THE ROBOTS GOT SOME MONEY BACK

After having three consecutive sixheart contracts while playing with my wife online at bridgebase.com last month, the next evening, the robots (computer-controlled opponents) got some revenge in this deal.

Note North’s correct two-diamond response. With game-going values, bid your longest suit first. Since the robots use twoover-one game-forcing, I would have been inclined to rebid two hearts with that South hand, but the robots were playing that three clubs promised extra strength. The next two calls were natural, then four no-trump was Roman Key Card Blackwood. South’s sixheart reply showed an odd number of key cards (here, two aces and the heart king) and a spade void. Scientific bidders, those robots!

I led my singleton diamond. Declarer rose with dummy's ace and, presumably in the dummy for the last time, cashed all four spade winners, discarding three clubs and a diamond from hand. Then South drew trumps and conceded one diamond trick. (Yes, the fourth spade was unnecessarily dangerous.)

There were four tables in six no-trump, which had 12 top tricks. Two pairs of robots tried six diamonds after the sequence one heart - two diamonds — three clubs — three no-trump — six diamonds. One was favored by the heart-jack start, but the other faced the club-jack lead, after which the contract was unmakable without the aid of X-ray vision.

The other 11 tables were in six hearts. One robot even made an overtrick when West led a low club, and declarer guessed to put up dummy’s queen.