Free Weekly Instant Tournament - December 1 - Board 1

Sorry for the hiatus. I've found the schedule I set for myself too tight. Covering one board from each week's Weekly Free Instant Tournament means I have from Friday to Sunday to play in the event and write up a board. If I have a busy weekend, it's difficult to do that.

So I've decided to go back to what I was doing previously: writing up all eight boards from a given Weekly Free Instant Tournament, one at a time. This gives me a week to write up each board. 

If you want to compare results, be sure to play all the boards in this week's tournament. Here is board one. I'll post board two on Sunday.

Board 1
Neither vulnerable

♠ 9 8 4  ♥ A Q 3 2  ♦ K 6 4 3  ♣ K 9

Two passes to me. I open with one diamond. LHO bids one spades, partner makes a negative double, and RHO bids two clubs.

I bid two hearts, promising four-card support. LHO bids two spades, and partner doubles.

I'm allowed to pull, since we are known to have an eight-card heart fit. But, with three spades, I know partner's spade tricks are getting ruffed, This hand will not play well for us, so it looks right to defend. 

Admittedly, I don't have a particularly good hand for defense either. I have only two tricks on defense (one and two halves). So partner, as a passed hand, will need to contribute four. Still, I don't expect to go plus on offense. Partner thinks we can beat this, so why shouldn't I trust him?

I pass. Partner leads the nine of diamonds, and RHO tables the dummy.

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

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

Declarer plays low from dummy. I win with the king and declarer follows with the five.

Partner will normally have four spades for this double. But it appears he has doubled with only three. Declarer surely has six spades. He has no reason to rebid a five-card suit freely in this auction.

How do hearts split? Partner should have only four. With five hearts and enough high cards to be doubling this, he would have bid two hearts over one spade.

What about diamonds? Is the nine a singleton or a doubleton? Clearly a doubleton. With five diamonds, declarer has no reason to finesse. He would have hopped with the ace. With four diamonds, he might finesse to cut our communications. So I know declarer's shape. He must be 6-1-4-2.

If I return a diamond, partner can put me in with the heart ace when he wins a trump trick and I can give him a diamond ruff. That brings us up to four tricks. If partner has the club ace, we have two more for down one. In fact, he doesn't need the club ace, does he? One more trump trick suffices, since declarer has no dummy entry with which to take a club finesse.

I return the six of diamonds (suit preference for hearts, even though robots don't play suit preference). Declarer follows with the seven and partner unexpectedly ruffs with the spade six. Declarer plays the ten from dummy.

So declarer is 6-1-5-1? Why didn't he go up with the diamond ace at trick one?

Partner leads the five of hearts to my ace, and declarer drops the jack. We need three more tricks. Where can we find them? If partner has the club ace and the spade king, we can manage. I can lead another diamond for partner to ruff. Then he can underlead his club ace to my king and I can play another diamond for a trump promotion.

I play the diamond three (suit preference again, suggesting a club underlead). Partner ruffs with the spade seven and leads the club ace. Oh well, unless partner's last spade is the ace, we aren't beating this.

Partner continues a club to to my king and, to my surprise, declarer follows. Really? Declarer is 5-1-5-2? He rebid a five-card spade suit?

I play another diamond. Partner ruffs with the spade jack. His last spade, the king, is now singleton, so declarer takes the rest. Down two.

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

Plus 300 is worth 71%.

Can we do better? It never crossed my mind not to give partner his second diamond ruff when I was in with the heart ace. But, since partner has two natural trump tricks, giving him ruffs doesn't accomplish anything. What happens if I continue hearts?

Say declarer ruffs and plays ace and queen of spades. Partner wins and taps him again. This will be the position:

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

If declarer plays another trump, partner has a heart to cash. If he doesn't, we score our trump tricks separately. Either way he is down three.

Should I have figured that out? While it's true partner should have four spades for his double, he might have decided to make an aggressive double because of his stiff diamond. Frankly, that seems more likely than that declarer decided to rebid a five-card spade suit looking at a good hand for defense (a diamond stack and probably a four-one heart break).

Further, partner might have chosen a heart lead at trick one with this hand. With king-jack fourth of spades, going for the tap makes more sense to me than going after diamond ruffs. An initial heart lead would make the defense easy.

Still, I might have worked it out. I did wonder why declarer didn't rise with the diamond ace at trick one, but I didn't take the time to answer that question. Taking the diamond finesse with 6-1-5-1 makes no sense at all. With 5-1-5-2, ducking is more attractive. The diamond ruffs don't hurt declarer, since he is danger of being tapped out anyway. So he might as well duck and save the tempo.

So I should have realized declarer had only five spades. Even so, the right defense isn't clear. Note if declarer has the spade jack instead of partner in the above position, he gets out for down one by cashing it and pitching dummy's diamond ace. Still, I should have at least considered a heart continuation. Partner seemed to want diamond ruffs, so I complied without thinking too hard. It was a lazy defense.