Free Weekly Instant Tournament - December 1 - Board 8

Board 8
Neither side vulnerable

♠ Q J 7 6  ♥ A 10 8 3  ♦ K  ♣ A 10 6 5

RHO opens with two diamonds, weak, in third seat. I double for takeout, and everyone passes. This is a promising development. I have a better hand for defense than for offense. I'm especially happy to be holding the diamond king, since it may prove to be an embarrassing surprise for declarer. We may score a trick we aren't entitled to if he plays partner for this card.

The right defense must be to take whatever side-suit tricks we can, then sit back and wait for our trump tricks. I want to develop spade tricks before my aces are knocked out, so I lead the spade queen.

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

West	North	East	South
Phillip	Robot	Robot	Robot
	Pass	Pass	2 ♦
Double	(All pass)

Dummy and I have 23 HCP combined. Declarer has at most ten, so partner has at least seven. Partner would probably have bid a four-card major or a five-card club suit in preference to passing with only four diamonds, so he is either 3-3-4-3,  3-2-4-4, or 2-3-4-4. No. I take that back. 2-3-4-4 is unlikely, since that gives declarer four spades. 

It's even more unlikely after trick one. Partner plays the spade ten and declarer wins with the king. Partner has apparently ducked with ace third to preserve communication. We would appear to have two spade tricks, two aces, and whatever we can take in the trump suit. 

Is it possible to take another trick in the side suits? We might have a second club trick if declarer is 3-1-6-3. That gives partner four hearts, which I said he can't have. But if his diamonds are good, he might have judged to pass rather than to bid two hearts with four small. Even if that's the layout, though, declarer will just play a heart at trick two and we can't get at our second club trick fast enough. 

Even if declarer has doesn't have a singleton heart, he will probably lead a heart at trick two to reach dummy for a diamond play. No. He surprises me by leading the spade deuce. I'm not sure what he's up to, but I duck to let partner win the trick. How partner chooses to continue the defense may tell me something. Partner takes the spade ace and returns the three to my jack.

If partner is 3-2-4-4, can I give him a heart ruff? Suppose I shift to a low heart. Then, whenever I get in, I can cash both aces and play a third heart. 

A low heart shift would prove embarrassing if declarer has a singleton heart. I expected him to play a heart at trick two with a singleton. But if he has no late club loser (queen-jack third of clubs, say), he has no reason to do that. So a singleton heart is still possible.

One thing to consider: Partner doesn't appear to want a heart ruff. He could have shifted to a heart himself at trick three and chose to continue spades instead. So either he doesn't have a doubleton heart or he has one but would be ruffing with a natural trump trick. So let's forget about a heart ruff.

My goal, then, is to protect whatever trump tricks we have. The way to protect our trump tricks is to prevent declarer from reaching dummy twice. There are two scenarios where this could be important: (1) Declarer needs to lead trumps twice from dummy to finesse against partner, or (2) declarer needs to ruff himself down to partner's trump length for a possible trump coup.

If declarer is two-two in hearts and clubs, I can't prevent him from reaching dummy twice. If he's three-one or one-three, perhaps I can.

I'll start by cashing my two aces. If I continue by leading declarer's singleton, he can win that trick in dummy, then later reach dummy in the other suit. If I continue by leading his three-card suit, he can't reach dummy twice. If his three-card suit is clubs, he has only one entry. If it's hearts, partner will ruff the third round.

So which suit is more likely to be his singleton? If he has a singleton heart, he must have good clubs, else, as I've already noted, he would have led a heart at trick two to set up discards. If he has a singleton club, there is no further constraint on his hand. So a singleton club is more likely. My best defense is to cash two aces, then play a heart.

I cash the club ace. Partner plays the three; declarer, the nine. Now the heart ace. Partner plays the deuce; declarer, the seven. We've reached this position:

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

I lead the three of hearts. Six from partner; nine from declarer. Declarer plays the three of diamonds from dummy--deuce--queen--king.

I exit with a third heart. Declarer wins in dummy and pitches the club queen. Declarer was two-two in the round suits, so he always had two dummy entries. Now he leads the eight of diamond from dummy and floats it. It wins, but declarer is now trump tight. He must ruff the next trick and lead from his hand. Partner has the ace-ten of diamonds left, so declarer is down two.

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

Declarer should have held this to down one by taking a first-round finesse against the diamond ten. Diamonds must be four-one, and I'm twice as likely to have a stiff ace or king as a stiff ten. Having failed to do that, finessing the diamond on the next round was an error. There is no longer anything he can do about four-one trumps. So his percentage play is to lead to the jack, hoping I had king-ten doubleton.

This is another flaw in how the robots are programmed. South "knows" East has ace-ten third of diamonds left, so he thinks it doesn't matter how he plays the diamond suit. He presumably picks a line at random. But you should never assume your play doesn't matter. If you think it does, relax your assumptions. Find some layout, even one you think is impossible, where your play does matter. If you're correct and it doesn't matter, what have you lost?

To be fair, I've been guilty of this mistake myself. Playing bridge is all about making deductions, and it can be easy to forget that something you think you know is merely a deduction. But at least we humans know it's a mistake and try to avoid it. The robots don't.

Some declarers did hold this to down one, but that was because West made it easy for them by leading the diamond king. I don't understand that lead at all. Why squander your best defensive asset? You don't expect dummy to be getting any ruffs, so what's the point of leading trumps? It must be better to hope to capture some card in declarer's hand than to cash the king at trick one and catch air. Thanks to those opening leads, plus 200 scored 96%.

I said earlier that it might be right to prevent declarer from reaching dummy twice to stop a trump coup against partner. Is there some layout where that's necessary? I didn't construct one at the time. Let's see if we can find one now. There are probably several. But one will suffice:

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

If I exit with a club, declarer wins the king, pitching a heart, ruffs a club, plays a heart to dummy, and scores another ruff. Now he exits with a low diamond to my king. His last three cards are ace-ten third of diamonds; partner's are queen-jack-nine of diamonds. With me on lead, partner can take only one more trump trick. A spade exit will lead to the same position on a different sequence of plays. But if I exit with a heart, declarer can't score two ruffs, so this end position doesn't materialize and we score three trump tricks. 

In accordance with Gargoyle Chronicles principles, I omitted this analysis in the discussion of the play, since I didn't construct this layout at the time. I was defending on general principles. As a rule, I don't like to defend on general principles. It's better to construct a layout where your contemplated play gains, since general principles can sometimes lead you astray. Here, however, there was no need, since there was no sensible alternative line to consider. Either I let declarer trump coup partner or I don't. Even if there is no holding where a coup actually works, it's hard to see how preventing the position from arising can ever hurt.

Next week I'll start a series on this week's Weekly Free Instant Tournament. If you want to compare results, be sure to play in the tournament by this Thursday, January 25.