karlson

[hv=pc=n&s=sq52ha642dckq8742&n=sah98753daq5caj93&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=1h1s2c3s4cp6cppp]266|200[/hv] A small spade was led. Trumps are 2-1 (2 with lefty).

I would definitely not pass. I think 4♥ rates to have at least some play.

I think my plan is to ruff a diamond in hand without cashing the ♥A, play two rounds of trumps (with the finesse) ending in dummy, ruff another diamond, and then play clubs. This seems virtually 100% assuming the spade hook is on and the first diamond isn't overruffed -- they can get two clubs and either a ruff or long trump, and there are still very good overtrick chances. Don't really understand playing spades now, lefty may well be able to see that taking the club ruff now will be the end of the defense, so clubs could still be 4-2. If the ♠Q is not covered then on the second round I should play the ace -- it would be embarrassing to go down to Kxx of spades on my right when they return a third trump, and it seems like it would be hard to not cover ♠Q.

With one partner I play that 2n is inv+ 4-card raise, 3c is a mixed raise, 3s is weak, and 3-card inv+ raises start with double. It's not totally unreasonable, you rate to survive the overloaded double when you have spades. With hearts you probably can't afford to do this.

I'm sure this type of hand pops up every once in a while, but I can't remember the last time I saw it. This one was from a tournament last weekend. North-south can take exactly the same number of tricks (8) double dummy in any one of the five strains. [hv=pc=n&s=sakj53h87dqt74c82&w=s9862h2daj95cat65&n=sthaq654dk2ckq974&e=sq74hkjt93d863cj3]399|300[/hv]

[hv=pc=n&s=sj32ha8743djtc963&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=1dp1h3c4dp5dppp]133|200[/hv] The opponents have no agreement about 4♦.

I've always played this more like a takeout double -- either some extra values or shortness in the opponents' suit. I like this style -- 3 card support won't always be enough knowledge for partner to compete.

I would guess this is a hand with 3-4 good spades and a heart stack? Lead trumps please partner.

Don't all the poles lead second (or high, I don't remember) from xxx and low from doubleton? Then it can't be that bad. I played this style for a while (high from xxx, low from xx). I have to admit that my experience was that it gave away information to declarer more often than it helped the defense. Obviously the sample size was small, but I don't remember many hands where opening leader's partner couldn't have figured out the defense even on an ambiguous small card lead, but I remember several hands where declarer would have had a nasty trick 1 guess that we took away. And to come back to your original point, yes, I think it's pretty common to lead high/mud from xxx in much of Europe even playing normal high from doubleton. I share in the general dislike of this.

"Does 4♣ create a forcing pass?" "Not if you ask."

I agree with the Tuna -- 29-31 or so is that awkward range where you very often don't make an extra trick playing in the suit. I think 3n was a good bid.

Preference.

I think good/bad is probably a good idea here, but otherwise I would play all four bids as natural NF. No game tries.

Sure, can't argue with any of that. Also, I've changed my mind on #3. Playing a possible grand in 4♥ is too much, so I think it's right to start with 4♣.

1) K863 KT843 AQ8 J 3N 2) J4 KJ3 AJT AJT74 X 3) 8 KQJ83 9 AKQT74 4H 4) J73 KQJ AJ98 Q54 X 5) KJ4 AJT7 JT9 A87 3N 6) J7 T84 Q74 AK843 X 7) K74 KT874 74 K98 P 8) 87 KT8 AJ8 AT984 X 9) 763 QJ873 Q7 KJ5 P 4 is a classic problem, I think 3 and 6 are difficult also. To be fair, many of these are difficult hands after 1♦-2♠ as well.

When I played multi in ACBL-land, we never forced the opponents to decide on a defense at pre-alert time, though I'm virtually certain that we could have according to the rules. Nobody wants to waste time on discussing something that may not come up only to prevent the opponents from gaining a tiny edge. This seems pretty common, and I've never heard of multi players complaining about the opponents choosing a defense after seeing their hands. I think it's because they're already so demonized for playing multi.

It would help to know if the opponents are the ones who would never pass 1♠ with 3, but assuming they're not, I dunno, how about x KQxx KQxx xxxx? If you think singleton spade is not possible, then it'll be a little harder, but how about xx KQx Kxx Qxxxx or the like?

On second thought, cashing a top card in one suit is completely equivalent to finessing now in the other one in terms of layouts picked up. But finessing now at least still gives me 11 tricks when I'm wrong whereas finessing in the ending will be 9 or 10. So I would take the club finesse now.

I would bid 3♣. If the clubs come in playing 2n, that might well be 9 tricks. But mostly I like the possibility that partner bids 3n to rightside.

There's no need to finesse anything -- if you cash either the ♥K or ♣A and righty follows suit, you can claim on the marked squeeze. If they show out you'll just need the other finesse to work, coupled with the marked squeeze. I'd play lefty for 6 clubs and cash the ♥Q. I think it's too unnatural to pitch two clubs from JT987 before pitching any hearts from QT98xx. Righty's small spade return may well be suit preference, but he probably knows there are not many tricks coming and could easily be screwing with us.

I think the choice is only between some number of hearts. 2♠ seems to me like it should be a good hand with two places to play, and I don't have them -- I just want to play hearts. 3♥ seems right to me.

Agree with this basically word for word.

It seems that for the squeeze to work, lefty has to have (♠Qxxx ♥QJx) or (♠Qxx and four hearts). So it's a question of weighing the first one of those vs ♠xxx when we need to just ruff a spade. Seems that spades 3-3 is much more likely than the squeeze (the major suit breaks are symmetric, and QJx is a small fraction). I think you should only play for the squeeze if righty is the type to never preempt with an outside card. Now the question is whether we should pitch two hearts from dummy and get our overtrick, or save the heart and give up on 10 tricks for the extra chance of ♥QJ doubleton with righty.

Seems clear to finesse. If I'm not mistaken we're comparing lefty having ♥x vs (♥Qx+♦xxx). ♥x and ♥Qx are approximately equally likely a priori (4 cases) and 3 diamonds with lefty is only ~20%. Any empty spaces considerations will swing it even more as it's less likely the 1♠ bidder has length in both reds. Edit after seeing gnasher's: oops, right, Qxxx with lefty is important too. Even less close.

I don't see what I could possibly do now except cross to a spade and draw trump. Lots of options after that. What happens?