Trumpace

This question is for the Advanced/Advanced++ posters. It is in the beginner/int forum as I expect some learning to be done after reading this thread... Question is: When do you recommend leading Aces against small slams? I know it depends on your hand, bidding so far. Can you please give specific examples and the associated reasoning (this is more what I am looking for) for when and when _not_ to lead Aces against small slams? I am also looking for sort of guiding principles.. For instance something like "if dummy has shown a long suit you might try going active by taking your Ace if in doubt what to lead" etc Sorry for the vague question... Feel free to say why you think this question is stupid too... that will help too :D Thanks.

Why hasn't anyone voted for 2NT or Pass?

No one Vul. Scoring, MP. You hold: KTx, xx, Kxxxxx, Jx RHO opens 1D, you pass, LHO bids 1S, partner passes, RHO bid 2S, pass, pass, X, pass. What hand do you expect from partner and what is your action now?

This may work if the opposing 7 card ♥ holding breaks 4=4. Otherwise, the ♣ hook will be for the make, not the overtrick :D Eeks! hehe, I should stick to not posting. :P :D

That's the problem with the internet generation. No patience any more. You post a thread on Friday evening, and when you have no replies by Monday lunchtime assume the thread is dead. Yes! I find the microwave too slow! LOL :P :D Thanks for responding.

I will keep it simple (and go down most likely!) Ruff spade lead. top heart. heart ruff to hand. spade ruff. 2 Top hearts to discard spades. trump to hand. Draw trumps (assuming 3-2) club hook for overtrick.

For the first part you are right. We can make ten tricks by ruffing in hand 4 times. (3 clubs and a diamond). I am not sure about the second part. I am pretty sure there will be some way we can combine all our chances (well place heart A or Diamond Q or 3-3 diamonds or...). I was hoping someone will do an analysis but seems like this thread is dead.

I was south in this hand and I wondered if partner was angling for a ruff. I was pretty sure partner didn't have a third diamond (given the pass after my free 2D bid {i guess 2D is very questionable}) My general plan was to cash the ♦A, cash the club K, getting a count from partner then figure out what to do.. Alas, the A was ruffed and declarer had 9 tricks. After the ♦A, declarer drew two rounds of trump, partner showing out. Hannie at this juncture asked me to guess the distribution of declarer. 6-3-1-4 was my first guess :-) (Yes, i need more lessons!) It was fun. I am looking forward for more. Thanks JB and Hannie.

[hv=n=saqthktdakjxcaxxx&s=skj987hxxxxdxxxcx]133|200|[/hv] Rubber bridge. Contract 4S. Plan the play in the following two cases: 1) ♣K lead. 2) ♠ lead.

Excellent!

Sorry if I came off wrong. I didn't accuse you of calling them jerks... It is just that they might have a valid reason to talk, which should be kept in mind, thats all. If they are talking while you are declarer... that is a different matter :ph34r: In face to face social games, talking at the end of the hand is OK, as some time is spent shuffling and dealing out the cards for the next deal. In online games, the cards for the next deal are dealt immediately and there is no time to talk! I guess some dummies like to make use of their idle time, and we should expect some dummy chatter...

Sure the B) is gone but can I still be a ninja? :ph34r: :-(

You know, people have the option to turn off seeing opponents cards when they are dummy. Some ppl use that. I think it extremely rude to keep playing instead of claiming when all you have left is AKQJT of trumps. I have seen this happen many times. It gets more annoying when your partner has advertised 'Advanced' or better. I usually tell partner at the end of the hand that there is a claim button which they can use, which some ppl are unaware of. When someone says claim pls, it need not be the case that they are being jerks, it could be that the declarer has been one.

Ok. Follow up question: [hv=n=s32h8752dat987cq2&s=sakqjt9ha43dcaj54]133|200|Scoring: Rubber You are in 4S. East having bid 1H. West leads the heart T. East overtakes with J.[/hv] Compare lines A and B. A ) Win ♥A. lead ♣J B ) Win ♥A, lead ♣A and ♣ to Q. Assume clubs are 4-3.

Dont know the date that this column appeared... Adv/Adv+ please refrain till some beg/ints have tried it. [hv=n=s6h8752dat9873cq2&s=sakqjt9ha43dcaj54]133|200|Scoring: Rubber You are in 4S. East having bid 1H. West leads the heart T.[/hv] Contract 4S. (East having bid 1H) West leads ♥T. East overtakes with the ♥J. Plan the play.

You hold QJx, AKJxx, _, AQxxx Partner is dealer and opens with a gambling 3NT (a long running minor). RHO passes. What do you bid? Take whatever vul you want to take into account.

I moved the BBO window to the leftmost part of the screen and minimized it. Then when I restored the window, it went back to its original position (where it was before i moved it). Easy to repro and probably easy to fix too...

Yes, it will improve the results, but will it "greatly improve" the results? (Refer first post). Unless the bidding is really horrible, I don't think switching the bidding system will greatly improve results. The problem probably lies in the play aspect.

Funny, I was saying this while playing a swiss times match. How time flew (and bidding boxes and boards). The trick was to duck and go down to the bottom in order to make it.

I heard some people started playing bridge just to follow the Moonraker bridge game? Is that true? I haven't ever read that book. Can someone post a short description.. (I know I know I can look it up myself, but I don't have it with me and I am too impatient and would amuse others too, if they are interested!)

3C for me. If I want to make a bid that is not a pass, it has to be a 3C bid. A double would show a stronger hand than what I hold. If partner is strong enough to bid a new suit in response to 3C, I can always support him. Also by doubling I will probably not get a chance to talk about my clubs. Since we aren't vul, I won't pass with that hand.

At the table, I will play on dummy reversal lines by ruffing diamonds and hoping for 3-3 hearts if the heart finesse does not win. (with 3-3 hearts, I can discard the club loser on 4th heart). Win club Ace, ruff diamond low and Play a heart to Jack. Assume it loses and a heart comes back. I win the King, ruff another diamond (high), club to King and ruff another diamond (high). Cash a high trump and play a trump to the 9. Assuming that holds I draw the last trump and cash the diamond Ace discarding a club. Play a heart to the Ace and if the hearts are 3-3, I discard the club in dummy on the last heart. I will change my line if the heart finesse wins. (Still dummy reversal.. but hearts can now be 4-2). This line requires spades 3-2 no matter what. So this line requires hearts 4-2 and Q onside or If Heart Queen offside, then hearts 3-3 and spade T onside. Maybe there are squeeze possibilities, but I won't get them at the table. (Just thought of this: If the guy who holds 4 clubs also holds 4 hearts, with this line he is squeezed. After cashing the diamond Ace, we will know if the club 6 is high. If not play a heart to Ace and see if the last heart is high)

I was playing with a partner who had a flaky connection. The bidding went 1S from partner, 2D response from me and a surprising PASS from partner. What happened was partner actually responded 3D but was disconnected. His bid showed up as a pass! Sorry, don't remember exact details to provide proper repro steps.

By a "weak field", my guess is that the "elite" meant that most people weren't that good at the bridge (most likely play). Even though you have played the same people, getting a good result does not imply that your system is better. Basically, playing in a weak field, there is too much randomization and you cannot use results there as a basis for such comparisons. The "elites" probably have some other source of data from which they say that precision (which today, covers a wide range of bidding systems) is inferior. btw, to the original poster, what did they say it was inferior to? SAYC?

Play Diamond Ace, knock out club Ace and quicky claim before opps know what is going on. ;) btw, what is a chinese finesse?