Bridge Match 1 - Board 1

If you’ve explored around in my side boxes you’ll have noticed under the “BLOGS I READ” widget a site called The Gargoyle Chronicles. It’s a bridge blog where a (former?) pro player plays hands against computer AI and describes the bidding and play of the hand. He goes through what he’s thinking which is really useful in learning what I should/could be thinking about when I’m playing bridge.

I went out and bought the software he uses (Jack Bridge) and have played around with it for a bit, but I’ve found instead of thinking more about what’s going on I tend to just play on autopilot. I could think about this hand, or I could just play it and there will be another hand to play! This is obviously bad, but with absolutely nothing on the line I can’t help it.

The solution to this problem, I think, is to try to run the same sort of blog here. I’ll be forced to slow down if I’m making notes for a blog post, and I’ll have added incentive to think things through so I don’t look like a complete idiot all the time. I have no delusions that the quality of play or commentary will be anything close to Philip Martin’s, and my goal is to teach myself and not to teach others, but I think it could be interesting to read. Certainly worth a shot, anyway. As another upside, it’s a way to generate content so maybe I can actually get up to a post a day even if I end up writing a bunch in one sitting and just leaking them out one a day.

So, I’m going to try playing an IMPed match. To do so, I will play a random deal generated by Jack as normal, seeing just the South cards. Then I will have the computer play itself to get a score for the ‘other table’, and then I can compare the two to see how many IMPs I lose. Jack also has a feature where he’ll yell at you for your mistakes, so I’ll get him to do that too. We’ll see how this turns out; the format may well evolve over time. I have all the AI players set to ‘World Championship’ level, which means they play at the level Jack plays during the World Computer Bridge Championships (which Jack won in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2009). I have all teams set to playing ‘Standard American Yellow Card’, but I suspect as I have bidding disasters I’ll edit my card.

At any rate, let’s do board 1 and see how it turns out!

Board 1 – Dealer North – No Vuls

My hand: ♠ J 5 4 3 2 ♥ Q J 8 4 ♣ K T 9 7

Partner opens 1NT and East passes. This is 15-17 in SAYC. Worst case, he’s 2-3-3-5 with 15 points and we should probably play 2S. Best case, we make game in a major. Actually, trying to build good hands for him, we may even make slam. AKxx-KTx-xxx-AQJ ‘just’ needs 2-2 spades. Ok, slam is pretty extreme, but game is pretty easy to build. Pretty much as long as partner doesn’t have a ton of diamond stuff we’re set. No way to find that out though… I think my plan should be to bid stayman and invite in hearts and bid game in spades?

2C – P – 2D – X

Oh dear. The double is lead directive, which actually bodes well I think. Partner can’t have a ton of diamond cards. I have no desire to play diamonds, so I need to pull this double. I think 2S is pretty clear? I bid it and the game alerts my bid with an asterisk. I now wonder what my bid meant, but I’m going to wait until after the hand to find out.

2S – 3D – 3S – S

3D was alerted as preemptive. Both opponents like diamonds and partner likes spades enough to bid them competitively. Seems like we won’t have diamond wastage (guess there was a way to find out?) so I’m going to be crazy and bid game.

4S – P – P – P

West leads the 2 of diamonds.

	NORTH ♠ A 8 7 ♥ K 9 5 ♦ A 9 5 4 ♣ A J 8
	SOUTH ♠ J 5 4 3 2 ♥ Q J 8 4 ♦ ♣ K T 9 7

West	North	East	South
	1 NT	Pass	2 ♣1
Pass	2 ♦2	Double3	2 ♠4
3 ♦5	3 ♠	Pass	4 ♠
(All pass)
1Stayman
2No 4-Card Major
3Lead Directional
4Weak Both Majors
5Pre-Emptive

I should have 3 spade tricks, 2 heart tricks, 1 diamond trick, and 3 or 4 club tricks. Loser wise, I’m definitely losing a heart and might lose a club. Diamonds are fine unless I get tapped out. Spades are tricky, but I’m planning on losing 2 of them. It’s possible to hold it to 1, but also to lose 4 if it’s 5-0 offside. Holding it to 1 means I can afford to lose a club, otherwise I need to find the queen.

My instinct is to play spades by playing ace and out, but I have no basis for that instinct. Looking at it a bit further, ace then finesse the jack is potentially better in case of some 4-1 breaks and only loses to KQ tight in West. Even then, the loss is 2 tricks total so I can still make if I pick up clubs. I worry about the diamond tap though, since I need to give up the lead 3 times… That probably could change the way I should play spades, but I don’t know so I’m going to give it a go. I can’t see any reason to ruff now, so I win the ace of diamonds and pitch the 4 of hearts.

I cash the A of spades. 9-2-6. Then I play the 8-T-J-K. Spades split 3-2, and I have 2 losers. Guess I need to find the Q of clubs.

West returns the 8 of diamonds, I cover with the 9 and East plays the 3. What? I guess I don’t have anything worth pitching so letting me win this won’t hurt them but it seems strange. I pitch the 7 of clubs. I almost want to rough out diamonds now, but I really should get the A of hearts out of the way. I play the 5-2-Q-A. West fires back a low heart. I figure I might as well ruff a diamond to try to get a count on the hand, so I win in dummy with the K. East pitches the 2 of clubs, so he started with a stiff heart. West started with 5 then.
I play the 4 of diamonds from dummy. East plays the J and I ruff low. West follows. I decide to draw the last trump to find out who has it. 3-7 of hearts-7-Q. East returns the K of diamonds which I ruff. West follows with the T. I believe the lead directional double at the two level shows at least five diamonds, so West should have started with a 2-5-4-2 distribution. East was 3-1-5-4.
I cash the J of hearts. 6-9-5 of clubs. With East has pitched two clubs and started with four he should be down to two left, so cashing clubs from the top should be good. They are, as West started with Qx. Making 4 spades.

	NORTH ♠ A 8 7 ♥ K 9 5 ♦ A 9 5 4 ♣ A J 8
WEST ♠ K 6 ♥ A T 7 6 3 ♦ T 8 7 2 ♣ Q 4		EAST ♠ Q T 9 ♥ 2 ♦ K Q J 6 3 ♣ 6 5 3 2
	SOUTH ♠ J 5 4 3 2 ♥ Q J 8 4 ♦ ♣ K T 9 7

I ask Jack to criticize my play. He agrees with me all the way! Woo.

Jack has the same auction I do, but he plays the hand differently. He pitches a club on the diamond lead instead of a heart. This seems wrong since it caps you at 3 club tricks. Jack made up for this by ruffing the 4th heart at the end but it seems risky for no reason. I guess if hearts split 3-3 you don’t need to guess clubs this way. At any rate, he didn’t screw up the clubs and made four as well.

It turns out my 2S bid meant weak with the majors, at least 5 spades and at least as many spades as hearts. 0-7 points. Looks like what I had, though I think I need to have more like 5-7 points since with a 0 count and 5 spades I'm just going to transfer to them.

Nick: +420
Jack: +420
IMPs: +0 (0 total)