[manudude03]

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This was from a daylong tourney (MPs). Opps are robots. You get the ♠6 lead. You can assume 2/4 leads or low from any 3. Plan the play.

When you draw trumps:

Spoiler

LHO has all 4 trumps

[FelicityR]

I'm no expert but the only inference I can surmise that if LHO has all 4 trumps (as per the spoiler) and the ♦A, he (or 'it' being a robot) would have led the ♦A against the small slam, knowing that an experienced South wouldn't have employed Blackwood with a void in his hand, and North could have splintered with a void/singleton instead of bidding 4♥.

To lead an unbid suit, to me, suggests that East holds both the ♠Q and ♦A.

p.s. I have no idea how artificial intelligence thinks but that is how I think (rightly or wrongly).

[Cyberyeti]

My inclination is to play For W to have A♦ or less likely on that lead Q♠ to drop. Top trump from dummy, ♣AQ, small diamond towards dummy for the fork. If K♦ holds, I can draw trumps, pitch my diamond on K♣ and unless W has 4 spades to the Q along with his 4 hearts I'm fine, if he flies the ace, 2 spades go west on a club and a diamond.

[sfi]

Isn't it better to try and fork East? As Felicity points out, West might have led the ace, but also East has 13 vacant spaces to West's 9.

So, win the spade, HK, unblock the clubs, H to dummy, beer card. Hope.

Now if East wins the DA and leads the spade I can win in dummy, play the DQ and draw trumps ending in dummy.

If I trust East has the SQ I can even draw all the trumps before playing the first diamond.

[Cyberyeti]

sfi, on 2017-April-29, 06:45, said:

Isn't it better to try and fork East? As Felicity points out, West might have led the ace, but also East has 13 vacant spaces to West's 9.

So, win the spade, HK, unblock the clubs, H to dummy, beer card. Hope.

Now if East wins the DA and leads the spade I can win in dummy, play the DQ and draw trumps ending in dummy.

If I trust East has the SQ I can even draw all the trumps before playing the first diamond.

Never played against robots, don't know whether they cash aces against slams, but if you know they're likely to then yes.

[alok c]

At trick 3 lead a small ♦ from dummy,if East takes A,you have your 12 tricks.If East ducks,discard a ♦ on ♣ & play ♠.You make your game irrespective of ♠ distribution as long they are not 5-1.If ♦ Q loses to West , you are to try for dropping ♠Q in two.

[MrAce]

Cyberyeti, on 2017-April-29, 06:51, said:

Never played against robots, don't know whether they cash aces against slams, but if you know they're likely to then yes.

Forget about cashing ace, they do not even cash their AK on lead vs 6 NT. They do not even cash their A as setting trick vs slams, including NT, when they let's say win a side trick. They do not cash their A vs grandslam NT ffs!
So when playing vs bots guessing the location of ♦A is pure luck. I am not quite convinced that a human player would cash his ♦A with only Jxxx trumps either.

[nige1]

manudude03, on 2017-April-29, 03:01, said:

This was from a daylong tourney (MPs). Opps are robots. You get the ♠6 lead. You can assume 2/4 leads or low from any 3. Plan the play. When you draw trumps:

Spoiler

LHO has all 4 trumps

I like FelicyR's avoidance play. After ♠A,♥K, dummy leads a ♦.
- If RHO's ♦A wins, then you have 12 tricks (2 X ♠, 5 X ♥, 2 X ♦, 3 X ♣).
- If your ♦Q wins, then cash ♣AQ, draw trumps, ending in dummy, discard a ♦ on ♣K, cash ♠K and lead a ♠, hoping that ♠Q is doubleton, ♠s are 3-3 or RHO holds ♠Qxxx.
- If your ♦Q loses to LHO's ♦A, then hope that ♠Q is doubleton or LHO can be squeezed with something like ♠ Q x x ♥ J x x x ♦ A J T ♣ x x x

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[steve2005]

Cyberyeti, on 2017-April-29, 06:51, said:

Never played against robots, don't know whether they cash aces against slams, but if you know they're likely to then yes.

Earlier versions of GIB wouldn't lead an Ace against 7 of suit doubled. This was fixed by bypassing the normal programming.

[Winstonm]

I would play east for the diamond ace simply because he has room for 4 more unknown cards than west.