“No one rings a bell before a bridge hand where you are going to be faced with a problem.” – Unknown
I have mixed feelings about the robot tournaments on BBO. The robots are very bad at bidding and pretty bad on defense, especially discarding (tip when declaring against the robots – always run your long suit). So, you have to enter these tournaments resigned to the fact that a few strange things are bound to happen. I enter the robot tournaments with an eye on keeping my skills sharp. One of the underrated skills of a good bridge player is the ability to count shape, tricks and points on every hand, no matter how mundane the hand appears because, as the quote above instructs, you are never sure when you will need it.
Recently, when playing in robot tournaments, two hands with similar themes came up that illustrated this. The first:
Robot
♠KJ4
♥984
♦Q106
♣K983
Me
♠A10875
♥Q6
♦932
♣AJ4
| Robot Opp | Robot Partner | Robot Opp | Me |
| P | 1♠ | ||
| P | 2♠ | All Pass |
The LHO robot leads the ♦8. RHO robot cashed the J, K and A, with LHO pitching a heart. RHO switches to the ♥3. LHO wins the J, cashes the A and leads a third heart to RHO’s K, as you ruff. Is that a bell I hear?
♠KJ4
♥
♦
♣K983
♠A1087
♥
♦
♣AJ4
At most of the other tables, the declarer drew trumps with the aid of a finesse (LHO having Q32) and then played a club to the J, losing to the Q, for down one. When I reached this position, I noted that RHO had already played the ♥K and the ♦AKJ for eleven points and was a passed hand. Therefore, LHO must have both black queens. Taking note of the ♣98 in partner’s hand, I played the ♣J, covered by the Q (as expected) and A. A spade to the A and the spade finesse (which again, we knew was working), left me in dummy to play the ♣9 and hope that the ♣10 was onside. I was rewarded when this was the full hand:
| Robot | |||||
|
♠ |
KJ4 | ||||
|
♥ |
984 | ||||
|
♦ |
Q106 | ||||
|
♣ |
K983 | ||||
| Robot | Robot | ||||
|
♠ |
Q32 |
♠ |
96 | ||
|
♥ |
AJ1072 |
♥ |
K53 | ||
|
♦ |
85 |
♦ |
AKJ74 | ||
|
♣ |
Q72 |
♣ |
1065 | ||
| Me | |||||
|
♠ |
A10875 | ||||
|
♥ |
Q6 | ||||
|
♦ |
932 | ||||
|
♣ |
AJ4 |
So with that one in mind, let’s take a look at another hand from the next day:
Robot
♠AK10
♥K1063
♦J10872
♣J
Me
♠54
♥Q7542
♦K6
♣AK72
| Robot Opp | Me | Robot Opp | Robot Partner |
| P | 1♦ | ||
| P | 1♥ | P | 2♥ |
| P | 4♥ | All Pass |
The opening lead was the ♣5 and the J held the trick in dummy. A low heart to the Q was won by LHO with the A. The spade switch was won in dummy with the A, and the ♥K drew a spade pitch from RHO. I don’t think that’s a bell, it’s the entire Cathedral of Notre Dame.
In order to get some more information on the hand, I cashed the ♠K and ruffed my last spade, which saw the ♠Q appear from LHO. The ♣AK, followed by a club ruff, put me in dummy for the key diamond guess.
♠
♥10
♦J108
♣
♠
♥75
♦K6
♣
With the ♥J still outstanding, I had to lose only one diamond. At this point, LHO has shown up with the ♠Q, the ♥AJ and the ♣Q. As on the first hand, LHO is a passed hand, so it is not possible for LHO to hold the ♦A. So I played a diamond to the K, not caring who had the Q. The full hand:
| North | |||||
|
♠ |
AK10 | ||||
|
♥ |
K1063 | ||||
|
♦ |
J10872 | ||||
|
♣ |
J | ||||
| West | East | ||||
|
♠ |
Q96 |
♠ |
J8732 | ||
|
♥ |
AJ8 |
♥ |
9 | ||
|
♦ |
Q43 |
♦ |
A95 | ||
|
♣ |
Q865 |
♣ |
10943 | ||
| South | |||||
|
♠ |
54 | ||||
|
♥ |
Q7542 | ||||
|
♦ |
K6 | ||||
|
♣ |
AK72 |
So, there you have it. No conventions, no squeezes and no endplays. All you had to do on these to hands to win IMP’s was to count how many points a passed hand showed up with. I gave you a quote to open this blog post and I will close with another:
“Getting better at bridge is not hard, but it does take work” – Mark Leonard
Mark Leonard Bridge 