GETTING THE BIDDING RIGHT.

Several of my irregular Saturday bridge columns have dealt with the joys of bidding with the help of an algorithm.  Sometimes, as in the following diagram, it works out.

This is my "deal" and I opened Two No Trump.  The algorithm responded with Three Clubs, and from the choice of bids the simulation offered me, Three Spades best described the hand I had, despite no five card Spade suit.  The balance of the bidding is visible at upper right.  This time around, Four No Trump is calling for Aces, and when I noted "All of them" the algorithm raised to Six Clubs.

The hand is North in today's post, and there are no trump losers even if one of the defenders holds all four of them; no Spade losers; no Diamond losers, and a possible Heart loser, although with judicious use of the board there's a trumping opportunity.  The East bot opens with ♣2: Seven, Six, Three.  From the board, cash the ♣ Ace, with West showing out, and lead a low Heart to the King in the hand, then the ♠7 to the King on the board.  Then the West bot did something odd, discarding the ♥6 when I ran the ♣ Jack.  Now it's mopping up: cash the remaining two Aces, ruff the ♦ Ten, both remaining Hearts in hand are now good, and the ♣ King and Queen are on hand to catch the final two tricks.  There might have been a more elegant way to catch them all, but after that discard error by West, what I did worked.