Dubious Logic

The Great Shuffler at Felixstowe

The suspicion that prevailed over computer dealing has largely dissipated. Perhaps a recognition that the ways of The Great Shuffler are indeed mysterious, perhaps more scientifically, that humans are adept at spotting patterns – even where none exist. Maybe. I give you two exhibits from this year's Felixstowe Congress.

This was deal five from the second pairs session. North led the heart nine, declarer played low from dummy, south ducked and the queen won. Three rounds of diamonds put north on lead but he still had a heart which he led to his partner who cashed four tricks for down one (by virtue of the spade finesse).

Let us move to board five of the second session of the teams:

Spooky eh? The heart layout is practically the same – indeed east's holding is identical. Here the heart ten was led and the first trick was the same; low, low, queen. Again north held a diamond entry and had a heart to play, again, down one.

Anything else strike you about these two layouts?

On both declarer missed a chance to make life difficult for the defence. He should play the knave from dummy. True, on the second south must duck because there is no real chance of defeating the game without the heart suit and, at teams, that is the only thing that matters.

But on the first south may be in a quandary. If declarer held ♥Q432 then ducking would present him with another trick and, at pairs, that may be as bad as allowing game to make. Notice that the Great Shuffler gave the defence all the high spots in the pairs game to make winning more tempting…

Coda:

Clearly pressed for space with two diagrams, I didn't go into how one might change the first deal to make ducking the heart unwise. You do not have to do much, for example:

Is good enough (swap ♥2 for ♣2 and ♦J for ♦2). True, declarer will have to find the ♣Q but he could easily have that card himself and be in range.

Published Saturday 7.Nov.2009