Bridge THE ROBOTS ARE TOO TRUSTING

A couple of weeks ago, I gave Isaac Asimov’s first law of robotics: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”

Sometimes I wonder if the robots that play at Bridge Base Online have been similarly programmed. For example, look only at today’s West hand. What would you lead against South’s contract of seven diamonds?

In the auction, two spades showed 3 ace-king points (2 for an ace and 1 for a king). So, North had an ace and a king or three kings. The snag was that South thought it had to be an ace and a king. So, when North raised diamonds, South, picturing his partner with the spade ace and king-fourth of diamonds, confidently jumped to seven diamonds.

What did the robot lead? You or I would have tabled the spade ace, hoping that it would win, or, if declarer ruffed, that it wouldn’t cost a critical trick. Here, everything would have been fine.

The robot chose the club four! Maybe he was obeying Asimov’s law, or perhaps he assumed South had to have a spade void to justify his final bid. However, a grateful declarer took the trick, drew two rounds of trumps from hand, cashed the heart ace, ruffed a heart with the diamond king, discarded his spade on the club king, drew East’s last trump and claimed.

Funnily enough, seven diamonds down one would have been only just under average. Almost all pairs played in six hearts, which failed when West took the spade ace and a trump.