The first rule of playing bridge with/against a computer program is that most programs allow the user to switch seats with partner instead of watching three computers play a hand out. This gives the user twice as much chance to get declarer practice in, but it's best to go into your program's settings and ask it NOT to rotate the deal. I find it hard to remember who bid what earlier if the deal has been rotated. And in this hand it is important, as the K♣ is the opening lead and I can make twelve tricks (losing only the A♠) if I can locate the Q♥. I win the A♣, play the K♠ and East takes the ace of trumps, leading a second club. I ruff with the Q♠ and lead a low trump to dummy's eight, West having the last trump for the defenders. I ruff a third club and West shows out. Time for an inventory. We have only 24 points and they have 16, but East has already shown up with ten of them, the three club honours and the A♠. The remaining two have to be with West, who somehow found a 3♦ bid and must have more than just the KJ♦. I lead the J♥ from the North hand and East plays low. I win the ace in dummy and lead the ten back. West covers with the queen and I win in the North hand with the king. The 8♥ is cashed and the J♠ is an entry to dummy to cash the 9♥, on which I discard the 3♦ from the North hand. Making six!

McBruce's Result: 4♠n+2, 480 to NS. My score: 67%.

Not really a slam that should be bid, but a good illustration of why it is important in matchpoints to make as many as you can. Making ten tricks only was worth just 16%, with none of the computers making five. Taking inventory of what you have seen and can infer doesn't always get you a near-certainty as on this hand, but often it will change the odds and make one play far more likely to succeed than another.

The doubleton QJ is a concern but not enough of one to stop me from opening 2NT as South after East passes as dealer. Partner transfers to spades with a 3♥ call and I do not try to escape spades; partner might have seven or eight of them. Partner rebids 3NT, giving me the choice of games, and I am happy to pass. The opening lead is the 6♥ and dummy's jack wins. I lead a small spade from dummy and West takes the jack with the king, and leads a diamond, the ten. This looks like the Q♦ is offside so there is no use playing the jack, but I need the diamond entry so I win in hand with the ace and lead another spade. At first I am surprised when it wins, but then I see the evil plan. To set up the spades I now need two entries to dummy, and I have but one sure entry, unless the Q♦ is in an unlikely favourable position. So, I switch to clubs. With a spade, three hearts, and two diamonds, I need three clubs to make the contract, and my king goes around to East's ace. Back comes the T♥ (East had played the 9♥ to trick one) and I win in hand. When West shows out on the Q♣ next, I know what to do: cash the remaining heart winner, cross to dummy with the K♦, and lead a club, finessing the 9♣ when East follows low. Making three!

McBruce's Result: 3NTs=, 600 to NS. My score: 68%!

It's OK to be concerned about that QJ♠ doubleton when opening 2NT, but not OK to avoid opening 2NT because of it. The vast majority of the time partner will have something to help make a stopper of this holding. If you open 1♣ and West overcalls 1♥, it will be passed back to South, and now what? Whatever you choose, partner may misinterpret and might even bid spades disastrously. Don't let small doubletons dissuade you from opening in notrump. Singletons and voids, yes. Not doubletons though.

Partner opens 1♣ after two passes and East doubles. I consider 2♣ or even 2♦ to make it harder for West to respond, but decide 1♦ is probably the right call. Soon East-West are in game and the whole field does the same thing, losing only the A♣ and A♦ for 650 at every table.

McBruce's Result: 4♥e+1, 650 to EW. My score: 50%!

A significant minority did take a shot with a 5♣ bid by South over 4♥, but East-West bid on to 5♥ and made it. I wonder if it will be a whole room of like results in the real game!

Everyone in the computer tournament had the same auction, South making a takeout double of 1♣ and passing North's jump response to 2♠. It's OK to make a takeout double with three-card support for one of the unbid suits, and a jump response to a takeout double shows only about 8 or more points, with 10 or 11 partner should cuebid East's suit. I'd probably open 1♦ rather than 1♣ with the East hand, leading to a rather different auction. But the play's the thing, and North needs to make 2♠, which sadly, I did not. The K♥ was the opening lead and I won the ace and finessed in spades, losing to the king but not finding out until later that it was a singleton king. East cashed the A♦ and Q♥ and for some reason West played the 9♥ on the second round. East played another heart and the eight won in dummy. I played a trump to the ace expecting possible overtricks and when East showed out on the second round of trumps I was tossed overboard with little chance to get back to safety. West won two more trump tricks and the second round of clubs for down two, a result that I never saw coming until it was too late to do anything about it.

McBruce's Result: 2♠n-2, 200 to EW. My score: 2%, running total 46.8%, ranked 72nd of the 102 pairs so far.

I guess a better plan would have been to ruff two clubs in dummy. At least I'd have gotten one ruff. Trying to ruff red suits in my hand didn't work too well!

Suit combinations missing just the king and jack are a personal nemesis for me. I know the odds, but they never seem to work for me. The probabilities say cash the ace and lead toward the queen next, unless you have the ten and the nine, in which case lead the queen and run it! But in this case I'm going against the odds, because East leads a club and I can cash three clubs using the A♥ as an entry and pitch a diamond loser. But then I look closer and see that playing this way might leave dummy a trump short in the end, so I win the A♣ and play the K♠. East wins and grabs two diamond tricks by playing the ace and then the jack through dummy's queen to West's king. Now there is no hope and I go down only one when East has the K♥ and they break. But this is actually slightly better than average, since there is no way to make 4♥ and several went two down.

McBruce's Result: 4♥n-1, 100 to EW. My score: 55%, running total 48.4%, ranked 53th of the 102 pairs so far.

Should we even be in 4♥ though? My hand is worth about 20 points in support of hearts, adding points for shape and for the trump honours. Six from partner would be enough most of the time. Just unlucky, I guess. The South hand isn't quite strong enough to jump straight to 4♥, since North may have a zero count for the forced response, but a raise to 2♥ only is quite wimpy with this massive hand.

In a standard auction, East would respond 3♠ to 1♠ and we would be in 4♠ after the non-forcing limit raise. American expert Marty Bergen decided in the 1980s that the jump raise was better used to keep the opponents out of the auction with much weaker hands with support, so he invented Bergen Raises, where a jump to 3♣ or 3♦ over 1♥ or 1♠ is a special type of four-card raise; 3♦ here promises about 10-12 points. As West I have an easy 4♠ call and I can claim soon after the defenders take the first two heart tricks.

McBruce's Result: 4♠w+1, 650 to EW. My score: 46%, running total 48.0%, ranked 55th of the 102 pairs so far.

We score a bit less than average because somewhere one of the computers forgot to cash the second heart. Nice to know even machines make mistakes.

It was the early 1960s when players realized that doubling low-level overcalls for penalties seldom scored big, and switched to making doubles of overcalls for takeout. In Britain this was called a Sputnik Double because that was in the news, but in North America, where this was opposite to what had been done for years, this was called a Negative Double. East shows predominantly hearts and probably diamonds, just not on this hand. When East corrects to 2♠, this shows only two card support, since East would raise directly with three. This makes passing 2♠ easy for me, and I'm glad I did, since it barely made it to the finish line. The 8♥ opening lead ran around to my nine, and I played the A♦ and ruffed a diamond. Then I ran the 9♠ to North's ace and surrendered two diamond tricks.South was in and led the 7♥ and my king was ruffed by North. North could have led a spade at this point and waited for two club tricks for down one, but instead North led the queen of clubs, and I won the queen gratefully and cashed three spades to make the contract.

McBruce's Result: 2♠w=, 110 to EW. My score: 93%, running total 54.4%, ranked 21st of the 102 pairs so far.

Lucky so far with the computer mistakes. Probably won't last....

Partner opens 2♣ in second seat and I have a decent hand. Modern theory is to get out of the way with the vast majority of responding hands when partner opens 2♣ and let partner describe. 2♦ is the normal response wiith most hands, although some play 2♥ as a very bad hand warning, responding 2NT with a positive response in hearts (if you don't play this, the way to show the bad hand is to continue with the cheapest three-bid as your second responding call). The classic requirements for a positive response are a good five-card suit or longer, and eight high-card points. Otherwise, you stay out of the way and bid 2♦ or 2♥ and see what partner does next. Here partner announces a very strong hand with a spade suit, and 2NT might be bid on a weak hand without a spade fit, so 3NT is the best response. (Partner rates to have something in hearts and not just the AKQJ♠ for the 2♣ opener.) This is passed out, a club is led, and partner's solid six-card spade suit introduces a new problem. To score well, I must make as many tricks as those in spades make. In both contracts, the difficulty is in finding an entry to the South hand once the KJ♦ are unblocked, so we can score four diamond tricks and make twelve total. One way that is possible (but unlikely) is that the club lead is from the KQ♣. Ducking the ace in dummy will probably lose, but at least East will have to guess what to do next at trick two, rather than further down the line when there is more information available. This strategy pays off when somehow East wins the K♣ and returns a spade, and my two fetches West's unthinking T♠. Now the 8♠ is an entry back to the South hand and I can cash the KJ♦, cross to the 8♠ and cash the other two diamonds, pitching the JT♥ from dummy, and lead a heart to the ace, and dummy's good; making six. About a fifth of the field of computer players has bid the slam in notrump or spades and made it, so 490 is only 48%, but 480 for 4♠+2 is 14%, so that twelfth trick was crucial.

McBruce's Result: 3NTs+3, 490 to NS. My score: 48%, running total 53.6%, ranked 33rd of the 102 pairs so far.

Those who love squeezes might try to make this by running spades and hoping for poor discards and as long as you duck the first trick (in squeeze termonology this is called "rectifying the count", losing the tricks you must lose before running the winners and applying pressure), it does work..&enspIf East wins the K♣ at trick one and instead returns a diamond, I win in dummy and run six spades and the A♣, then have to overtake a diamond to my hand: six spades, the two club tricks, and three only diamond winners leaves everyone coming down to two cards only with the lead to trick twelve coming from South. If West keeps the KQ♥, South will have seen the Q♣ discarded, and simply cashes the J♣ and leads a heart to the ace. If the Q♣ does not appear, South leads a heart towards the ace-jack in dummy, and West, having already pitched one heart honour, must now play the other, and South wins the last two.

Partner opens 1♥ in second chair and RHO pre-empts 3♣. The hand merits a game bid, but what are the slam chances? One way to determine whether to try for a slam rather than settle for game in a tight spot is to use a technique called the Perfect Minimum. Give partner a hand that has as few highcard points as possible for the bidding thus far, but you get to dictate (within reason) the distribution and which specific high cards are included. If that hand has a play for slam opposite what you have, it's worth a try. Partner opened the bidding and should have 12 points, if we imagine, say ♠AKx ♥K87432 ♦Kx ♣xx ... oops, that's slam, but that's 13 points. Getting it down to 12 points makes it harder to envision a slam, so a bid of 4♥ is probably best here. North bids 5♣ and partner bids 5♥, and maybe a re-think is in order, because partner's probably got more than 12 now. But it's a lot of losers to cover from the West hand's perspective, so I pass and move across to declare (computers let the user declare rather than have the user wait around), and oh boy, we have a great chance at twelve tricks, or more if they don't lead a club, here. South in fact chooses the T♠ as the opening lead, a surprise. The missing Q♥ is more likely to be in the North hand when South announces a lot of clubs in the auction, so I win the A♠ and lead to the A♥, returning the T♥, and the queen appears and it's over: six hearts, six spades, and three diamonds. Making seven! Only a few pairs bid the slam, and most got a club lead, so this is a great score!

McBruce's Result: 5Hw+2, 710 to EW. My score: 91%, running total 57.8%, ranked 15th of the 102 pairs so far.

The T♠ opening lead looks odd, so I had JACK rank the thirteen cards based on the average expected score based on 1000 deals matching the auction. The K♣ was the best lead but the T♠ was a close second. In actual play JACK does this but with fewer than 1000 deals (which takes about a minute or two) and might get the second or third best choice with a lower sample size. To the opening leader, the lack of spades indicated by the declaring side might reveal that spades was a source of tricks if a club was going to be ruffed.

Dealer East opens 1♣ and with thirteen points it is tempting to take action with the South hand. But nothing is very good. A takeout double has a strong chance of disappointing partner when I have three-card support for both majors. A 1♦ overcall seems pointless from a disruptive standpoint and might convince partner I have five of them. Pass is the best option, and is still the best option when West responds 1NT and it is passed around to me. A 2♦ call to be competitive might find West with four diamonds and a penalty double in the waiting. So, we defend 1NT, and partner begins with the J♦. Partner doesn't have the king, but may have five diamonds if declarer has a doubleton, so I win the ace and lead the queen back. Declarer ducks again and I lead the nine next, to avoid blocking the suit so partner will win the fourth round. I don't want to be stuck on lead into that dummy. Declarer wins the K♦, finesses the Q♠ to my K♠, and I put partner in with the fourth diamond, on which declarer discards a small spade from dummy. Partner leads a spade, safe now that declarer cannot win a fourth round of them, and declarer takes two spade tricks and then leads a heart to the queen and partner's king. Another heart lead sets up my J♥ for an eventual winner, and I have to get the K♣ in the end for down one. Slightly below average, a few more pairs beat 1NT two tricks than the very few who allowed it to make.

McBruce's Result: 1NTw-1, 100 to NS. My score: 45%, running total 56.5%, ranked 26th of the 102 pairs so far.

Newer players in my experience are more afraid of notrump, especially 1NT, than they should be. Yes, you can lose control and watch the opponents cash a suit against you, but when that happens you almost always have company and still win a few matchpoints. Remember always that matchpoint scoring is not about plusses and minuses, but about getting better scores than others. That 10 points extra for playing notrump can provide a lot of matchpoints, more in most sessions that making good slam decisions. Avoiding notrump is not the answer.

JACK and I clearly disagree about the South hand and whether it is worth an opening bid. Twelve points and two for the doubletons is 14, but an aceless hand is worth a deduction of one point, and doubeton KJ♠ surely is not worth four AND a fifth for the doubleton. Unlike all of the computers, I pass, and West does as well, allowing partner to open 2♦. You've heard no doubt that it is a bad move to open a weak two with a side four-card major, but in third seat anything goes, so I approve of this. East passes as well and I sense something is up. My hand opposite a weak two and neither opponent can get into the auction? Normally I would raise to 3♦ here, but telling the opponents that we have a fit would also tell them that they too are likely to have a fit somewhere, making it more likely that they will compete. Instead, I choose 3♣, and this is passed out, and West leads a trump ... and dummy has none. However, the opponents do have a spade fit, so it might not be too bad if I can hold this to down one or two. East wins the A♣ and shifts to a spade and I correctly guess to play the jack from hand, losing to West's A♠. Back comes a spade to my king and I play the J♣ next to force out the queen; both follow, East winning. I ruff the spade return and pull a third round of trumps and West is out, so East began with five. Switching to the K♦, I am surprised when East ruffs, but this has to be good: diamonds are 5-0 and 3♦ would be an even bigger nightmare. Not to mention that spades their way with distribution like this must make something. Eventually I am down two, and the scores elsewhere are out of this world! One pair goes for 1700 in 5♥ doubled! A few are in 4♠ doubled down one. -100 for down two in an undoubled 3♣ is the calm within several storms, and a rather good result!

McBruce's Result: 3♣s-2, 100 to EW. My score: 83%, running total 58.9%, ranked 6th of the 102 pairs so far.

How did the East-West pair fail to get into this auction? Surely East is better off bidding 2♥ over 2♦ than passing. I might persist with 3♦ and get to high, or I might pass and West will likely try 2♠ and they'll find their fit. With a 1♣ opener from South, West might bid 1♠ right away and North will make a negative double. Hearts on a 4-3 fit seems like a rather poor bet for North-South, but several tried it, and paid seriously for their transgression. I can only wonder what sort of wild results this hand will produce with humans and not computers playing it!

West and North pass and East opens 1♣. My 1♠ overcall is pretty risky, but who doubles at the one-level? Actually, West does, but it is a negative double showing hearts and possibly diamonds. East rebids 3NT, which shows a good hand with long clubs. I am aware that a spade lead is unlikely to succeed on this auction, but I fail to find the best lead, choosing the 7♥. Declarer wins and knocks out partner's A♣ and eventually I get my A♦, but that's all. Another slightly below average result.

McBruce's Result: 3NTe+2, 460 to EW. My score: 46%, running total 57.8%, ranked 8th of the 102 pairs so far.

The killing lead was the A♦, knocking off the singleton queen in declarer's hand and allowing South to continue with another diamond, leaving North to wait for the A♣ and then run the rest of the suit. East has no way out if South finds this brilliant lead.

Three passes precede my 19-point 1♦ opener, and after North passes, partner East jumps to 2♥. This shows a weak hand of 2-6 points and long hearts, at least six of them. Now what? I rebid 2♠, showing a strong two-suited hand, and partner persists with 3♥. There is no guarantee that there is even an entry to whatever partner has in hearts, and it is clearly not as strong as AKxxxx. But passing 3♥ seems potentially worse than trying 3NT and hoping for some miracle, so I bid 3NT with the greatest reluctance, and dummy is about as expected. On a good day the Q♦ would drop in two rounds (40% chance if they are 3-2), but not today, and I go two down.

McBruce's Result: 3NTw-2, 200 to NS. My score: 22%, running total 55.1%, ranked 22nd of the 102 pairs so far.

If partner were not a computer I would be marking up my scorecard with some symbol to indicate a serious talk needed afterwards. Partner's 3♥ call after I showed nine cards in spades and diamonds, promising at least five diamonds, is a serious error and we need to discuss this. I would have preferred a 3♦ call instead, since partner knows we have an eight-card fit there. When something this serious comes up, it is best to move on, forget it, but mark a note for later. Players tend to defend their decisions when the opponents are present to save face, but later on, alone and with the memory of the bad result, may well say something like "I know, I should have bid 3♦, not 3♥. My bad, sorry." Here, East knows West does not have a fit for hearts, and also knows there is an eight-card fit. JACK's own explanation of it's calls here makes little sense: the 2♥ response is 2-6 with six or more hearts, and yet a rebid of 3♦ somehow shows 9-10 points! Clearly this is impossible and we've discovered a weakness in the programming.

Unlike the computers, I see little benefit to overcalling 1♦ after East opens 1♣ as dealer. It seems to me to gain little and potentially make a possible heart fit harder to find. East makes a bold 3NT call, perhaps deluded by my pass and partner's pre-empt, and I soon make a second crucial mistake in the play. A spade opening lead seems normal enough, and partner wins the A♠ and switches to the J♦. I win the king and lead another, but partner does not have the ten, declarer does, and the ace as well. Winning the Q♦ in dummy, declarer crosses to hand with a spade and leads a heart. I unthinkingly split my honours and declarer happily ducks and later finesses to make five heart tricks and ten tricks. Had I played low, and split on the second round of hearts, declarer could not ever establish the suit, and would end up two down. Instead declarer makes ten tricks. Ouch! Sorry, partner!

McBruce's Result: 3NTe+1, 430 to EW. My score: 40%, running total 54.0%, ranked 25th of the 102 pairs so far.

40% for a mistake of this magnitude is quite a relief, but down two would be 66%. I hang my head in shame....

I take about 35 seconds to decide whether to open the South hand or not ... and the entire hand takes 36. I choose to pass the questionable twelve count where four of the twelve points might be dropped by opponents leading ace-king combinations, and everyone else passes. At every other table, the computer player opened the South hand 1♠, West passed, the North hand raised to 3♦, a Bergen raise showing 10-12 points and four spades, and South bid 4♠, a 50% game that depends on the location of the K♠ once the defenders cash their two hearts and a club. If the K♠ had been in the East hand, I'd have scored a near top on the board. Extremely unlucky.

McBruce's Result: Passed Out, 0 to NS. My score: 2%, running total 50.5%, ranked 48th of the 102 pairs so far.

It's not very sportsmanlike to claim "bad beats" based on the opponents actions, but West here should have opened 1♣, with two aces and a king. My key rule for borderline opening bids is not based on highcard points, but on quick tricks (maximum two per suit), and the South hand has no more than one and a half, and to get the half you need to be optimistic about the other eight points. West however, has two and a half obvious quick tricks and should open, even with only 11 points. No response by East will make things difficult for West's rebid. Sure, it's wishful thinking, because what actually will happen is that North will make a takeout double, and South will bid 4♠. But maybe not: suppose East sacrifices in 5♣ and I lead the Q♠. East covers and North wins and returns a spade. East ruffs, pulls trumps, cashes the AK♥, and the QJ♥ falls doubleton and East goes down only one for a great sacrifice!

One of McBruce's Bridge Maxims: you can travel halfway around the world, walk into an unfamiliar bridge club and tell who the players who will ship matchpoints your way are by one simple auction: 1NT pass pass pass. If you want to be seen as a good player, at least act like you're not terrified! Most declarers dropped in 1NT treat it as some sort of disgusting chore that sometimes needs to be endured. A lot depends on what you get from dummy; 15 opposite 2 is going to be a struggle, but here, 17 opposite 7 is a contest of overtricks. West leads a fourth-best spade and I have finesses in all four suits. I try the T♠ from dummy but it loses to the ace and East returns a spade, so I have one spade trick, which I should take on the third round. West captures my J♠ with the Q♠ and switches to a club to East's king and my ace. The Q♦ is the card I want to find out about. I lead a heart to the king, knowing that if it loses to East's A♥, East cannot have any more highcards, for the A♥ would be East's eleventh and East passed in third chair. But the king wins, so I run the 8♥ to West's jack. Back comes a spade and I win in hand. So far I have one spade, one heart, three clubs, and two diamonds, with possibilities of extra tricks in clubs (if they are 3-3) and diamonds (if I can guess the location of the Q♦). I cash the queen and jack of clubs, and they do split 3-3, so I cash dummy's 6♣, East pitching a diamond and West pitching the thirteenth spade. I'm fairly sure West has the A♥, so the only reason to toss the thirteenth spade holding an entry would be ... to keep three to the queen in diamonds! Makes sense, right? I thought so. But when I played the A♦ and then ran the jack, East won and led a heart to West's ace. West's last card, however, was a diamond, so I made eight tricks for a decent score.

McBruce's Result: 1NTs+1, 120 to NS. My score: 66%, running total 51.5%, ranked 41st of the 102 pairs so far.

Had both defenders pitched a diamond on the thirteenth club, I could throw West in with the A♥, let West cash the Q♠, but then West would need to lead a diamond and I would make eight tricks anyhow. I guess West saw that coming and decided to present a different option.

Everyone should have some scheme by which you can overcall 1NT with decent shapely hands. My favorite is Brozel, because it is easy to remember: 2♣, 2♦, and 2♥ show hearts and another suit, either hearts and the minor bid, or both majors: 2♠ shows spades and one of the minors. So 2♥ shows hearts and spades, and partner chooses ... 3♦?? Is this some kind of cuebid, or just diamonds and no fit? The answer is simple: partner passed before East opened 1NT; this is no fancy cuebid. I pass 3♦ and cross over to the North seat to play it. East leads the A♣ and switches to the J♦. I win in the North hand and lead the Q♣, covered by East with the king and ruffed with the A♦. A small spade to the ten loses to East's jack and another spade comes back. I try the K♠ but West plays the ace and I ruff in the North hand and pull two rounds of trumps. Next, I lead a heart towards the king, forcing East to win the ace, and I ruff the spade return and claim the rest. Making four is a good score!

McBruce's Result: 3♦n+1, 130 to NS. My score: 78%, running total 53.1%, ranked 24th of the 102 pairs so far.

Note that after the passout fiasco on Board 15, where I was unlucky to score only 2%, it took only a 66% and a 78% to get back almost to where we were before that disaster. Catching up when you fall behind doesn't always require top boards!

Another difference between the computers and the one human player in this tournament: I open 1NT with the South hand, not 1♥. It's only 14 highcard points, but the five-card heart suit is worth a point. West overcalls 3♦ (East-West are playing the same McBruce 2/1 system, so 2♦ would show diamonds and hearts over the 1NT opener), and somewhat to my surprise, partner jumps to 4♥ and East bids on to 5♦. Wow! Now what?&enspThe opponents must have at least nine diamonds between them on this auction, so I'm not worried about losing multiple diamonds. Partner must have something for the game bid beyond five or six hearts to the queen or queen-jack, and any black suit honours will help. I think 5♥ is worth a shot. At this vulnerability, we need to beat 5♦ four tricks doubled to get more than the 650 on offer for 5♥ if we can make it. A diamond is led and I ruff the second, play to the A♥, ruff the last diamond in hand, pull the last truimp with the K♥, and lead the Q♣, which is covered by West's king and North's ace. Now I lead the 2♠ from the North hand and when East plays the king, I can claim the rest. Making five, but it's an average, with several pairs taking five diamonds doubled to the cleaners!

McBruce's Result: 5♥n=, 650 to NS. My score: 49%, running total 52.8%, ranked 27th of the 102 pairs so far.

Some might say that it was better for me to pass 5♦ and let partner decide, the pass being forcing, since we have already voluntarily bid a game. The pass would imply some possibility of a trump trick, and North would double knowing that the two black aces would combine well. But I considered it quite unlikely that my K♦ was a potential trick on this auction, and a ten-card fit kind of screams to be played. In 5♦ doubled, West should be able to get more than six diamonds and the K♠, by using the 98♦ as entries to attack clubs: low to the nine and jack, then on the second round the ten from dummy, covered with the queen, king and ace, leaves the T♣ as an eighth winner.

Revenge! After the passout on Board 15, this is the other side of the coin, as the computers all pass this one out and I open 1♥ with my two and a half quick tricks, counting ♥QT9 as almost a half and ♦JT as enough to get over the line. My rebid of 2♣ is raised and I play in 3♣. A diamond to the king is followed by a switch to trumps, the defenders foreseeing a crossruff. I win and run the Q♥ to East's king and a second trump is played. I win and a heart to the ace brings down West's J♥, and who needs a crossruff when you've set up the suit everyone else in the tournament decided was not worth bidding? Four clubs, a diamond ruff, and four heart winners are nine tricks and to my surprise a top board!

McBruce's Result: 3♣S=, 130 to NSEW. My score: 100%, running total 55.3%, ranked 12th of the 102 pairs so far.

What a mystery. I would open the West hand. I would open the South hand. I would open the North hand in third seat with a wild 2♠ opener at this vulnerability! And despite the rule of 15 (fourth seat borderline openers: count your points, add the number of spades you have, open if the sum is 15 or more), I would still open the East hand, which has two and a half quick tricks plus a side queen and is no borderline opener. JACK and I do not see eye to eye on what constitutes an opening bid. Perhaps in another million hands we might have an idea about who's right. In this tournament so far we have one win each on the dispute.

A good exercize in re-evaluation for West here. The first thing West should realize is that the West hand is too strong to open 1NT (18 highcard points). With three aces, it is actually on the high side of the in-between hands in the 18-19 balanced range, where you open and hope to get to jump to 2NT to show what you have. After 1♦ (Pass) 1♥ (Pass), West does indeed get to jump to 2NT to show 18-19 balanced, and East sends the auction in a new direction with a 3♠ rebid, showing 4-4 in the majors. West now re-evalutes and discovers a hand worth about 20 points in support of spades, and thus is quite happy to bid 4♠ and let partner take the responsibility for making it, but against the computers I have to trot over to the East seat and hope I don't goof up, because we all know the computers are secretly laughing at us when this happens. South leads a small club against 4♠ and I duck in dummy: if North wins an honour I am fairly sure that South will have the other. North wins the Q♣ and switches to the J♥, which I win in dummy with the ace. I decide to play the hand as a partial crossruff, and I lead a trump to South's ace. South surprises me by returning the K♣. Is North ruffing this? I play the ace and North follows, and I exhale. One more trump to pull, leaving one out there somewhere, and now we cash winners, then ruff out losers. At some point I will be overruffed by whoever has the T♠, but in most cases that should be their only trick. This all comes to pass smoothly and I make four for a good score.

McBruce's Result: 4♠e=, 620 to EW. My score: 81%, running total 56.6%, ranked 9th of the 102 pairs so far.

If you are planning a crossruff and you want to pull some trumps first and have to lose one, beware of the possibility of the opponents leading an extra round once they are in. If South had ducked the first trump lead it would be unsafe for me to lead a second with the ace still out there. The player holding the ace might have a third trump to lead, killing two crossruff tricks at one shot.

Another basic difference in opening styles here: the computer Souths all open 1♣ while I open 1♦, which is the norm with 4-4 in the minors. You can choose 1♣ if it seems a better lead should the opponents declare and partner needs help choosing a suit to lead, but Axxx and KQxx are about the same for that purpose. I wonder what JACK does after 1♣ (Pass) 1♠ (Pass). Hopefully not 1NT with a singleton or 2♦ with equal clubs and diamonds. (Just checked, JACK's plan is to rebid 2♦ as a reverse, which seems to be an exception to the rule about reverses showing more (not equal) in the opened suit than the rebid suit. In my auction, the unique 1♦ opener puts us on a different road. West, who passed over 1♣, forcing partner to reopen 1NT and play there, doubled 1♦ for takeout, and after North passed, East jumped to 2♠. Nowhere for my hand to go, so I passed, as did West, but North came to the rescue and ventured 3♦. This got a 3♠ call from West and this was significant when we scored five tricks to beat it one. However, the common result at the other tables was 1NT also down one, so it was an average!

McBruce's Result: 3♠e-1, 50 to NS. My score: 51%, running total 56.3%, ranked 8th of the 102 pairs so far.

With one hand to go I am eighth out of the 102 pairs in the computer tournament. Should I take a wild shot and try for a top?

I open 1♣ and partner responds 1♠. My rebid of 4♦ is a splinter, showing a singleton diamond, four or more spades, and values for game, which opposite a response that could be 5 or 6 points, should be around 20 points in support of spades. Fifteen highcard points, two spade honours, and a singleton diamond is about right. Partner bids 4NT to ask for aces and we're playing the modern version called Roman Keycard where the king of trumps is a fifth "ace"; the response of 5♠ promises two keycards and the Q♠. Partner doesn't know which ace is missing but the odds seem good that we're not off the A-K♣, so partner bids the slam, and of course we ARE off the A-K♣, but they lead a trump. I can pull trumps and play the A-K♥ and pitch a club and make six, but there is a better play available. I win and pull two more trumps (they break 3-1), and run the diamonds, watching the spots carefully and realizing the 7♦ is good for the fifth trick. Pitching four clubs from the South hand on the diamonds allows me to make all the tricks. Is it enough to get me to the top of the list? Not so much....

McBruce's Result: 6♠n+1, 1010 to NS. My score: 50%, final total 56.1%, ranked 8th of the 102 pairs.

The computers all played in 6♠, and not one of the Easts found the killer club lead, and not one of the declarers missed the play pitching four clubs on the diamonds to make all thirteen. 1010 was a dead average 50%, leaving me in 8th place!! (Hey, sometimes when I do this I end up in 78th...or worse.)