Bridge THE TEXTBOOK SUIT IGNORED BY A ROBOT

Louis Shalako, in his poem “Mr. Robot,” included the verse, “I, robot / Don’t have the capacity / To dream about tomorrow / But I never spell a word wrong.”

You would think that bridgeplaying robots would never misplay a suit combination — but you would be wrong! In today’s deal, how should South have played in four hearts? West led the spade 10. East took two tricks in the suit, cashed the club ace and exited with a second club.

South had a close decision in the auction. Should he advance two hearts, in theory showing 0-8 points, or should he jump to three hearts, promising 9-11 points? He knew that an eightcard heart fit was guaranteed, and he liked his two minorsuit ruffing values. So he took the high road and reached a good game, given that East had opened the bidding and surely held the club ace.

At trick five, the robot South immediately played a low heart to dummy’s ace; but when East discarded, West had to take a trump trick to defeat the contract.

A human declarer realized that he had to avoid a trump loser. If the hearts were 2-2 or 3-1, that would be no problem.

So he considered how to handle a 4-0 split. If East had all four, the contract had no chance. But if West held them, they could be kept in check as long as South started with his heart queen. Then, when East did discard, declarer led another trump and captured West’s 10 with dummy’s king. Back to hand with a club ruff, South played a heart to dummy’s nine, cashed the heart ace and claimed.