Suffolk Bridge

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Alan - The Five of Spades

Alan chose as his role model Alan Turing (1912-1954)- the brilliant mathematician who worked on code breaking during the second world war. The importance of his role in extending cryptography at Bletchley Park to crack the German navy's much tougher version of the Enigma code, and its effect on the battle of the Atlantic, can never be overstated.

After the war he continued working on codes for the British and American secret services while at the same time investigating such diverse subjects as artificial intelligence and the shape of flowers.

The Pack's Alan shared many of his hero's traits – punctual and polite to a fault, a shy, private person with a deep interest in things mathematical. One characteristic that the latter-day Alan had developed was a passion for science fiction. Indeed he almost chose the name "Spock" in preference to "Alan".

		Ermintrude
		♠ AKQ
		♥ KQ6
		♦ KQJ
		♣ A1097
	Houdin		Buster
		Alan
		♠ J32
		♥ AJ3
		♦ A75
		♣ KJ42

Love-all, Dealer East;

	West	North	East	South
	Houdin	Ermintrude	Buster	Alan
			Pass	1NT
	Pass	5NT	Pass	7NT
	End

The bidding was short and to the point. Alan opened 1NT (12-14), Ermintrude's 5NT asked south to bid 6NT with a minimum or 7NT with a maximum.

Buster led the ten of hearts and Alan instantly saw that he had to locate the queen of clubs, or Guinevere as she is better known to the Pack members.

This is how he tackled the problem.

Well I could finesse east or west and hope to guess correctly but it must be better to find out more about the hand first. As I'm sure the captain of the enterprise would say, "Successful strategies rely on information".

Three rounds of hearts and three rounds of diamonds followed which elicited the fact that Buster had started with five hearts and two diamonds and Houdin had started with two hearts and five diamonds.

If you would like a clue as to how Alan improved on his chances – here it is – "Guinevere enjoyed science fiction too".

That hasn't helped much, thought Alan, all I've discovered is that both opponents have seven red and six black cards. If I play the spades and they break 4-3 I'll have no better idea where Guinevere is than when I started. Especially as Buster and Houdin are honour bound to give false signals about their suit lengths. I need an alternative strategy, as they would say on the Starship Enterprise. The funny thing is, Guinevere would know that as she's a sci-fi fan herself, but we're so rarely dealt to the same hand that we never seem to have much chance to talk.

Now I come to think of it that's quite odd. Even when we are dealt to the same pair, north-south or east-west, more often than not we're in opposite hands. On second thoughts, that makes sense. Say I'm in the south hand, of the remaining twenty-five north-south cards, Guinevere will be dealt to south twelve times out of twenty-five and north thirteen times out of twenty-five. In other words, given that we're dealt to the same partnership, we'll be in opposite hands thirteen over twenty-five or fifty-two percent of the time.

Of course it's the same as split honours. So that's my plan, I'll play three rounds of spades. If they break 5-2 the player with five spades can only have one club so I can cash the ace or king and finesse through their partner with 100% certainty.

If they break 4-3 and either opponent plays myself, the five of spades, I'll play for Guinevere to be in the opposite hand and I'll have a better than average chance of success.

And finally if they break 4-3 and neither opponent plays the five of spades I'll be forced to "find the lady" as they say.

Three rounds of spades followed on which Buster played the four, six and nine while Houdin played the FIVE, seven and eight. Alan followed his plan and played a club to the king and was delighted when the finesse of the Jack held.

The full deal:

		Ermintrude
		♠ AKQ
		♥ KQ6
		♦ KQJ
		♣ A1097
	Buster		Houdin
	♠ 964		♠ 10875
	♥ 109854		♥ 72
	♦ 63		♦ 109842
	♣ Q83		♣ 65
		Alan
		♠ J32
		♥ AJ3
		♦ A75
		♣ KJ42

Had Alan chosen the four, six or nine as the key card to watch for he would have gone down. But no matter what card he chose, more often than not, the queen of clubs would be in the hand opposite to the one selected.

It's curious how many of the Pack's mathematicians met with premature and often tragic ends. Socrates was ordered to take hemlock (Aristotle fled Athens to avoid a similar fate), Hypatia was murdered by religious zealots, Galois was tricked into a duel he couldn't win, Ramanujan might have survived his illness, had not poverty and religious belief weakened his constitution. Ada succumbed to cancer at an early age. Finally there is Alan Turing; in England around 1952 it was illegal to be a practising homosexual, even in the privacy of one's own home. Alan Turing was arrested and convicted of this "crime", and following an enforced course of hormones he was found dead with a cyanide laced apple at his side.