DavidKok, on 2023-November-30, 15:39, said:
Something went wrong here. If you bid 4NT that means you were about to leap to 6♥ but were worried about missing two key cards. Partner has got plenty of them, and then you failed to bid the slam. That means you shouldn't have asked for aces, but rather attempted to explore slam through different means.
Similarly I think 4♠ is a very surprising bid. Normally partner would take charge here, and if all that was required for slam was the right number of key cards partner would have bid Blackwood over 4♥. So instead 4♠ does not just show a spade control, it conveys the very specific message that partner is worried about something other than just aces, or can't handle a 2+Q response by you. We learn later in the auction that this was not the case (as partner had 2 key cards), so what's the problem? Either partner is unsure about a minor suit control, or partner was worried about the combined trick-taking potential of both hands. We have the minor suit control but we're lacking good sources of tricks with a minimum, a misfit in spades and 3343 distribution. I'm not sure what the right bid was over 4♠, probably 5♣ to allow a more cooperative investigation (but we know partner likely doesn't have a diamond control, so what are they supposed to do there?). I think the fit was established only at such a high level of the auction that there wasn't enough room to check for everything.
As an aside, partner is aware of us having 3=3 or 2=3 in the majors, so they should know of the partial misfit in spades and no extra trump length in hearts. This is cause to be pessimistic on these Smolen auctions.
In general I would be worried about UI on auctions like this. Asking for aces, hearing you have enough, even having the queen of trumps and then stopping because 'something made you pass' is very often a tell from partner, subconscious or no. If you play "no chickensh*t Blackwood", or perhaps have this in your notes somewhere (I do), this board would be a cause for being written up.
I’m not arguing with your thinking, other than to point out that most of what you raise has zero relevance to robot events. You discuss how a bridge player might/should think. Robots literally can’t think that way. They have rather crude algorithms that trigger coded responses when various criteria are met. There is no thinking, no drawing of inferences. There is, as I understand it, simulations based on what the algorithm says are the possible hands consistent with its rather inflexible constraints on what bids mean. UI is a concept that is, I think, irrelevant at least to the ‘analysis’ conducted by the robot.
As for the hand, it’s a minimum in hcp but definitely could be worse given that partner has invited slam. Unfortunately I don’t see any good way forward
Keycard is silly. And should be known to be silly. There is literally no set of responses, to 4N or (if all keycards are shown) 5N that allows opener to place the contract with certainty.
Responder did not keycard.I don’t know enough about robots to know why but, assuming a fairly sensible algorithm, it’s logical to infer that it has at least one minor uncontrolled. It can’t/shouldn’t use keycard when the ‘wrong’ response leaves it not knowing whether a minor AK might cash. So AKQx AKJxx xx xx can’t be sure opener isn’t Jxx QJx AKQJx Qx, as one somewhat contrived example shows.
Btw, in my partnerships we have many uses for 4N. One way we expand those uses in constructive auctions is that any hand that opens some number of notrump (or 2C then notrump) cannot keycard. We’ve never missed a good contract nor got to a poor contract where having keycard available would have helped. But we’ve definitely bid some good slams from having 4N available in some auctions as ‘I’m interested but I have no convenient cuebid’.
Here, this principle works well.
4S, being a cuebid beyond game by an unlimited partner, forces opener to cue any first round control in a minor. So his bids can be analyzed as follows:
5H…horrible hand, no minor ace. Say QJx QJx KQJx KJx
5m…I have this ace, it the other
4N…both minor aces, what do you want to do?
Now, while I think this is fairly straightforward, I recognize that most players don’t have the ‘limited hand can’t keycard’ rule.
So playing with a robot? It’s a guess
Btw, 4H should deny a great hand. Use 4C or 4D as advance cuebids agreeing hearts….nobody should be bidding 4m over 3S as an offer for that suit to be trump.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari