[shyams]

So this was board 1 of the 8-board weekly free tournament. The format is MPs, human declares, robot opponents.

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West leads ♠3 to the Queen, East's Ace and your small. East now returns the ♠J which you win perforce as West follows with ♠4 and you throw a heart from dummy.When you cash the ♦K, East's singleton ♦Q falls.

The problem is whether you would finesse in hearts for the overtrick and risk going down in your contract.

If you wish, you can play four rounds of diamonds ending in dummy (I chose to do this). East chucked a club, then a heart and finally a spade. West threw a heart followed by a spade.

If it matters, you next lead the low heart from dummy as planned and East produces the ♥J. The moment of truth -- finesse or not?

[Douglas43]

The question you might ask is - have I done well to reach 3NT here? If you think you have beaten par by bidding and making game, you should guard what you have and settle for 9 tricks.

By way of contrast, I overcalled 1NT instead of 2D (I know it's an underbid), then competed on my own to 3D, E-W bid 3S and my robot bid... 4D!

[AL78]

I don't know whether the programming of the robots means you can deduce where key cards are (and are not) by their play, but in the absence of such information, I'd go for the finesse. There are 16 HCP outstanding, there is more HCP capacity in opener's hand to hold the ♥K. If it fails, I'll happily explain my reasoning to my partner if she wants to question it.

This is an example of the type of hand I don't like at MPs. Whether to risk going down in a solid contract for the sake of an overtrick. One reason I prefer teams.