This is for fun. No great lesson implied.
The butterfly effect is a common way of saying that small alterations sometimes have large consequences. I was amused to see in the Wikipedia that the first known formulation that explicitly involved butterflies was due to Ray Bradbury, the author of Farenheit 451 and other sci fi novels. Anyway, on to bridge. I'll give you the robot hand. This is matchpoints, you are vulnerable, the opponents are not. The human (that would be me) on your right opens 1
. You hold:
: AT63
: 87
: AK642
: 86
I suppose you overcall 1
, at least the Bot did so let's go with that. Your Lho bids 1
, your partner bids 2
(natural, not inverted after the overcall), and your Rho doubles showing three card heart support. Your choice? At our table, the Bot passed, followed by 2
and then three passes.
Let's include at partner's hand:
: AT63 Q54
: 87 AT5
: AK642 T753
: 86 J73
So: Maybe your partner Bot should have bid 3
? This is matchpoints, your side is vul. Do you want to be in 3
X? How will you play it on the lead of the
Q on your left?
I think the correct choice in bridge is often far from clear. I played the free practice sessions for the upcoming Robot Individual this last week-end. Saturday's results were bad, Sunday's results were good. I wasn't drinking on Saturday, I wasn't inspired on Sunday. The two days were simply very different. It's those butterflies flapping their wings.
As to the play in 3
: If you duck the first heart, a heart will be continued. You go up with the A (so I assume) and then play AK of
. They split, with Qx appearing on your right. Obviously you will lose one
and two tricks in
so you have to avoid the loss of two
tricks to make this. How to do it or is it even possible? You and dummy have 18 hcps between you, so it's iffy. Again the butterflies are flapping.
