekly Free Instant Tournament, I could withdraw and start over, taking care to make the same bids and plays as I replay the first five boards. There is some justification for doing this, since this is a mishap that couldn't happen in face-to-face play. But it sets a bad precedent for Gargoyle Chronicles. I want these posts to be honest accounts of what happened. If I'm going to hold myself to that, I can't justify a Mulligan for any reason.

The next question is, am I allowed to pass, or am I ethically obligated to treat partner's four-heart bid as a splinter? Partner didn't alert, so I have no unauthorized information from that perspective. How about from the tooltip, explaining what partner's bid meant? While the tooltip is what woke me up, that information is not unauthorized. The whole point of supplying that information is so I can use it. It's a peculiarity of this tournament format. So, yes, I'm allowed to wake up and pass.

I pass, and RHO leads the four of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Phillip	Robot	Robot
1 ♦	2 ♦ [sic]	Pass	4 ♥
(All pass)

If I can take five heart tricks, three diamond tricks, and one spade, I'm up to nine tricks. If I can guess the spade jack or find an extra diamond trick, I might end up actually making this.

I could play low from dummy and ride this to my hand. But West is unlikely to have led from the trump queen, so I might as well rise with the ace and lead a heart to my jack to make communication easier. I play the heart ace, and East follows with the deuce. Now the nine of hearts--six--jack--seven. I cash the heart king, and West follows.That's good news.

What should I pitch from dummy? I can't afford to pitch a spade. It's hard to see how dummy's sixth diamond is going to matter. It's hard to see how dummy's second club is going to matter either, but something tells me it might. So I pitch a diamond. Frankly, I chose a diamond discard more from instinct than from analysis. At the time, I wasn't sure why I needed two clubs in dummy, even though, as we shall see, it turns out to be important.

East follows with the heart queen. The opponents have 17 HCP. West appears to be balanced, so he has 12 to 14, leaving East with at most 5. I've seen only two high-card points from East, so he could still have the diamond king.

I lead the diamond four. West plays the nine. Is he splitting from king-ten-nine fourth for fear I'm looking at his hand and will insert the eight? I play the queen, and East follows with the three. Yes, it appears West had king-ten-nine fourth. He must be 2-3-4-4, 3-3-4-3, or 4-3-4-2. (He might open one diamond with 1-3-4-5, but since he didn't lead a spade, I'll assume he doesn't have that pattern.) East has at most three HCP, so he might have the club queen and a black jack or both black jacks.

I have no way of knowing who has the spade jack. But finessing West for it is dangerous. If East gains the lead with the spade jack, he can put a club through. Now I lose three clubs and two spades for down two. It's safer to finesse against East. If the finesse loses, I'm down only one. East can't gain the lead for a club shift, so I can repeat the diamond finesse for a ninth trick.

If the finesse against East wins, I'm in great shape. Say I play a spade to the ten and West takes the ace and plays another spade. I win in my hand, finesse the diamond, cash the diamond ace, and ruff a diamond. Now I have the spade queen as an entry to dummy's last diamond. Making an overtrick.

To deprive me of my late dummy entry, West must duck the spade ten. Now I repeat the diamond finesse, cash the ace, ruff a diamond, and lead the spade king. West can duck again to keep me off dummy. But if West started with only three spades, a third spade will endplay him, forcing him to give me the club king.

To summarize, if I play West for the spade jack, I might might go down two. If I play East for it, I take nine tricks if I'm wrong and ten or eleven if I'm right. It's true there might be no difference between down one and down two, so perhaps I shouldn't worry about that. But East does have more small spades than West on average, so I decide to finesse against him. I lead the eight of spades from dummy. East plays the three. I finesse the ten, and West wins with the jack. Oh, well. I guess I'm down.

West cashes the spade ace--nine--deuce--four. He now plays another spade. Oops. I think that was an error. He was supposed to play a diamond to kill my squeeze entry. This is the current position, with the lead in my hand. I'll arbitrarily give East the last spade. It makes no difference if West has it.

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

I can cash two trumps, pitching a club and a diamond from dummy. West must stiff his club ace to hold all his diamonds. Now I can play a diamond to the eight and exit with a club, forcing him to lead into my ace-jack of diamonds to make four.

I cash a trump. West pitches the club four. I pitch a club from dummy. On the last trump, I expect a club pitch, but West pitches the diamond five. I suppose he is hoping I began with a singleton diamond. I pitch dummy's last club and the diamonds are good. Making five.

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

Unsurprisingly, this is worth 100%. One other player reached four hearts after the identical accident, but he went down four. He played low from dummy on the heart lead and could no longer make it. It pays to keep a level head when accidents happen.

I said earlier holding two clubs in dummy was important. Why? West allowed this endplay by gratuitously playing the diamond nine on the first diamond trick. Suppose he had played small. He would then be holding king-ten-nine in the diagrammed position, and the endplay wouldn't work. But I could still make four on a different squeeze. I cash one trump, pitching a diamond from dummy. On the last trump, West must stiff his club ace. I now come down to two diamonds and two clubs in dummy and duck out the the club ace to score the last three tricks. Note if dummy holds a stiff club in the diagrammed position, this squeeze doesn't work.

While I didn't see this at the time I made the critical discard, I suspect I had this matrix in mind unconsciously when I decided the second club might be important.

Free Weekly Instant Tournament - March 10 - Board 5

Board 5
Our side vulnerable

♠ A K J 5 4  ♥ 10 9  ♦ 3  ♣ A K 8 5 4

Partner opens with one diamond and RHO passes. I bid one spade and partner rebids one notrump. I bid two clubs, artificial and forcing, and partner bids two spades, showing three-card spade support. 

Should I investigate slam? Culbertson's Rule states that when slam is virtually cold opposite the perfect minimum, you should invite. What do I need for slam to be virtually cold? Both black queens and the red aces will suffice. Both black queens and the ace-king of hearts will work as well, which is even less than a minimum. So this hand merits an invitation.

Note that counting points wouldn't lead you to this conclusion. I would count this hand as 18 total points: 15 HCP plus one for each of the five-card suits plus one for the singleton once a fit is found. That's still not enough to make a slam try opposite a weak notrump. 

Counting losers would work. Five losers opposite partner's presumed seven should produce slam if the hands fit well. But I prefer using Culbertson's Rule. It's both easy to apply and accurate. 

I once suggested this rule to a player who responded, "Playing partner for the perfect hand seldom works out." I don't think she quite grasped the rule. To clarify: (1) This perfect hand you are postulating must be a minimum. (2) Slam must be cold on normal breaks opposite this hand. (3) Even when you meet conditions (1) and (2), you only invite. So it's hardly "playing partner for the perfect hand." Each of these three elements serves to slow you down. It's actually a conservative rule.

I bid three clubs to show my second suit, and partner bids three notrump. Apparently most of his high cards are in the red suits, so slam no longer appeals. I bid four spades, which ends the auction. LHO leads the four of hearts.

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

West	North	East	South
Robot	Robot	Robot	Phillip
	1 ♦	Pass	1 ♠
Pass	1 NT	Pass	2 ♣
Pass	2 ♠	Pass	3 ♣
Pass	3 NT	Pass	4 ♠
(All pass)

Partner has neither black queen, so these hands don't fit well. I was toying with slam and I might go down in game.

First I have to decide what to do on this trick. The robots are not fond of aggressive leads, so the heart king is a favorite to be on my right. It's possible I should hop with the ace, cross to my hand, and lead a diamond to the queen to take a heart pitch. That's quite a position to take, however. It would be embarrassing to lose two tricks in the red suits--especially if the heart finesse was on all along.

Another concern is that, even if the diamond finesse works, cashing two diamonds opens me up to getting tapped. If trumps don't break, I could lose control. I may then wish I had held on to some of my red-suit stoppers.

Besides, while the heart king is a favorite to be offside, it's not a heavy favorite. Hearts is the unbid suit after all. And West doesn't necessarily have a safe lead in any suit.

I've talked myself into taking the heart finesse. If it turns out it was right to go up and take the diamond finesse, at least I can say I thought about it.

I play the heart queen. East plays the five. Yay! The three and the deuce are still out.

I'm going to need to ruff at least one club, possibly two. There is variety of ways to do that. I could start ruffing clubs now. Or I could play two rounds of trumps, then ruff a club. The two rounds of trumps could consist of cashing the ace and king or it could involve a spade finesse.

Often when you have potential trump losers, ruffing the side suit early is the best approach. If someone scores a ruff, it may be with a trump trick you were destined to lose anyway. If so, you are compressing two losers into one. In this case, when I may need to ruff two clubs, starting trumps seems like an especially bad idea. I don't want to give the opponents  a chance to take all the trumps off the table.

I lead a club to the ace. East plays the three; West, the seven. On the club king, West plays the six; East, the jack. West follows to the next club with the queen. I ruff with dummy's six. East overruffs with the ten and switches to the spade three. I play the ace, and West follows with the nine. The spade queen is the only spade out higher than dummy's eight. If West has it, I can ruff another club to establish my suit.

It doesn't hurt to try. If I get overruffed, I was losing that club trick anyway. I ruff a club with dummy's eight. It holds. The remaining spades split, so I make six. See? We did have a slam.

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

96%! Most declarers played trumps too early. If you lead a spade to the queen, West wins and returns a spade. Now when you ruff a club, it gets overruffed and you are left with a club loser, making only four. 

Cashing the top spades is better, since you drop the queen. Now you make five. Again, the third round of club gets overruffed and you are left with a club loser.

Playing one round of trumps does no better. When East overruffs, his trump return removes dummy's last trump, so you still make only five--assuming you drop the trump queen.

The only way to make six is to ruff clubs twice, and to do that you must ruff a club without touching the trump suit. I did say "when I may need to ruff two clubs, starting trumps seems like an especially bad idea." Retaining the ability to ruff the second club proved to be critical.

Free Weekly Instant Tournament - March 3 - Board 4

Board 4
Both vulnerable

♠ A 7 4  ♥ A 3 2  ♦ A K Q 7  ♣ J 4 3

Three passes to me. I open with one diamond. Partner bids one notrump. I raise to two notrump, and partner goes on to three. RHO leads the six of hearts.

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

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

I have two heart tricks, four diamonds, and two spades. I need one more trick. I play a low heart from dummy, and East plays the seven.

It appears West has led from king-jack-eight-six. East's seven is probably showing count with a doubleton,which means West has five hearts. It shouldn't matter whether I win this trick with the ten or nine. West will know my holding either way. And East doesn't care. He will lead a second heart as soon as he gets in. I arbitrarily choose the ten.

I need to develop a club trick to make this. My best chance is that the ace and king of clubs are in the same hand. It doesn't matter which hand. Either way, they will be unable both to establish and run the hearts. If that's the layout, it doesn't matter which hand I start clubs from.

Do I have any chance if the club honors are split? Normally one would play this suit by leading through the hand more likely to have a doubleton honor, so you can duck the honor out on the next round. West is more likely to have a doubleton than East. But in this case, ducking out his doubleton honor does me no good. I can't afford to lose the first club to East.

My best chance to avoid losing the first club to East is to get to dummy and lead a small club toward my hand. If East has the ace, he will probably hop. But he might not hop with the king. 

Even if I get the club past him, I will still need some luck to develop a club trick. I have to hope East began with a doubleton king, which is unlikely, or that clubs are three-three and West doesn't find a spade shift, depriving me of the necessary tempi.

Should I cash diamonds before playing clubs? Often, forcing the opponents to make early discards is a good idea. But my main concern here is to keep East from hopping with the club king. The less information he has the better. Cashing diamonds can only help him.

I play the diamond three--six--ace--deuce. Now the club three. East plays the nine. So far, so good. I play the queen; West, the five. 

That's my ninth trick. Apparently my legitimate chance came home. East has both club honors. If he has ace-king third, I can establish my fourth club and make an overtrick. Is there any danger in playing another club? East might have started with five. But, if so, he has only four tricks to cash, so I'll still make my contract. There's no hurry however. I might as well run the diamonds first and see what happens. 

I cash the king and queen of diamonds and play a diamond to my jack. On the third and fourth diamonds, East echoes in spades, playing six-five. On the last diamond, West pitches the eight of hearts.

If East was echoing to show four spades, then he is probably 4-2-2-5, making this the current layout:

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

If so, I can cash the king and ace of spades and toss West in to lead away from his heart king.

I cash the spade king--nine--four--three. Now a spade to the ace. West plays the ten; East, the deuce. No spades honors from East? Is it possible West began with queen-jack-ten fourth of spades and chose to lead a broken heart suit? He did have five hearts and only four spades. But the robots don't like aggressive leads against notrump, so I'm starting to suspect I was wrong about the spade split.

Perhaps West's echo was with six spades rather then four. That makes him 6-2-2-3 and his last five cards are queen-jack of spades, two clubs, and a heart. If so, exiting with a spade can't hurt. The defense will take two spades and two clubs and I'll get the heart ace in the end. It's safe to try for the endplay.

Or is it? Is it possible hearts are six-one? If so, East has all black cards and will clam if I exit with a spade. But I don't think that's the case. Holding

♠ Q J x x x x  ♥ x  ♦ x x  ♣ A K 10 9,

I'm pretty sure he would open the bidding. Besides, West's heart eight was probably present count from four hearts remaining, even though that's the wrong way to card.

I exit with a spade. West did indeed start with six spades. The defense takes their four tricks and I take the heart ace in the end. Making three.

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

I score 93%. So West held the club ace and ducked it! He could beat me by winning and playing spades. It never occurred to me that he had ducked the ace. Why not? Probably because I knew I didn't have king-queen or queen-ten. A classic blind spot: assuming the opponents can see my hand.

The blind spot might have been costly. Suppose, after winning the club queen, I had played another club, ducking in dummy, instead of cashing the diamonds. If East were clever enough to win with the king rather than the ten to put a heart through, I might play a third club and go down.

I said West's heart eight was the wrong way to card with four hearts remaining. I should explain that.

The robots and most human players don't know this. But if you lead fourth best from five, you should play your lowest card next instead of giving present count. Since you have no choice but to play up with four, you must play down with five to distinguish between the two. Playing up when you are known to have length shows six. The principle is that you want your ambiguities to be two-card ambiguities, not one-card ambiguities. Partner can probably tell from other clues whether you have four or six. It may be harder to distinguish four from five or five from six. So you don't want to card the same way with those holdings.

Of course, as always, you may decide that declarer cares more about your count than partner does. But if you want to tell partner what you have, the recommended approach is the way to do it. Standard present count doesn't work.