Author Topic: slammin with the bots plus some thoughts  (Read 3275 times)

kenberg

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slammin with the bots plus some thoughts
« on: April 16, 2018, 12:40:17 PM »
In the 8 board all-day tourney with the bots yesterday there were three slam hands, in the sense that we played three hands in slam.

Example 1: I opened 2 !C and partner responded 2NT.  If I had my way this would be a flatish hand with about 8-10 hcps and no aces. But maybe I should check with what the bots think it is. 8+hcps and nothing is said about aces. Sort of flatish.  So it says. Way way back Bobby Goldman recommended the bit about no aces, and I think he had a point. Here was my hand:

!S AKJ82
!H AKQTJ86
!D void
!C 4

It sure would be nice to know if partner had the !C A. Can I find out? Maybe, but it seems to be asking a lot for a partnership with limited agreements. There is also the spade Q to worry about.  Goldman's idea was that 2NT should be flat, no suit worse than Jxx, no aces. Ok, if no suit is worse than Jxx then partner has the !S Q and, with no aces, 6 !H is clearcut.  But I am  playing with the bot, not with Goldman. I guessed 6 !H. Oops. Partner has both the !C A and the !S Q, 13 tricks ready to go. Oh well.
Note: BWS says nothing about 2 !C - 2NT, at least nothing I could find. That's not good. [Added: Mike Lawrence seems to be opposed to the auction 2C-2NT existing. Maybe so, I am not convinced. But it should be narrowly drawn.]


http://tinyurl.com/y87wksaq

Example 2: Pard opens 1 !H.
I am holding:
!S K2
!H A3
!D QT
!C KQ98653

2 !C seems right so I bid it. Partner rebids 2 !H. This does not promise 6 but I have Ax and I imgine playing in hearts will be fine. I decide to keep it simple so I raise to 4 !H. Showing a minimum, I trust.
Partner now bids 4NT. This is a little alarming because these tourneys are in "best hand" style meaning that no other hand at the table has more hcps than I do. I have 14. This does not sound good but I am a straight arrow so I show my one key card with 5 !D. Partner bids 6 !H. Partner is declarer but the way these tourneys work the software switches me with the bot so I am declarer. The opening lead is a perhaps surprising, and perhaps ominous, !C T.
 The hands:

!S K2
!H A3
!D QT
!C KQ98653

!S A765
!H KQT972
!D 53
!C A

Good news: No diamond lead
Bad news: If the club is a stiff then my rho has Jxxx. There will be transportation issues if I first draw trump, then go to the board in spades, and then ruff a club. How do I get back?
Solution, I hope: Win the club, take two rounds of trump ending on the board, lead a small club to be ruffed in hand. I have two spade tricks, six heart tricks (I am assuming) so I only need five club tricks. If Lho has a second club. or if he has a stiff but does not have the !H J, this will work. This seems best to me so I put it into action.Win the !C!H K, !H to A. Rho shows out on the second heart. Oops. But now a little bit is going my way. I cash the !C K throwing a !D and Lho follows. That does it, really I can claim now. !C Q throwing another !D as LHo ruffs but I win the return, draw his remaining trump, go to the board in spades and run the rest of the clubs.  So I was worried that the clubs were not breaking, in fact it was the hearts that weren't, but all's well that ends well.


http://tinyurl.com/y7lobb8h

Example 3 (My bad, definitely me):


!S A32
!H 83
!D KQT7
!C AJT2

jdonn recommends shading the NT openings a bit for these day long tourneys, and this is only a mild shading (I do have two tens, one accompanied by a J) so I open 1NT. This is not the part where I erred, imo. Partner bid 2 !H, I bid 2 !S. Partner bid 3 !H. I bid 3 !S. That's my error. That was lazy. The right bid is 4 !S, hopefully disclaiming any interest in playing more than 4 !S. My 3 !S got my pard all worked up. He bid 4 !H, I bid 4 !S, he bid 4NT.  If I keep my wits about me I lie and show just one key instead of two but no, I bid 5 !H and there then I was in a hopeless 6 !S.

http://tinyurl.com/y7u7kr44

Three very swingy slams, two going badly. Oh well. Some other boards went better. Some good, some bad, what else is new.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2018, 08:22:08 PM by kenberg »
Ken

ian84

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Re: slammin with the bots plus some thoughts
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2018, 06:23:17 AM »
Hand 1: I don't have any regular pards where we've discussed this yet, but I've always played all non-2D responses to show 8 or more points and a 5-card suit. 2NT would thus be balanced and 8+ points. I've only recently come across the idea that positive response bids should show at least an A or K. I can see some merit in that, but as I say haven't played it that way and have never had an issue with it. The only problem is that with a flat hand you're most likely to end up in 3NT with the weak hand Declaring, so it would be nice to figure out a way to set Declarer correctly.

Maybe for a no Aces and Kings hand, bidding could go: 2c-3S(xfer to NT)-3NT, leaving 2NT to show at least a K. Opener could be allowed to break the xfer sequence with a long strong suit of his own.

Hand 3: Bergen hand evaluation will upgrade your hand under the 'Aces and 10s less Queens and Jacks' rule. I don't see a problem with your 3S, surely its just suit pref. 4S would to my mind show 4-card support in S. You've already limited your hand to 15-17. The bot is gonna go for slam whatever you bid.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2018, 06:34:17 AM by ian84 »
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