MartininBC

If slam is on, bid 6N. If slam is not on, pass 4N. If you try for the diamond slam, disaster occurs: partner plays the hand! :P

Hmm, with only five red tricks, and only five POSSIBLE in either black suit, to make this contract requires BOTH finesses to work. Given that, wouldn't it be best to just TAKE both finesses? If nothing helpful develops (i.e. KC or TC drops) to indicate clubs are likely to give five tricks, cash the AS, as 3-2 spades are more likely than 3-3 clubs. If both follow, cross to AD and concede a spade. If spades are 4-1, try clubs and hope for a miracle (one loser, and that in the hand that can't cash a spade winner).

1eyedJack and Hatchett are right, my transferred menace triple squeeze doesn't work. Darn.

Actually I think you CAN still make on the trump return, though it is a bit double dummy. Win trick 2 with AH, play AC, ruff a club, and a trump to KH drawing all trumps. Now lead JC, and run it (if LHO doesn't cover you can end with the same QD-and-three-spades ending as described above). If LHO covers, ruff in dummy, ruff a diamond to hand, and lead the last two trumps. You have in hand Kxx in spades and the club 9. Dummy has AT9 in spades and the diamond Q, and RHO is unhappily sequentially squeezed out of Qxx in spades, the KD and the TC. A transferred menace - I love it!

Something's wrong with this hand post ... I presume the hand you have put in the diagram as West is actually EAST. Edit: now fixed; thanks. I'd return a club. It's hard to imagine LHO bidding the slam staring at Jxx in diamonds, so presumably partner's lead was a fifth, and declarer has only one. Declarer appears to have excellent chances to make the contract, but his chances are better if I send him back a spade, or set up QD, I suspect. The double looks a bit pointless, as presumably a double of the artifical 3S and 4C bids would have been lead requesting, so a diamond lead would have been likely anyway. Are we trying to fool declarer by playing the Ace instead of the King at trick 1? Why bother concealing the info we have already given away by the double? It appears more likely to fool partner than declarer. The only reason to do it appears to be to try to underlead KD at trick 2 and hope declarer ruffs ... sounds like desperation measures.

I'd bid 3NT. Not just because it is highly likely to make, but because if partner has bid 3C on an entryless hand, I want to teach him a lesson he'll never forget. ^_^

If West can see this coming, he should sacrifice in 7S ... that's only four off. ;-)

Interesting topic, jocdelevat. I am the opposite to you: I get much better results at MPs than IMPs. Here's a few things that are more important to MP bidding than IMP bidding: Competing at the 2-of-a-major/3-of-a-minor level. Bidding slightly unsafe 1NT instead of safe 2-level minor fits. Bidding 6N instead of 6-Major, and 3N instead of 4-Major when you know you have safe coverage. Making risky lead-directing bids which might go for a lot if the opponents can find a double. Allowing opps to peacefully play minor part-scores when you think they might (after competition) find a major or NT. Playing in a 5-2 or 4-3 major game or partscore in preference to a 5-3 minor game or part-score, especially when the short hand has a singleton. And here's a few things that are more important to MP defence than IMP defence: Cashing an ace on lead against a freely bid slam. Giving up on beating the contract and cashing out before declarer has a chance to do so. Not leading a trump from a nasty holding like Qxx, in a bidding sequence that normally demands a trump, such as 1S-1N-2H-Pass. Concentrating on all 13 tricks. And finally, some things that are more important to MP declarer play than IMP declarer play: Concentrating on all 13 tricks. Especially working out how many tricks you HAVE and arranging to steal an extra one early. Taking slight risks for overtricks with cold contracts. Giving opponents a chance to get things wrong. Examples are numerous, but one common one is to set up a partial elimination (ruff out the opponents' led suit) even when it should be painfully obvious to the opponents to shift: sometimes they don't. Always act like everything is going well. If you can fluster an opponent by your poise (what? declarer nods knowingly on finding the 5-0 trump split?) you might produce an error as they "chase the set", and going down one when everyone else with your cards is going down two will give you a top. If you wail and moan and gnash teeth, the opponents will happily look for every trick they can get. In addition, players who are better at MPs are players who play evenly. Players who are better at IMPs are players who "rise to the occasion" on important hands.

You are called in at the last minute to the local club matchpoint session to partner a little old lady whose partner has been unable to attend. You only have time to nod at all the Standard American conventions she mentions then you are under way. You have an up and down session, with the ups mostly in the hands you play and the downs in the ones your little old lady partner plays. Then you come to the final board. RHO opens 1NT (announced as 15-17), and LHO thinks for a bit then raises to 6NT which is the final contract. You hold: ♠JT92 ♥KJ74 ♦65 ♣852 Not too tough for an opening lead, you think: J♠ looks good. This dummy hits the table: ♠Q3 ♥AT6 ♦AK742 ♣Q73 Declarer covers with the Queen from dummy, your little old lady partner plays the King, and declarer wins the Ace. Neat. Then declarer takes the Q♣, and follows with the A♣, K♣ and J♣, discarding 6♥ from dummy. Your little old lady partner follows with the 6, 9 and T, then discards the 4♠. Declarer then plays the A♦ and comes back to the Q♦ and the J♦, your little old lady partner following with the 8 and T, then discarding the 5♠. You of course have thrown all your useless cards: the five minor suit cards and the 4 and 7 of hearts. Now declarer leads the 9♦ and it is crunch time. But not for an expert like you. You've seen this position before, you know the drill. If you throw the 2♠, the future will unfold with the certainty of a Hugh Kelsey sample hand: dummy's fifth diamond will remove one of your spade winners and then you will be thrown in to lead away from your K♥ into dummy's split Ace and Queen doubletons. And declarer, while no genius, will work out that he has to try A♥ if you keep both high spades. But there is one hope: perhaps your little old lady partner has the 8♠ ... so, discard 9♠! Dummy's K♦ is played and your little old lady partner plays the 6♠. Declarer leads the 7♦, and a faintly sick feeling comes to you as you realise your little old lady partner might not know what a crucial card her 8♠ is, but she contributes 3♥ and you sigh with relief ... inwardly of course. Declarer drops the 2♥ and you continue your plan by discarding the T♠, watching declarer's face to see if he is aware of how you have slipped the noose. As he pauses, you spare a second to daydream of the admiring glance your little old lady partner will give you as you explain how you engineered her win with the 8♠; and how her "clever" (ahem, "forced"; but you can afford to be magnanimous) shift to hearts through declarer's Q into your KJ tenace made you the only pair to defeat the slam. Declarer however gives you a mildly puzzled look and leads the 3♠ from dummy, winning his 8♠ and then his 7♠ and then leading his 8♥ to his A♥ for his 13th trick. Declarer had: ♠A87 ♥82 ♦QJ93 ♣AKJ4 and your little old lady partner had: ♠K654 ♥Q953 ♦T8 ♣T96 There is a brief contemplative silence as declarer opens the travelling scoresheet, and you use the time to begin to mentally prepare a long and arduous explanation of your actions. Revealed on the scoresheet are some 3N-making-11s, some 6D-making-12, and some 6N contracts going one down. Declarer silently enters his 6N-making-13, and your little old lady partner looks at those 11-trick-making no-trump contracts ... your hope that she may decide to say nothing is dashed as she opens her mouth to speak ... then she querulously ventures: "Looks like the other declarers misplayed it." Sometimes a partner who doesn't notice any card below a Jack is a treasure beyond price.

As several respondents have pointed out, the big problem with easing strength requirements opposite a passed hand is not so much with THIS hand as with the other hands that follow. If you are the third seat doubler in the bidding sequence: Pass (1H) Dbl (4H) All Pass ... where the 4H bid is announced as weak and pre-emptive, you may find that everyone else is bidding and making 4S your way. Your partner has shied off bidding 4S on an 11 count with four spades because your PREVIOUS takeout double yielded up only three lame kings. You of course have a shapely 13 count this time. There are numerous other sequences you can construct with a little imagination where partner gets only one chance to make a bidding decision, and can't do so in an informed manner if he has to make allowance for the possibility that your double has been relaxed down to three half-tricks. Also, with hands that have good takeout shape but are slightly below normal strength requirements, if you pass you often get a chance to make a takeout double on the NEXT round, which partner CAN'T mistake for an opening hand equivalent.

West had a 4-9-zip-zip with AQJT in the suit and only ventured 1 Heart? I bet West does 30mph on motorways.

I agree partner would have shown five spades if he had strength enough to bid at all. Therefore declarer has 5+ spades. Declarer would have bid spades before hearts with 5-5, therefore he has 6 or 7 hearts. He must be 5-6-2-0, 5-7-1-0 or 6-7-0-0. If declarer has 7 hearts, he has already drawn trumps and can ruff two spade losers at leisure, losing only the top two spades (or losing only one if he has K♠). Therefore the only shape with a chance to defeat the contract is 5-6-2-0. Declarer has no diamond losers (he will take the finesse if he needs it) and obviously no club losers. If he has K♠, he can simply lead toward it through your A♠ and make the contract by ruffing the third and fourth round of spades in dummy, setting up the long fifth card. Tossing the A♠ on the trump leads gains a trick when partner has Q♠ but not K♠, because then partner can gain the lead (instead of you) to lead a trump and restrict the ruffs to one. This only defeats the contract when partners trump is the Queen, because with K♠ declarer will only have one top loser in spades. Partner's spades will also need to be strong enough to prevent a ruffing finesse in spades when dummy has only one trump: QT8x is minimum. Conversely discarding A♠ lets an unmakeable contract slip through when declarer has QJTxx or a number of other combinations promoted to single top loser by the dump of A♠. Would I drop A♠? No! Because if declarer had the kind of hand where dropping the AS helps (♠Kxxxx-♥AKxxxx-♦xx-♣v) he would have instantly seen the problem on the FIRST heart trick when I show out. He would see that it cannot cost to cross in diamonds and lead a spade towards his K before drawing a second trump, making certain of two ruffs in dummy (if I discard A♠ on the FIRST round, he will simply lead K♠, lose a spade to partner and win K♥ if partner can lead a trump from QJ remaining, crossruffing clubs and spades thereafter). Don't drop A♠ unless you think declarer could not have worked this out. Also consider this: if you fail to find the drop of A♠ when it works, you can commiserate with all the other people who did the same thing, whereas if you drop A♠, and it turns out declarer was off Q♥ and the top two spades, you are going to look SUCH a duffer trying to explain it to all the other players who just sat back and watched their three tricks roll in ... hehe. (note: QJxxx in original post edited to QJTxx, on further thought)

Interesting ... once you have decided to lead a heart honour, would not the Q be best? The KH can't be singleton on the bidding but JH might ... and QH instead of AH gives you some extra outs if declarer has KJx (by reaching partner's hand).