dalmov

Reply to Tramticket: Thank you for the comment. I will reply only to your comment on Board 6. First, the reason for me to overcall the opening bid of 3♣ by that J-high 5-card ♦ suit is the following. In theory, the pre-emptive 3♣ bidder could not have more than 9 HCPs. I had 11 HCPs. Then, by law of average, I could expect my partner to hold 10 plus HCPs. This means that our side had the balance of powers. Therefore, I wanted to compete. Now, what should I bid? I could not bid "double" because of the stiff in ♠ although the ♥ was decent and I loved to bid it, if partner also had 4 cards to support. I had 3 ♣ cards, RHO had 7 plus cards, which meant that my partner was very short there. Then, by law of elimination, my only biddable suit was ♦.

The other day, I played a number of boards with three robots. I must admit that the robots bid precisely, and once a contract is established they play perfectly to fulfill it. But, there seem to be a little problem with their defense, especially with their opening lead. In the following, I will show some examples where the robots chose a wrong opening lead that resulted in a fatal loss on their part. With the first board, LHO-robot chose the ♠ 8 for opening lead, top of no thing, meaning “leading through strength”. Thanks to this, I had time to cash A then K of ♦ to discard the losing ♣. Thereafter, I had time to finesse for the Q of ♥ to make 13 tricks for a top score! The mistake with the robots is that they are probably not programmed to lead the “unbid suit”, which is ♣ in this case, and then, everybody will have an average score only. [hv=pc=n&s=shaj65dakqt5ckjt5&w=s854hq74d9732cq32&n=sakqj76hkt982d8c8&e=st932h3dj64ca9764&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=1dp1sp2hp4hp6hppp]399|300[/hv] With the second board, LHO-robot chose the opening lead of the ♣ 10 to RHO-robot’s ♣ Ace, which then returned a ♥. Thanks to this, I had time to manage to make the doubled contract of 3-♦ for another top score! LHO-robot seems not to be programmed to lead 3 rounds of ♦ first, then shifted to a ♣ and after that just waited for winning two more tricks: a ♥ and a ♣, a set of 2 tricks for a penalty of 300 points. [hv=pc=n&s=s2hak42djt872ck65&w=sj853hqj6dakq3ct2&n=sak964h9873d964cj&e=sqt7ht5d5caq98743&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=3c3ddppp]399|300[/hv]

You have a power house at hand, and the bidding has gone as shown. What is your choice: 7♣ or 7NT?[hv=pc=n&s=skhaq98daq3ca7532&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=1sp2cp3cp4np5sp]133|200[/hv]

Not vulnerable against vulnerable, and as dealer South, you held six ♠ led by the A. The bidding had gone as shown, and you sensed that the opponents were having a slam somewhere. Just to make a sounding to see whether partner could have any strength in ♠ or not, and to give some lead directive in the case of a ♦ slam, you made some noise by bidding 1♠. With partner's response of 2♠, you can count "optimistically" 6 tricks, and therefore, you decided to sacrifice by bidding 6♠ over opponents' seemingly "cold" 6♥. The whole board is as shown below.[hv=pc=n&s=sa98543hjd643ct75&w=sqt6hk976dak752c2&n=skj72ht52d98ck964&e=shaq843dqjtcaqj83&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=p1dp1h1s2h2s3d4sdp5cp5dp6h6sdppp]399|300[/hv]

I will not open this hand, not only because it has only 12 HCPs, but because it has only 2.5 quick tricks, which is under average (3 quick tricks).