GaryFisch

What about 2♣ as possibly, not weak, but 12+ with a long suit (7+)? Would that be "brown sticker?" I don't play tourneys, so never heard of that. I would have at least an outside A or K as well. Eg, xx, Kxx, x, AKQxxxx. 10-11 and I'd open 1♣. 5-9, 3♣. The idea is to take away the 1 level AND the weak 2 from opponents to hinder their stealing the hand. What would you do with that hand, for example, if you open 1♣, and the bidding goes 1♠-pass-3♠? Do you compete to 4, hoping partner can raise you to 5? I'd probably pass there hoping opponents don't go to 4! Of course 2♣ COULD also be strong. The distinction would be made by the subsequent bidding. If opponents bid strongly, then the bid was a long-suit opening. If they pass, then opener will jump to the 4 level in the long suit on the next bid (this gives up the splinter if the response is positive). If opener makes a non jump bid at the 2nd round with no interference, opener shows a normal strong 2♣ hand. I just recently thought of this and haven't fleshed it out, but I'm thinking responder bids 2♦ with anything less than an opening bid and no interference, 2 or 3 in a suit with an opening bid and 6 cards, or 2NT with an opener with no 6 card suit. If there is an overcall, responder passes except with an opening bid hand. If opponents bid to the 3 or 4 level, opener would simply bid game in the long suit with a one-suited 12-17, double with 18+, any shape. Or opener could choose to pass, especially at unfavorable vulnerability.

Actually, a more interesting question might be what do you do on a heart or diamond lead?

One minor point more. If North holds up on the second spade, cash the ace, cross to dummy in clubs, and concede a spade. Win the club return in dummy and lead the diamond jack as before. North does better to win the second spade. First, declarer clearly started with AJ2, so the ace will be blocking. Winning the king and returning a club gives declarer a chance to go wrong by winning in dummy. Declarer would then have no choice but the losing heart finesse towards dummy (no entries). Second, declarer might actually have a red queen and be trying to steal a trick in spades, then play for an overtrick.

[hv=pc=n&w=saj2ha5dak96ckj53&e=sq985hkjt6dj8caq8&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=2np3cp3dp6nppp]266|200[/hv] If you want to skip all the analysis, I'm asking how you would play if North finds the strongest lead of a club. I was sitting East and used Stayman to check for a 4-4 fit after my partner's 2NT opening. Not only might a suit slam be better than 6NT, I didn't know my partner's 2NT range. If it was 22-24, we might have a grand. I intended to use Blackwood if partner responded in a major. Traditionally 4NT would be quantitative, but most BBO players automatically treat it as Blackwood. If 4♣ is not Gerber on this sequence (how I play it), 4NT is indeed Blackwood. Change West's diamond 6 to the spade K and 7♠ is cold on any 3-2 and almost any 4-1. My partner, who shall remain nameless, received a helpful lead of the spade 4 to the 5, 10, and J. Let's just say he didn't find the best line and leave it at that. The way to maximize one's chances, after winning the spade jack, starts by crossing to dummy in clubs and running a spade. This solves your problem entirely if South started with K10 or K103 (with the latter, South had to play the 10 or the 5 might have won if declarer had A2). On the actual deal, North wins and does best to return a club. Win this in hand, unblock the spade ace, then go to dummy with a club to cash the good spade, discarding the low diamond. Now lead the diamond jack, hoping for a cover, but intending to win in hand regardless. Suppose South does cover, and you win with the king. Here are the remaining East-West cards. [hv=pc=n&w=sha5da9cj&e=shkjt6d8c]266|100[/hv] Cash the club jack and discard the low heart. Now you have to decide who might have what and who might have been squeezed out of what. When you see South cover the diamond jack and toss 2 or 3 diamonds, you can reasonably conclude South has the diamond 10. So cash the heart ace and king, and if the queen doesn't drop, finesse the diamond nine. If South did not cover the diamond jack, you can assume North started with either the queen, the ten, or both. A good player sitting South will realize that declarer will not run the jack (not having a trick to give and having a threat in hearts) and so will not cover with Qxx or longer. So if a high diamond falls from North, there's a fair chance that South has the other. Cash the heart ace and king and finesse the diamond nine if the heart queen doesn't fall. The exception to this is if only one or two diamonds are out, when you should play the diamond king and fall back on the heart finesse if the remaining diamond honor does not drop. If neither diamond honor has been played, and three diamonds are still out, you will have to get the hearts right (you should be counting them all along). Either play to drop the queen or take the finesse. Cash the heart A, then the diamond K, and assume both follow (if North shows out on the diamond, assume that player has the heart queen). If there are two or fewer hearts remaining, play for the drop; if three, play the J if North plays low. The full deal: [hv=pc=n&s=st3hq87dqt754ct64&w=saj2ha5dak96ckj53&n=sk764h9432d32c972&e=sq985hkjt6dj8caq8]399|300[/hv] South can see the heart/diamond squeeze coming, so should try for the most deceptive play. Covering the jack might be the best defense. South should then discard one heart and two diamonds. North can help by seeing that South will do this and discarding a diamond on the 4th club rather than a heart. After cashing the diamond king, in the three-card ending, declarer will likely take the heart finesse, knowing that North has three of the missing five hearts -- North will discard on the diamond king. If South does not cover the diamond jack, South still has to toss a heart. A discard of the diamond Q or 10 is fatal; declarer will cash the heart ace and king and then the remaining high diamond will fall in front of the K9. But now, declarer is more likely to place North with a diamond and play for the drop, figuring that if North has the queen, it will fall on the second round. The moral is, sometimes it's most deceptive to tell declarer the truth about your distribution! This may be so when you want to encourage a finesse towards your unguarded honor, or towards an honor that you intend to unguard to protect another suit.

Mike, you are right about your line working on a 3-2, don't know how I missed it. By the way, I like your signature. However, on a 4-1, if you ruff the third club high in hand, then later ruff a heart high in dummy, aren't you down to 3 high trumps to draw 4? I was thinking about that when I drew the first two trumps in dummy, but ruffing the club was wrong as you pointed out. I agree with JLOGIC regarding the 4-1 break. The only reason I posted this was because I found it so strange that so many Norths gave declarer a free heart finesse after ruffing the second club. But now it's clearer why they did that. If they had returned a trump, then with the ♣K not scoring, declarer can still get home by playing to ruff a heart high and later leading a diamond up to the Q. So North had nothing to lose and everything to gain by playing for South to have the ♥A and trying for a second club ruff (if West started with 3). You pointed out something I missed, so I have egg on my face, but oh well.

With regards to discarding a diamond on the 3rd club, that still leaves a diamond and a heart loser. Only one of them can go on the ♣K, and that can be played only after trumps are drawn. Plus they have 3 tricks already in (after North ruffs the 3rd club and returns a trump. So I'm now playing for trumps 3-2 and the ♥Q onside. I don't see how that's better than how I played or the alternative lines I gave.

[hv=pc=n&w=saqj76hakjda74c74&e=skt2ht2dq96ckj652&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=ppp1sp2sp4sppp]266|200[/hv] This deal provided interesting decisions for both defenders and declarer. Sitting West, I counted 1 pt for my doubleton after partner supported spades and bid game. 4♠ was reached by most pairs. In all cases, North led the club 8 to the jack and queen. At my table, South made the interesting play of cashing the club ace, North discarding a diamond, before returning a low club. This might have been costly, say, I could have had ♦Ax, solid trumps, and only one heart loser. In this case, South's play saved the defense from a pitfall, as will be seen later. I ruffed the third club high, then had my own decision to make. One line would be to cash two trumps, then the ♥A, and then the third high trump in dummy. Assuming trumps broke, I would cash the ♣K, discarding the ♥J, then come to hand with the ♦A to lead a diamond to the Q. That would almost certainly be better than taking the heart finesse, given the club break. I instead decided to play for a heart ruff. To guard against trumps 4-1, I cashed dummy's high trumps, then played three hearts, ruffing the third low. Alas, South over-ruffed. With the ♦K onside, I ended up with just one diamond loser for down one. How would you have played it? I think the heart ruff line is best, but it was probably wrong to play to ruff a heart low. Had that held with North having 4 trumps, then what? I would have to hope that North started with the ♦K and 3 hearts, meaning that South had started 5-5 in the rounded suits. Not likely. Alternatively, I could take the heart finesse after the second trump, and then lead a diamond to the Q. That would require both red honors onside. Now here's the weird part. I was one of only 5 declarers who failed. All but one of the successful declarers saw their opponents ruff a low club at trick two, then lead a heart! This made it easy for declarer, who now could draw trumps and play for the ♦K onside. Understandably, every lead at trick 3 looked dangerous, and if South had the ♥A, the defense might score a second ruff (but then wouldn't South have opened 1♣ in third hand?). I think North should have figured out to play a trump. West probably had solid trumps plus honors in both red suits, so a trump was least likely to give away a trick, and if the defense had a red suit trick coming, it probably wasn't going away. What would you have done?

OK, so you are assuming the only reason East would double is with a club singleton or void.

Obviously, winning on the board and taking the trump finesse guarantees 8 tricks if the K is onside. If the K is offside, and clubs are 6-1, the defense can score club ruff, diamond, club ruff. Now the diamond spots in hand are crucial as to whether you can set up a winner in that suit. Also, if East started with HJx or H9x West with ♠Kx, and dummy's diamond spots are high enough that West must win the second diamond with the A in order to stop declarer from scoring a second diamond ruff. I can't see any alternative line that makes sense.

Well thanks for the interesting responses! And yes, I did lack patience. I have no idea why North didn't use Stayman. It probably wouldn't have changed anything. Frances already mentioned the problem with winning in hand to lead a spade. After East wins and returns a diamond, spades are blocked, and the defense is one step closer to establishing their diamond winner. Now that I've had some more time to think about it, I still think ♦K and a club is best because clubs will take the longest to set up, and you can always take a spade or heart finesse. I like the ♣10 best, because you can repeat if everybody plays low. If the 10 is covered with a quack, you can already establish 2 club winners by playing clubs from hand next round. If West takes this trick with a quack and returns a diamond, my next play is the ♥Q. Perhaps a defender has Kx and has to take this, or perhaps one will err by taking the K from Kxx. If the ♥Q is covered, I win the diamond return and try the spade finesse, having the heart entry to untangle the spades. I still need either ♥3-3 or the ♣A onside. If the ♥Q isn't covered, I continue with the A. When the K doesn't drop, I take the ♠ finesse. If this fails, I am going down as long as East holds up one round. Taking the heart finesse followed by a spade is intriguing, but you are still likely to need at least one club, so why not play that suit right away, especially since you can establish a second heart by playing from hand? Maybe it's not so thin a game after all.

Well, ok, since nobody jumped in so far ... I don't think I played it best. I won in dummy and led a heart to the Q, cashed the ♥A, and played another ♥, the suit breaking. I won the diamond return and led the ♠J. East took the K and returned a diamond. I won, crossed to dummy in spades, cashed the long heart, and played a club up to the K, hoping for East to be endplayed. No soup for me! West took the A and the defense cashed the long diamond and ♣Q. Down one. I think the best line is to win in dummy and play the ♣10. This requires both Q and J onside, but it's the best shot I see. Note that if East plays low and West takes the A and returns a diamond, it gets complicated. It's between playing on spades to get to dummy to lead a club up to the K98, or cashing the ♣K and playing for ♣3-3. The former succeeds if West has Ax and East has ♥K, but you'll have to guess the ♠K. But then, my play required ♥K and either ♠K or ♣A onside, plus hearts had to be 3-3 or East had to have started with K10 or K9. Several pairs did make 3NT, and I suspect East covered the ♣10 in those cases. The full deal:[hv=d=w&v=e&n=saq65hj876dk7c1076&w=s983h1095dj964ca32&e=sk742hk42d1052cqj4&s=sj10haq3daq83ck985]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

Since I play penalty doubles past 3♠, I am doubling automatically here. If partner bids 5♣ next, I'll correct to 5♠ - and partner better have a serious 2-suiter.

I'd bid 2♣ even if East passes. This is a game-force hand. Oops I meant to say 2♣ not "Other" - getting sleepy (I was thinking 2♠ but that should show a control or a real suit depending on your methods).

Didn't read the first post before voting. I would bid 2♦ without Michaels but 2♥ with Michaels. Absolutely bid 6♠ because opponents could have ♠void and make 6♥

[hv=n=saq65hj876dk7c1076&s=sj10haq3daq83ck985]133|200|[/hv] The scoring is IMPs, EW Vulnerable. And maybe it's not so thin. After 3 passes, I opened 1NT, and partner responded 3NT, ending the auction. West led the diamond 4.