Some years ago, a colleague who played the game at a very high level described bidding along lines such as "the opener says, 'I have something, but show me what you have,' and if the possible defender overcalls, that's 'show me what you really have,' while opener's partner rebids with 'maybe I can help you, but give me a better idea what you have.'"
There are supposed to be some conventions governing bidding, some of those summarized in Mr Goren's primer, and there are probably a lot of implicit understandings among people who play each other regularly.
We have another column this week, because what can one do with this deal?
The West bot deals. After the fact, we see an unbalanced hand with eight high-card points and two for distribution. The North bot, with eight high-card points and one point for distribution, passes. The East bot, with additional length in Hearts but only two points, passes. Here I sit with three Aces, eighteen high-card points, and two points for maldistribution in trumps. At least the North bot understands what a takeout double is for. Two no-trump, however, is what Mr Goren calls the "bust response." In my reading, I've also discovered that it can be a signal of five cards each in two suits that have not been bid.
Thus I went for the simplest way to game with three no-trump.
If a reader can recommend the logic of what constitutes a game, I'd appreciate an explanation. Three no-trump produces forty points for the first trick, and thirty points for each additional trick. Four Hearts or four Spades pays off at thirty points for each trick. Is the reason a Diamond or Club contract pays off at twenty points for each trick won simply to encourage additional bidding to find a fit in Hearts or Spades, or to discourage mauering in the form of a four-trick bid with any suit? Think about it: suppose a partnership has sufficient material to take ten tricks in Hearts. Now change the suit of all the red cards in the game. That should be sufficient material to take ten tricks in Diamonds, but that's twenty points short of game. Why? The suit doesn't matter in a contract for six or for seven.
In a real game, a live partner would be playing North, and I'd be spectator. East led a low red card, I don't recall which. There would probably be an "oh, s*** moment" when the dummy for that hand, which is to say the South hand, was revealed. That was my first look at the North hand, and my immediate thinking was, could I keep the lead and run four Spades, one each of the Hearts and Diamonds, and seven Clubs? When the ♣J fell to the ♣K (after throwing the relevant red Ace on trick 1, I unleashed North with my ♣3, working up from Queen to King, then taking stock about how best to run the rest of the Clubs and toss the lead back and forth to run the high Spades) I was able to catch 'em all.
The solitaire site offers four deals per round, and issues a ranking after the final four. Something like top forty for the four including this example. Again, past performance is no indicator of future results. Not too long ago, the North bot made a Four Hearts contract with almost no heart support. What do you do?
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