Playing bridge by remote control

You are at home, wanting to play some bridge, but you don’t have three friends handy. Fear not. If you have a computer, you can log on to bridgebase.com and play against other humans or, if you prefer, the robots (artificial intelligence players). If you do not have an account, you will have to choose a screen name and password, but it is free. It is best to have a partner of your choosing. If you play with three robots, when you are the dummy, the play will be so quick that you cannot possibly follow it. Today’s deal was played at Bridge

Base Online, and West forgot a key defence guideline. How should the defence have proceeded against four spades after West led the club five? South stretched when he bid four spades, but he had the vulnerability on his side. Then East judged poorly. His side would have made five hearts unless North led the diamond seven, and declarer then made the likely misguess. Also, four spades doubled could have cost 300. However, East did not defend well. At trick one, South smoothly dropped his club queen under East’s king. Suitably fooled, East shifted to a low heart. South ruffed the second heart, drew trumps and led the club jack to establish dummy’s suit and get home. East forgot that when someone opens with a pre-empt, then leads a side suit, that is a singleton. East should have cashed his club ace at trick two and given his partner a club ruff. Back in with the heart ace, East could have led his last club and sat back to await another trick with the diamond king — down two.