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Deal of the Week
by Mitch Snyder
Not Robotic Science
This hand is from a recent robot game. Not every one likes to play with robots because their bidding and play is often questionable. For instance, if you make a balancing bid they frequently bid on and you end up in a ridiculous no-play contract. Another one of their major flaws is that almost all doubles are treated as takeout even when its clearly a penalty double. And don’t try any ‘normal’ treatments as the robot’s understanding of them is questionable.
On defense they sometimes play like they have no idea what’s going on. They love to cash unsupported aces or switch suits for no good reason. This often gives declarer back the tempo lost on the opening lead.
Click here to see today’s hand.
In today’s hand I could have doubled and then bid spades to show a big hand but playing with a robot its best to keep it simple so I overcalled and then jumped to show pretty much the same hand. With a human partner I may or may not have started with a double.
With nothing better to lead, west led his partner’s suit. Not having supported hearts west correctly made a count lead, (low from 3 or more).
Looking over the hand and assuming east has the club ace and spades are friendly there are 3 losers, a heart and 2 clubs. Given that EW only have 15 combined HCPs and east opened, the ace of clubs is almost certainly on side. There is a chance for an extra trick in diamonds where I might be able to pitch my third club. After pulling trump I could play the diamond AK, maybe the queen will fall. If not, I can ruff the 3rd round but even if the queen falls, how do I get back to dummy? Robot defense, that’s how.
I played low from dummy on trick one and east took the ace. Not the best play as I discarded the king to create a dummy entry, but all the robot had to do was play another heart to knock out the entry. Holding queen third in diamonds, east can see that they will set up with a single ruff, so knocking out the re-entry is imperative.
But nooo…, it cashed the club ace and continued clubs even though there was still time to knock out the entry.
The rest was easy. I won the club, pulled trump and played all but one giving the defense a chance to make a bad discard. Next, I took the diamond AK and trumped a third round. The queen fell and I reentered dummy with the heart queen to pitch a club on a diamond making 5.
Humans can and will make mistakes too. It’s always best to leave yourself as many options as possible to make an extra trick.
Making 5 was an 81% result.
Making 4 was only worth 30%.
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