anthony

Tks and congratulations qnasher. I'm impressed by the promptness of your reply. This board was played during a team match at BBO and South is a Romania star player. Personally i don't think Diamond lead so unacceptable, but at the six round when I played a DJ he did toss a heart carelessly, suddenly the contract became unbeatable. Maybe for internet bridge that's totally normal. Anyway, if it's not for a quiz, a lot of expert players at the table might fail to realize that's the key moment for defence. I did hold AJTxx by the way.

soon enough. and perfect for the first question! thanks qnasher. However, that's not the untimate answer. you return a high trump, pd follows 7. Now it's almost a double-dummy situation: declarer holds a 5152 shape. what would you play if declarers continue with (1) ♦J ? (2) ♦T ? (3) ♦9 ?

[hv=d=w&v=b&w=s842hq8543d65ckq8&s=sqj93hat9762d7ct4]266|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv] W　　 N　　 E　　 S pass 2NT(1) 3S pass 4S Pass All (1): both minors preempt You sit south and lead your ♦ singleton, on North's Q the declarer puts A. Then he plays ♣A and three round of Club, discard a ♥J in the third. I guess everyone will ruff with ♠3. Now the question: what's next? This quiz consists of several questions. I'll go on after i get at least one winning reply. And i'm sure it will come here soon enough B)

I chose a title of "evaluation" for this quiz, because i think that's exactly the key word here for our discussion. The main difference between 3S and 4D advocates, in my opinion, is how they evaluate this 4612 shape and it's 2A's. 4D= I like the hand, but i still need some help in H and C suit if pd has opened a minimum hand. 4S will be a good spot if pd choose to stay there. 3S= I would still painfully doubt whether I should pass or not, when pd retreated to 4S after a 4D splinter. As WHEREEAGLES puts it: "in fact, the hand is so strong after 1♠ that it only requires us to know ONE thing about pard's hand: does he have club control? " I like Ben's version of a "delayed splinter" here: strength mostly in Spades and Hearts, and no first and second control in club. But the question is, does 4D promise a SIX-card heart suit with AQJ? For example, if pd holds KQxxx x Kxx Axxx, or Kxxxxx x KQx Axx, pretty good slam and we should reach it, but pd quite unlikely to advance after my 4D, unless he knows the length in my suit. The sixth heart makes a significant difference in how good the slam is. After 3S, I can check club controls, I can check HK, I can check keycards and trump Q using RKC ... the price is we must go to 5 level, on a bad day pd might go down 1 there (with serious 3NT, some players will probably pass after a 3S 4C 4D 4S sequence, I believe many will still keep going on). Bye the way, 3S has an additional benefit: it doesn't show first lead to opps so clearly as 4D does. When pd holds something like Kxxxx xx AQx Axx, both 3S and 4D will take us to 6H, you surely hope they will lead a diamond instead of a club. So, I'm on the 3S side. This is a 5.5-loser hand and it's VERY strong in my eyes. I'm willing to pay the price of stopping at 5 level, in order to reach a good slam when 4D will fail under some layouts. The actual hand pd held in real life will not be offered. This is a BBS discussion, not a match after all. Dont want anyone here be influenced by that scoreboard. :P

ok, let's assume in the first round, neither 2nt nor any kind of splinter is an option for this parnership. They've agreed that there shouldn't exist a 6-card side suit with such bids. after 2S, 4D IS splinter for them. So i guess Peter would prefer to advance with 4D. then one more question for you, would you keep going on if pd retreats to 4S after 4D? would like to know the percentage of 3S and 4D advocates here :)) very different evaluations for this hand behind, i would say.

your partnership play 2/1, and pd just opened 1♠. you hold [hv=s=saj32haqj7xxd3c32]133|100|[/hv] feel excited? i'm pretty sure you will. But to what extent ? In other words, how strong do you think of this hand? the bidding goes 1♠ 2♥. 2♠ ? now pls decide your next action. The 2♠ could be a minimum hand with only 5-card length in the suit, for your reference.