Always give count, right?

Playing online against the famous robots, I picked up:

♠A K Q 5 ♥A K ♦A 9 6 3 ♣A 7 4.

I started with 2♣, my robot partner bid a waiting 2♦ and I bid 2NT. Do you agree with this bid?

This auction delivers 22 to 24 high-card points in robot-land, but the hand is really worth 25. Did you notice I had all four aces? Aces are undervalued in the standard HCP methods. Even Charles Goren says to add 1 point for having four of them.

On the other hand, the robots are aggressive as responders, so it's unlikely you'll miss game.

Over my 2NT rebid, the bot bid 4♥, a transfer to spades. Having underbid previously and holding great trumps, I jumped to 5♠, ending the auction. Here are all four hands:


First I underbid, then I overbid landing in a contract that won't win any prizes -- there's a lesson in here somewhere.

I won the ♥J opening lead with the ace, cashed one high trump and advanced a low diamond. West played the ♦Q, dummy played low and East contributed the ♦7! I assume this was to show four diamonds, but look what happened.

West continued with a heart and I won my king. I played a low spade to dummy and advanced the ♦10. East covered with the jack (playing low wouldn't matter) and I won the ace and continued with the ♦9, discarding a club from dummy. East won and now the defense shifted to a club -- too late. I won the ace and discarded dummy's last club on my ♦6 which was high (East was left with the ♦5).

Plus 650 scored 94%.