Last week I promised to show you something new on Monday, and here it is. TA DA!!
I know what you are thinking: What a monstrous deal. Who would do that?
Answer: Me. Me would do that.
Actually, though, Monday specials will not always be a Frankendeal like this week’s. This week’s is a proof of concept to show you the power of a new feature of my program called “manual deals”. Whether I (or you) use that power for good or evil is entirely up to you (or I).
If you do ever get bold enough to play with my deal-generating program, please consult the user guide which now includes a complete explanation of how to use the manual deal feature.
As for today’s set of deals, I will expand on the user guide a bit and tell you how my particular sets of manual deals are useful.
After marveling at the image above, if you load the full set of deals into your bridge program you will notice that all sixteen (not 24, not 32) deals look the same. What gives? Well, they are not exactly the same. The cards are the same in all 16 deals, but the dealer and vulnerability are different for each deal. The sixteen variations on dealer and vulnerability are not random. They are based on the setups that you see on the first sixteen deals on a duplicate bridge scoresheet.
I build my own manual deal sets this way because as I learn and practice bridge, I study naturally-occurring bridge deals as well as deals that I find in books and magazines. Bridge analysts typically present you with a deal and just one dealer/vulnerability scenario, and they comment on how the deal was actually played out or on how you should play it out in that one scenario. But if you wonder how the deal would play out with the other dealer/vulnerability combinations, you are left to work it out in your head or on paper. Oh, the author may tell you, “Of course this does not apply when you are vulnerable; in that case you need 80 to 1,000 HCP and should only play it left-handed and don’t forget to remember if you’re in 4th seat and never forget that the sum of the squares of the angles are blah blah blah…” So you see, you thought you got the point of the deal but then they always remind you that the game is vast and complex and variable. Or if they don’t remind you, you know it anyway. OK, cool. But don’t just tell me there’s dragons around the corner—show me the dragon.
My 16 variations show you some of the dragons so you don’t have to ponder what it might look like in your imagination. You can either make up a deal, or let the system make one randomly, or you can key in a deal that you saw in a book or magazine, and you can then generate sixteen variations on it and you can actually play every one of them in your bridge program and see how the same cards will yield different results.
As for today’s deal where every player has all the cards in one suit, I accidentally stumbled upon another use for manual deals: testing out a bridge program. You will see below that my own computer-generated analysis program is woefully unable to recognize this magical deal, and so it goes along counting HCP and using the Rule of 20 + 2 instead of just bidding 7S. And why 20 + 2? That’s a rule that involves the two longest suits. My program correctly identifies North’s long spade suit, but then it says that the “other” long suit in North is hearts. That’s clearly a bug—one that I had not noticed in testing the Rule of 20 + 2 feature. So bizarre deals are useful for finding the holes in your program.
So then I took these deals and loaded them into BBO, thinking that there I would see expert robot bidding quickly getting to the right bid. But when I played the version where West is dealer, West opened 7H as I would expect, but North passed! Why didn’t North bid 7S? I was using the BBO basic robots. Perhaps they are not programmed to always recognize the obvious power bid that is implied by holding all the cards in one suit. Or perhaps it is a bug. Either way, it is worth putting these deals into different programs to find out which ones handle this scenario the best.
This particular deal also makes you think, especially if you are a beginner and you haven’t pondered extreme cases before. When I planned to set up this deal, at first I thought that folks would bid 7 of their single suit, bidding up the line until someone bid 7NT. But wait! It’s all well and good making it a 7NT free-for-all, but the fact is that declarer’s LHO will lead a card that is guaranteed to win, and will then take every trick. It’s not free-for-all, it’s free-for-one-and-only-one. So if YOU bid 7NT with this deal, you are handing your opponents 13 tricks. Probably obvious to the seasoned player, but it took me a minute to realize it.
Next Monday I will construct a deal from something in a book, or perhaps one that gives me fits in my weekly face-to-face session, and we’ll see how it goes.
And now back to our regular programming…
This is the link to the PBN file with 16 deals.
This is the link to the LIN file with 16 deals.
If you want to see how sets of deals are generated for this blog, or if you want to try to generate your own deals, check out my website and program that I use. This blog post has a link to the program website and to other useful information.
The following is the computer-generated analysis and auction for the deal displayed at the top of this post. This post describes the current state of the art for my analysis and auction. Please read that post before commenting on the analysis.
Bridge, Out Ahead - bridge hand analyzer
Mon Jun 13 2022 11:43:56 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time)
This deal was manually set up by the user.
Dealer: North
Vulnerability: Both.
Manual deal specification: manSpec=S:SUITH:XXXXXXXXXXXXXSUITD:SUITC:SEATS:XXXXXXXXXXXXXSUITH:SUITD:SUITC:SEATS:SUITH:SUITD:XXXXXXXXXXXXXSUITC:SEATS:SUITH:SUITD:SUITC:
Use length points: No.
Use dummy points: No.
It took 1 shuffle to find this deal.
==============================================================
North - Vulnerable
Spades (13)..: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Hearts (0)..:
Diamonds (0)..:
Clubs (0)..:
Shape: 13000 - The hand is not balanced.
HCP. Total: 10-----Spades: 10---Hearts: 0---Diamonds: 0---Clubs: 0
Quick Tricks. Total: 2-----Spades: 2---Hearts: 0---Diamonds: 0---Clubs: 0
==============================================================
East - Vulnerable
Spades (0)..:
Hearts (0)..:
Diamonds (13)..: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Clubs (0)..:
Shape: 13000 - The hand is not balanced.
HCP. Total: 10-----Spades: 0---Hearts: 0---Diamonds: 10---Clubs: 0
Quick Tricks. Total: 2-----Spades: 0---Hearts: 0---Diamonds: 2---Clubs: 0
==============================================================
South - Vulnerable
Spades (0)..:
Hearts (0)..:
Diamonds (0)..:
Clubs (13)..: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Shape: 13000 - The hand is not balanced.
HCP. Total: 10-----Spades: 0---Hearts: 0---Diamonds: 0---Clubs: 10
Quick Tricks. Total: 2-----Spades: 0---Hearts: 0---Diamonds: 0---Clubs: 2
==============================================================
West - Vulnerable
Spades (0)..:
Hearts (13)..: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Diamonds (0)..:
Clubs (0)..:
Shape: 13000 - The hand is not balanced.
HCP. Total: 10-----Spades: 0---Hearts: 10---Diamonds: 0---Clubs: 0
Quick Tricks. Total: 2-----Spades: 0---Hearts: 2---Diamonds: 0---Clubs: 0
==============================================================
Starting the auction.
==============================================================
Entering Bid Driver for North
Check if opening bid already made.
Opening bid not made. See if this player can open bidding.
Entering the slam opening bid qualification routine.
A slam opening bid requires at least 33 points.
The hand does not have enough points to open with a slam bid.
Entering the strong opening bid qualification routine.
The strong opening bids are 2NT, 3NT, or 2C. All require 20-32 points. Check point range first.
The hand does not have enough points for a strong opening bid.
Entering the one level opening bid qualification routine.
This involves opening 1 major, 1NT, or 1 minor based on points and hand shape.
All 12-21 points hands can open at least at the 1 level.
We also will open at the 1 level with 11 points if we have a six-card suit or two good five-card suits (with some exceptions).
The hand does not have enough points for a 1-level opening bid.
Entering the weak opening bid qualification routine.
This involves opening with fewer than 12 points.
We consider, in order, Rule of 20 + 2, Rule of 20, and preempts.
Rule of 20 + 2: the lengths of the two longest suits plus total HCP is at least 20, and there are at least 2 quick tricks in the two longest suits.
Entering Rule of 20 + 2 evaluation. First see if any two suits satisfy the rule.
The ratio of points in our two suits to total points is 100
To qualify, this ratio must be equal to or greater than 100
Now we check for less than 1-level opening points, sum of points and lengths of two longest suits > 20, at least 2 quick tricks in longest suits, and points ratio.
This hand can open based on Rule of 20 + 2.
Opening suit is chosen based on length and suit rank, in various combinations. Prefers 5-card major.
The opening suit will be a 5-card major if possible, or longer of two long suits, or highest ranking of two long suits.
The opening suit is Spades
The other long suit is Hearts
==============================================================
Entering Bid Driver for East
Check if opening bid already made.
Overcalls not implemented yet. Pass.
==============================================================
Entering Bid Driver for South
Check if opening bid already made.
Entering the response to 1S opening bid qualification routine.
Check for possible 4S game bid. Assume opener has at least 12 points.
Check for possible 3S limit raise with 4+ spades and 10-12 points.
Check for possible 3NT bid with balanced hand, no spades support, 13-15 points, stoppers in unbid suits.
Check for possible 2H response to 1S. Requires 5+ hearts and 10+ points. Possible spade fit, but check hearts first.
Check for possible 2NT bid with balanced hand, no spades support, 11-12 points (or 10-12 with rich 10-pointer), stoppers in unbid suits.
We know we have < 5H because we checked for the possible 2H response.
Check for possible 2D response to 1S. Requires 4+ diamonds, 10+ points, and diamonds are not shorter than clubs.
Check for possible 2C response to 1S. Requires 4+ clubs and 10+ points, and clubs longer than diamonds.
I have 4+ clubs and 10+ points, and clubs are longer than diamonds. Bid 2C.
==============================================================
Entering Bid Driver for West
Check if opening bid already made.
Overcalls not implemented yet. Pass.
==============================================================
Entering Bid Driver for North
Check if opening bid already made.
Rebids not implemented yet. Pass.
==============================================================
Entering Bid Driver for East
Check if opening bid already made.
Overcalls not implemented yet. Pass.
==============================================================
= Auction =
= NOTE: This auction is limited by the author's knowledge of bridge.
= Auction will be enhanced as time allows, but for now here are the key limitations:
= Opener only bids pass, 1M, 1m, 1NT, 2C, 2NT, 3NT, or preempts up to 5 level.
= No overcalls. Once a player opens, partner is the only other bidder.
= Only 1 round of response bidding to 1-Major or 1-minor openings.
= No opener or responder rebids.
= No response to 1NT opening.
= No response to 2C, 2NT, 3NT opening.
------------------------------------------------------------
Round: 1
Player Position: North
Call: 1S
Caller is opener
Non-forcing
Shows points in range 12 to 21
Note: Rule of 20 + 2 opener. Points are less than indicated range.
------------------------------------------------------------
Round: 1
Player Position: East
Call: Pass
Non-forcing
------------------------------------------------------------
Round: 1
Player Position: South
Call: 2C
Caller is responder
Forcing
Shows 10+ points
Note: I have 4+ clubs and 10+ points, and clubs are longer than diamonds. Bid 2C.
------------------------------------------------------------
Round: 1
Player Position: West
Call: Pass
Non-forcing
------------------------------------------------------------
Round: 2
Player Position: North
Call: Pass
Non-forcing
------------------------------------------------------------
Round: 2
Player Position: East
Call: Pass
Non-forcing