Day 2: James Streisand takes the lead in the Stars & Platinum Robot Individual

It's Day 2 of the highly anticipated Stars & Platinum Robot Individual tournament, and the excitement is still running high.

After yesterday's intense competition, the leaderboard has seen a bit of a shakeup. James Streisand (strei1) from Wayland, MA, has taken the top spot with an impressive overall score of 64.18%, followed closely by Metin Gokcen (mgokcen) from Sunnyvale, CA, who had led the leaderboard after Day 1. Mark Bennett (Upstate) from Honolulu, HI, rounds out the top three with an overall score of 62.65%.

But with one more day of play left, anything can happen. Will the current leaders maintain their positions or will someone else rise to the top? It's anyone's game at this point.

Now, let's take a moment to revisit the interesting hand from Day 1. For those who missed it, the hand goes as follows:

Assume you're sitting South with the following hand:


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You're playing 4 and West leads with the A, continuing with the K which you ruff in dummy. You then draw two rounds of trumps, ending in your hand. Playing a club to the ♣Q, East wins with the ♣K and returns a diamond which you ruff with the J. You continue with a club to the ♣10, which is won by West with the ♣A. They return a club which you win with the ♣J. But how should you proceed from here? Share your strategy in the comments below.

The answer: After analyzing the hand, you can deduce that West holds 4 cards of Clubs, and by not opening 1♣, they possibly holds 5 cards of Diamonds. To confirm, play the 4th club and ruff in hand. Observe what East discards. If they still have a Diamond, they'll commonly discard it, indicating they hold 4 cards of Diamonds and West has the remaining 5. This means West's distribution is likely 2-2-4-5. To make sure that the ♠Q isn't a singleton, play the ♠Ace. Next, play the K to get a clearer picture of the distribution. Lastly, lead the ♠J. If East plays small, put a small card too. If they play the ♠Q, hope that the ♠10 will drop when you cover it with the ♠A. This is the only way to make the contract.


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Result after Day 2

See the result from Day 1 here.

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