Free Weekly Instant Tournament - March 15 - Board 8

Board 8
Neither side vulnerable

♠ A Q 9 4 2  ♥ 9 6 5  ♦ J 9 6  ♣ A 8

Three passes to me. This isn't a opening bid in first or second seat, but in third or fourth seat it looks right to open and pass partner's response. I bid one spade, partner bids one notrump, and I pass. RHO leads the deuce of clubs.

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

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

I have four tricks. It appears I have some work to do. I'll start by ducking the club. Maybe West has led from king-queen.

He hasn't. East wins with the queen, and I drop the three. East returns the six of clubs--seven--four--ace. I don't know who has the king.

If I had no spots, the right way to play the spade suit would be to start by leading low from dummy. That gives away none of my legitimate chances and gives East the opportunity to hop with king doubleton. The presence of the ten and nine makes this approach less appealing. If jack third is onside, for example, starting low from dummy means I lose two tricks instead of one. And if king-jack third is onside, I lose a trick when I could run the whole suit. Still, the play does have some things going for it. East may hop with king doubleton or he may fail to hop with jack doubleton. And, perhaps more importantly, it leaves my hand a mystery to the defense. I don't want the opponents shifting to hearts. If I play a diamond to my hand at trick two, it advertises my diamond strength and my heart weakness.

I lead the spade deuce from dummy. East plays the three, and my ten forces West's king. If the jack is dropping, I have my seven tricks unless the defense can take five tricks first.

West shifts to the heart king. That doesn't look good. If West has king, ace-king in the majors, East must have the club king. So West can put him on play for a heart shift. I need to hope West has only three hearts or perhaps that East has jack-ten third and the suit will block.

East plays the heart deuce. I "encourage" with the eight.

West shifts to the five of clubs. Is there any reason for East not to return a heart when he wins the club king? Maybe. He doesn't know whether his partner has ace-king of hearts or king-queen. If I have ace fourth of hearts, then continuing the suit will allow me to set up my long heart. So that is the holding I must represent. What would I pitch from dummy if I had ace fourth of hearts? Clearly I would pitch a diamond. I would need both of dummy's hearts so I could duck one, then lead a heart to my hand. Accordingly, I pitch dummy's six of diamonds.

East wins with the club king and continues with the ten of clubs. Did my illusion work? Did my diamond discard convince East I had ace fourth of hearts?

I win with the club jack as West pitches the diamond deuce. I pitch a heart from dummy. Both opponents follow to the ace and queen of spades, so my spades are good. We've reached this position:

	NORTH Phillip ♠ 9 4 ♥ 9 ♦ J 9 ♣ --
	SOUTH Robot ♠ -- ♥ Q 4 ♦ A K 4 ♣ --

I have all but one of the remaining tricks. Could I have a squeeze for the last one? Dummy's heart nine and my long diamond are the threats, so West would need to have ace-jack-ten of hearts left and to have started with four diamonds. That gives him a 3-4-4-3 pattern, 14 cards. One of the necessary conditions for a squeeze is that your opponent must hold only 13 cards. A fourteenth card takes all the pressure off.

Still, maybe the opponents will make a mistake. I run spades, pitching hearts and keeping ace-king-four of diamonds in my hand. I lead the nine of diamonds from dummy. East covers with the ten, and I win with the king. When I cash the ace, East shows he was paying attention by throwing the queen and keeping the five to win the last trick. Show off!

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

Plus 120 is worth 93%. I'm not sure what East was playing for with the club return at the end. But the key to the deal was not revealing my diamond strength. Those who crossed to their hand with a diamond at trick two went down. It's hard for the defense to go wrong when you show them your hand.

Be sure to play in this week's Free Weekly Instant Tournament, so we can start comparing next week. You have until Thursday to play in it. I got a zero on one board. Although I would probably do the same thing again.

Free Weekly Instant Tournament - March 15 - Board 7

Board 7
Opponents vulnerable

♠ K 2  ♥ 10 7 6 5  ♦ K 4  ♣ A K 8 5 4

I open with one club. Partner bids one heart. I raise to two hearts and buy it. RHO leads the queen of clubs.

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

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

This lead is probably a singleton. Leading dummy's primary suit would be strange otherwise. And that means it's a fair assumption that trumps are three-two. With four trumps, West would be more interested in tapping me than in looking for ruffs.

If trumps are indeed splitting, I will lose a club, a diamond, a heart, and one or two spades. Dummy's last trump will take care of my third spade, and I can set up a club for the fourth spade. My plan, then, is to cash the ace and king of hearts, then lead a club and duck it, preserving communication to ruff out the club suit.

Cashing the ace and king of hearts will work out poorly if I'm wrong about three-two trumps. Can I afford to cash only one trump? If I cash one heart and play a club, West will pitch. Now I can't afford to duck. If I do, I let West score a ruff with a doubleton trump or two ruffs with three trumps. So all I've accomplished by cashing only one trump is to prevent myself from being able to duck a club. True, I might manage without ducking a club, but it certainly makes my handling easier. Since I'm pretty sure trumps are splitting, I'll back my judgment and cash both trump honors.

I win with the ace of clubs. East plays the deuce, and I follow with the three. Now ace and king of hearts. West plays four, jack; East plays eight, nine.

I play a club toward dummy. To my surprise, West follows with the ten. So West was making a passive lead from a sequence? Now I'm happy I cashed both trumps. If East is the one with a stiff club, cashing only one trump could have proven awkward.

I duck as planned, and East follows with the nine. It appears West's lead was from queen-jack-ten.

West cashes the queen of hearts, and East pitches the diamond deuce. West now cashes the diamond ace. We've reached this position with dummy to play:

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

If the spade ace is onside, I'll lose this trick and a spade and make an overtrick. If it's offside, I'll presumably lose two spades and make my contract. Do I have any chance to avoid a second spade loser if the ace is offside? 

What if West switches to a spade and I duck in dummy? East may play the ace for fear of losing it when I have the queen. Is that possible from East's perspective? Yes, provided he doesn't know I hold the diamond queen. I can't have both queens, else I would have made a game try over two hearts. So I must avoid the lazy play of unblocking the diamond king on this trick. Fortunately, I don't need the diamond queen as a hand entry. I can always ruff the fifth club if I need to play a spade toward the king myself.

I play low from dummy on the diamond ace. East plays the six, and I follow with the three. West now shifts to the eight of spades.

The moment of truth. Do I go for the swindle or take my legitimate chance that West has underled the spade ace? I don't see how he can afford to underlead. For all he knows, I have queen third of spades and have no guess. If so, I'll take the rest.

I play low from dummy. East inserts the jack then cashes the ace. Making two.

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

Minus 110 is worth 61%. I see West's opening club lead was from queen-ten doubleton. That's a holding that never occurred to me.

The spade eight was a poor choice for West's shift. He should help his partner out by leading his lowest spade if he holds the queen and the highest spot he can afford if he doesn't. With this hand, he should lead the four. But the robots don't signal, so East could conclude nothing from his partner's spot. He simply had to work out what to do as best he can. Perhaps he thought his partner might have bid at some point with five spades. As long as the missing spades are four-four, playing the jack can't cost. He can't lose the ace even if I do have the queen.

West has a harder problem: deciding whether to lead spades at all or to exit passively after cashing the diamond ace. I have only two pitches. So if I have four spades, leading a spade can never gain. And if my four spades includes the jack, leading a spade might cost.

How can the defense solve this? West actually should have gotten this right, given the robots' peculiar discarding tendencies. The robots signal count on their first discard, so, when East pitches the diamond deuce on the queen of hearts, West knows East is 3-2-5-3 (assuming he would pitch a low spade from 5-2-3-3). Thus West knows the spades can't go away, and he should exit passively with a diamond.

Most of us humans don't play that way, however. We give attitude when discarding. But that works on this deal also. On the queen of hearts, East should pitch a discouraging diamond, suggesting tolerance for a spade shift. Since East is marked with the spade ace on the auction, he wouldn't suggest a spade shift with just the ace. West needs no help finding a spade shift from queen-jack. So a discouraging diamond should show at least the ace-jack of spades, and West knows a spade shift is safe. 

So either count or attitude solves West's problem. Even though each leads to a different solution.