Free Weekly Instant Tournament - May 12 - Board 4

Board 4
Both sides vulnerable

♠ A 10 7  ♥ K J 8  ♦ A Q 6  ♣ J 10 9 3

One diamond--pass--one heart to me.

I am a big believer in playing one notrump in sandwich position as natural. With the unbid suits, doubling works just fine. Not having a second way to show that hand is no hardship. But not having a way to show a strong notrump can result in missed games. Nonetheless, a flat hand with scattered high cards is not the right hand for bidding one notrump. If the opponents can double, you are probably in big trouble. And, even if they can't, such hands tend to be better on defense than on offense, so bidding can easily result in a minus score when you are entitled to go plus. Those who insist on playing sandwich notrump overcalls for takeout may do so because they think bidding one notrump with hands like this one is the alternative.

It isn't. A natural sandwich one-notrump overcall should have a source of tricks. Let's move a the high cards around a bit:

♠ 10 7  ♥ K J 8  ♦ A 6  ♣ A Q J 10 9 3

Now one notrump is a standout. Partner might raise one notrump to three with a hand where he would pass a two club overcall. And if the opponents double one notrump, you have a spot to run to.

Since I'm not allowed to move my high cards around, I pass, LHO bids one spade, and RHO bids one notrump. I pass again, and RHO buys it for one notrump.

I don't like defending in these robot individuals. I find defending with a robot partner quite difficult. I don't mind so much that he neither signals nor pays attention to my signals. In fact, the robots' flat refusal to play suit preference signals I find quite comforting. The big issue I have is I can't draw inferences from partner's line of defense. Inferences like "Partner wouldn't leave me on play if his clubs were cashing. He would just overtake and cash them. The fact that he left me on play means he must need me to shift to a diamond" simply aren't valid. Partner doesn't even think about how to help me on defense. And he draws no such inferences about my defense either, so even when I know how we should defend, it's hard to get him to cooperate.

It's not clear to me why the field should be better at defending with robots than I am. But, for some reason, they are. My average score on defense is embarrassingly low. I'm actually surprised that's the case. In my experience, the average player relies more heavily on signaling than he should, so I should expect him to have an even harder time on defense than I do.

In any event, I have to find an opening lead. How aggressive should I be? Holding diamonds in front of dummy is bad, but holding hearts behind declarer is a plus. Since partner doesn't rate to have much, it's probably right to go passive.

The most passive lead is a club. But clubs is often declarer's longest suit on this auction, so a club lead may help him more than us. Still, nothing else appeals. Lowenthal might try a spectacular queen of diamonds, but I see no reason to be that desperate. I stick with the pedestrian club jack.

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

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

Declarer has at least 6 HCP. Dummy has 14 and I have 15, so that leaves partner with at most 5. Declarer has four or five hearts and at most three spades. Other than that, I don't know much about the layout. The first trick proceeds ace--deuce--four. I said partner doesn't signal, but I believe this is one of the few situations where he would. With queen third of clubs behind the ace-king, I believe he would play high. So either declarer has the club queen or partner has queen doubleton.

Declarer plays the three of spades--deuce--queen. If declarer has the spade king, I'd prefer to duck. Declarer has one spade entry to his hand, and I would just as soon he use it now. When I see what declarer does at trick three, I will have a better idea of the layout, so I might have a better idea how to defend once I do take the spade ace  Furthermore, ducking keeps declarer in the dark about the lie of the spade suit. If he thinks it is possible for partner to have ace doubleton, he may wish to lead a second spade from dummy, a play that would be unnecessary if I win this trick.

But how confident am I that declarer has the king? Normally I wouldn't expect declarer's first play to be attacking a weak suit. But he is missing the ace-queen of diamonds and the king-jack of hearts. So neither of those suits looks promising. Playing a spade to queen third or even queen doubleton may well look like his best play. If so, ducking may not cost a trick in the spade suit, but it does give declarer a hand entry. Since he needs hand entries to lead diamonds--and possibly to lead toward the heart queen--giving him a hand entry he's not entitled to would be a mistake.

Perhaps it's wrong, but I'm going to win this trick. Before I do, however, I might as well decide what I'm going to do next. Deciding on your continuation before winning the trick is clearly a good idea against a robot, who will draw no inference from your tempo. But it's a good idea in a face-to-face game as well. If you are going to duck, you are better off ducking smoothly. But f you are going to win, there is nothing to be gained by winning smoothly. So there is no reason for me to take the ace until I know what I am going to do next. After reflection, I may decide it's better to duck after all. While I no longer have the option of ducking deceptively, it may still be right to duck for technical reasons.

If I do win, I can't see doing anything but playing another club. But which club? If partner began with queen doubleton, I want to lead low to establish my two club tricks. Leading low might also be necessary if partner has eight doubleton. If I lead the ten, declarer will win in dummy and will now have a tenace over me, so I won't be able to lead the suit again. Since I have a number of unplayable suits already, I don't want to create another one. 

Could leading low cost? It might cost if declarer has queen-eight fourth or fifth. But even then the extra trick might be immaterial. Once we take whatever top tricks we have coming to us, declarer may have tricks to burn. Furthermore, he might not even take the trick if I give it to him. He might think I have jack-ten third and decide to win in dummy to avoid blocking the suit.

I take the spade ace and shift to the three of clubs. Declarer rises with dummy's king. Partner plays the eight; declarer, the seven. If my assumption that partner would encourage with queen third is correct, declarer has the queen. The spade king and the heart ace would bring declarer up to 11 HCP, so partner should have one of those card.

Declarer plays the five of spades from dummy--six--king--seven. Partner appears to have the heart ace. If he has ace-ten-nine fourth, we have four heart tricks. If he doesn't, we have three. But to to take four heart tricks, I would need to unblock the jack, which would be a mistake if declarer has the ten. So I'm not sure what to do in the heart suit.

We've reached this position, with the lead in declarer's hand:

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

Declarer leads the deuce of diamonds. Should I hop with the ace and cash hearts? Even if we do have the whole heart suit, that still gives us only six tricks. Declarer has three clubs and three spades, so ducking and letting him score a diamond trick can't cost. Since I don't know whether to unblock the heart jack or not, I might as well duck. I play the six, declarer rises with the king, and partner plays the five.

Good. Now we have two diamond tricks, so three hearts tricks will suffice to hold declarer to his contract. Declarer can take his two spades and the club queen, and we have the rest. 

Or do we? When declarer cashes two spades, what do I pitch? If declarer began with four clubs, I can't afford a club pitch, so I have to pitch a heart. Now we can cash only two heart tricks if declarer has the ten. But that's OK. When I gain the lead, I can play the club ten, establishing a club for our sixth trick. Had I exited with the club ten instead of a low one at trick three, I wouldn't be able to do that. While I didn't foresee this exact position, I did see that I would be rendering the club suit unplayable if I exited with the club ten. So I deserve partial credit for getting trick three right.

It turns out not to matter. Declarer plays a club to the queen himself, and partner follows. Clubs were three-three all along, so my play at trick three made no difference. We take our six tricks and hold declarer to one notrump.

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

Minus 90 is worth 71%, well above my average score when defending. A few defenders did get tangled up and dropped a trick on defense. But most of the matchpoints came from refraining from the ill-advised one-notrump overcall, which went down anywhere from one to three.