Sometimes robots outplay humans

The theme of today’s deal has appeared in this column a few times, but if it is anything to go by, some repetition would not go amiss.

How should the play proceed in three spades after West leads the diamond king? North has a close decision over West’s takeout double. He has 10 points, usually worth a limit raise (here, starting with redouble, then supporting spades on round two), but he has nine losers, the number for a single raise, and he has that awful 4-3-3-3 distribution. If you do not mind some memory strain, after one of a major — double, a good idea is to play the single raise as very weak, and a bid in the suit below partner’s (here, two hearts) shows a good threecard raise. That would be North’s response today. Yes, East’s three-diamond advance was aggressive, but it did push North-South out of their depth.

The first trick goes diamond king, two, nine (encouraging), three. West continues with the diamond six (low from three remaining), five, ace, 10. What next?

East must realise that South is now out of diamonds. Given that, East should see that it is time to shift to clubs — but to which one?

At Bridge Base Online, 16 robots playing East faced this problem. Nine led the club four, and four chose the club eight. However, each South just played low, and West had to win with the 10. A moment later, South was claiming. Only three robots made the right play, leading the club queen.

When you have J-x-x or Q-x-x and need three tricks, lead the honour.