[pilowsky]

North opens 1♥ and I have

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Big money is on the line. $0.29. There's a Novice competing who has a rank of 22. I'm suspicious.
The bidding winds it way up - I've learned control bidding from the robots.
I'm still a bit concerned when I get placed in 7♥ and find myself with two potential losers.
I'm playing as North, here are the two hands after East leads ♦Q.

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Most of the others were in 6H+1 - You'll see why when you look at the full hand. But there is a way to make it safely.
Here's my movie
Naturally - it is not the best contract - but I was pretty happy having stuffed up a nice 6NT a few minutes earlier.
Here's the 'Novice's' movie.

[Vampyr]

pilowsky, on 2020-August-10, 05:00, said:

North opens 1♥ and I have

---

Big money is on the line. $0.29. There's a Novice competing who has a rank of 22. I'm suspicious.
The bidding winds it way up - I've learned control bidding from the robots.
I'm still a bit concerned when I get placed in 7♥ and find myself with two potential losers.
I'm playing as North, here are the two hands after East leads ♦Q.

---

Most of the others were in 6H+1 - You'll see why when you look at the full hand. But there is a way to make it safely.
Here's my movie
Naturally - it is not the best contract - but I was pretty happy having stuffed up a nice 6NT a few minutes earlier.
Here's the 'Novice's' movie.

There is not a way to make it safely. The contract is on a finesse. The novice took the only legitimate line; your play was virtually misere.

You should have called this thread “My friend the West robot”.

[shyams]

Vampyr, on 2020-August-10, 06:06, said:

There is not a way to make it safely. The contract is on a finesse. The novice took the only legitimate line; your play was virtually misere.

You should have called this thread “My friend the West robot”.

I am not disputing this "There is not a way to make it safely. The contract is on a finesse" but I disagree with the idea that pilowsky's line was poor.

The way it was played, the decision to finesse was deferred/available even at trick 11. In the meantime, declarer created ample opportunities for the bots to misdefend; a completely legitimate technique.

[nige1]

pilowski. 'Big money is on the line. $0.29. There's a Novice competing who has a rank of 22. I'm suspicious. The bidding winds it way up - I've learned control bidding from the robots. I'm still a bit concerned when I get placed in 7♥ and find myself with two potential losers.I'm playing as North, here are the two hands after East leads ♦Q. Most of the others were in 6H+1 - You'll see why when you look at the full hand. But there is a way to make it safely.'
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There's no sure-trick solution but a plausible line of play is ♦A, ♥K, ♠A, ruff a ♠, ♥A, ruff a ♠, ♣A, ♥J. Now, if ♣Q hasn't appeared, then finesse ♣J, cash ♣K and ruff a ♣.
Aside: If you reply to this comment and peruse the hv tag, you will see an economical way of quoting a deal from myhands.

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[Vampyr]

shyams, on 2020-August-10, 07:08, said:

I am not disputing this "There is not a way to make it safely. The contract is on a finesse" but I disagree with the idea that pilowsky's line was poor.

The way it was played, the decision to finesse was deferred/available even at trick 11. In the meantime, declarer created ample opportunities for the bots to misdefend; a completely legitimate technique.

I don’t think that relying on such a gross misdefense as the robot produced is a legitimate technique. Well, not a bridge technique. I guess there is skill in learning how to game the robots but I consider it a waste of time when you could instead be improving your bridge game,

[DozyDom]

BBO has no requirement to state your skill level accurately. Real life bridge has no requirement to describe your skill level accurately. Playing individual tournaments, there isn't anything even faintly questionable about calling yourself any skill level you like. They've been a member for a decade - maybe they just haven't bothered to change the rating they had 10 years ago? In short, I don't have a clue why you're talking about this person; whatever you're trying to imply, it reeks of paranoia. Well bid on the hand though!

[pilowsky]

nigey, on 2020-August-10, 07:34, said:

pilowsky. 'Big money is on the line. $0.29. There's a Novice competing who has a rank of 22. I'm suspicious. The bidding winds it way up - I've learned control bidding from the robots. I'm still a bit concerned when I get placed in 7♥ and find myself with two potential losers.I'm playing as North, here are the two hands after East leads ♦Q. Most of the others were in 6H+1 - You'll see why when you look at the full hand. But there is a way to make it safely.'
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There's no sure-trick solution but a plausible line of play is ♦A, ♥K, ♠A, ruff a ♠, ♥A, ruff a ♠, ♣A, ♥J. Now, if ♣Q hasn't appeared, then finesse ♣J, cash ♣K and ruff a ♣.
Aside: If you reply to this comment and peruse the hv tag, you will see an economical way of quoting a deal from myhands.

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Thanks for that

[Huibertus]

Vampyr, on 2020-August-10, 08:01, said:

I don’t think that relying on such a gross misdefense as the robot produced is a legitimate technique. Well, not a bridge technique. I guess there is skill in learning how to game the robots but I consider it a waste of time when you could instead be improving your bridge game,

It is NOT "Relying on" it is making use of an extra chance. Which is sound technique against a robot and agains a human. If the defensive error is not made, it still is the club finess that is required to work, just as it was from the start.

By the way, could it be possible the robot knows of the distribution of the reds in declarers hand, and deduces the hand is a make with X/AKJX in the blacks because he has CQ, and therefore decides not to slip the hand with JX/AKJ in the blacks? It might not be a "gross misdefense" at all!

[nudnikbp]

Not saying my line is better, but I'd play the hand differently. Take the diamond ace at trick one and immediately lead the club ten. West will often cover with the queen. If West doesn't cover, then probably East holds it, so play the club ace and decide later whether to finesse the club or try to drop a doubleton queen with East. As an aside, even though it may not matter on this hand, I don't like ruffing a diamond early because it helps the opponents count the hand. Better to keep them in the dark as much as possible.

[pilowsky]

It's interesting, the reason for all the ruffing was to keep the ♥J in dummy and squeeze the ♣'s. I wanted to avoid having to take a finesse.
In the end the plan worked.
Even if the ♣Q was off-side the contract was safe. As it happens, the finesse works but I think that by keeping the trumps in that order the contract was secure.

[Huibertus]

pilowsky, on 2020-August-11, 06:42, said:

It's interesting, the reason for all the ruffing was to keep the ♥J in dummy and squeeze the ♣'s. I wanted to avoid having to take a finesse.
In the end the plan worked.
Even if the ♣Q was off-side the contract was safe. As it happens, the finesse works but I think that by keeping the trumps in that order the contract was secure.

It is good play, if like in reality SK is where it is, it is a show up squeeze if it is ducked and CQ is in the West hand too. So it adds stiff or doubleton Q in East to the succes. It would of course also work a an automatic queeze against E if East had SK and CQXX. But you will be down with QXX in East and SK in west. All in all I believe it is the percentage play.

[beowulf]

pilowsky, on 2020-August-11, 06:42, said:

It's interesting, the reason for all the ruffing was to keep the ♥J in dummy and squeeze the ♣'s. I wanted to avoid having to take a finesse.
In the end the plan worked.
Even if the ♣Q was off-side the contract was safe. As it happens, the finesse works but I think that by keeping the trumps in that order the contract was secure.

Yes but, as others have pointed out, only due to egregious misdefense. Playing the ♠K wasn't terrible. You might have started with Jx (although the auction suggested otherwise). But throwing away ♣ instead of ♠ or ♦?? It's just bizarre.

[johnu]

Excellent defense by West to keep a couple of extra diamonds at the end instead of keeping a small club. Even though North ruffed the 2nd round of diamonds and dummy can be seen to be out of diamonds, in case of an endplay, West can safely exit with a diamond.

Also, excellent defense by East to pitch 2 clubs and keep the rest of the diamonds. Just in case declarer couldn't figure out what is going on in clubs, East gave a crystal clear signal in clubs. Who said GIB doesn't signal???

Well done GIB.

[shyams]

beowulf, on 2020-August-11, 12:16, said:

Yes but, as others have pointed out, only due to egregious misdefense. Playing the ♠K wasn't terrible. You might have started with Jx (although the auction suggested otherwise). But throwing away ♣ instead of ♠ or ♦?? It's just bizarre.

The play in clubs is one of the known quirks of GIB.

• The West GIB knows that the finesse in clubs will work. Ergo, the West GIB treats all the cards it holds as losers and tends to discard indiscriminately. In other words, West GIB does not imagine or visualise the situation faced by the North GIB in that it is still a guess for North.

I am quite sure BBFers who are more familiar with GIB and its quirks can confirm what I write here.

[johnu]

Huibertus, on 2020-August-11, 09:26, said:

It is good play, if like in reality SK is where it is, it is a show up squeeze if it is ducked and CQ is in the West hand too. So it adds stiff or doubleton Q in East to the succes. It would of course also work a an automatic queeze against E if East had SK and CQXX. But you will be down with QXX in East and SK in west. All in all I believe it is the percentage play.

There is no squeeze. Look at the entries. The squeeze card would be the 7th heart but there are no entries to dummy by that time. If you reduce declarer's trumps to the same length as dummy, ruffing a diamond and 2 spades, you just ruffed your spade threat card.

[miamijd]

shyams, on 2020-August-11, 13:31, said:

The play in clubs is one of the known quirks of GIB.

• The West GIB knows that the finesse in clubs will work. Ergo, the West GIB treats all the cards it holds as losers and tends to discard indiscriminately. In other words, West GIB does not imagine or visualise the situation faced by the North GIB in that it is still a guess for North.

I am quite sure BBFers who are more familiar with GIB and its quirks can confirm what I write here.

That is correct. It's also why GIB will almost always fly with the Ace if you lead toward the KJ. It "knows" you will make the right play. If it doesn't fly Ace, play its partner for the Ace.

Cheers,
Mike