lmilne

A slightly different line which is the same (in essence) is to overtake the king of hearts early, take a winning spade hook then run trumps to strip-squeeze RHO. Running trumps first seems better to help read the ending.

Your values aren't wasted, because you don't have any.

Related question: are there are any programs to A ) convert hand records like these into e.g. BBO files or something; B ) do a double dummy analysis on them to find all the "mistakes" that both declarer and the defence make?

You are kidding, right? He's not kidding. It depends on your agreement. But it is far from standard for redouble of a NT contract to be SOS/takeout.

Oh yeah, that was my other question, does it make any difference if your first bid was 2♥ instead of 2♠? I'm assuming noone will be trying anything more kooky than 2♥ or 2♠.

[hv=d=n&v=n&n=skq82hdkq9652c743&w=sjt954h8764djckq5&e=s76hakqt932dt3ca2&s=sa3hj5da874cjt986]399|300|Scoring: MP[/hv] It is very possible you will not agree with the bidding, nor the defense. 1♦-4♥-X-P; 4♠-5♥-X-AP. 1. A♠, 4, 2, 7. 2. J♣, 5, 7, A. 3. A♥, 5, 4, 2♦. 4. K♥, J, 6, 5♦. 5. 2♣, 6, Q, 3. 6. K♣, 4, 6♠, 8. At this point, declarer faces his hand and claims "conceding two diamonds". North agrees "one down", all players shuffle their hands, before the player who was dummy says "you're ruffing that second diamond!". The director is called. The bidding and the play up to the claim are undisputed. Your ruling?

[hv=d=w&v=n&s=shak10965dk3ca10753]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] I don't have much experience with these hands, so I was hoping for some feedback on this one. (Pass)-Pass-(1♠)-2♠-(3♠)-Pass-(4♠)-? Not sure what people will think of my 2♠ bid with 6 hearts. FWIW, it showed a constructive hand.

[hv=d=e&v=b&s=sqthqxdakqjcaq9xx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] 2♠ on your right (5-5 spades and another weak). Your bid? Second problem (hidden):

i'll take pie, the cake is a lie

Damn, the previous thread where someone psyched a pass or bid 4H with 4-1 in the majors was much more hilarious!

Surely no one is passing that north hand...I don't think I would bid 4S, but that isn't the reason.

80% south, 100% north :) That's not a GF, for one thing. And what does North think partner has, bidding 3S instead of 4? Presumably some hand with very little slam interest (or overbid before ;) ), opposite which 5 might be in trouble. No way is keycard the way to go.

i wouldn't think either sequence is forcing?

EIGHT clubs edit: so yeah, what everyone else is saying. just pointing out, we do have eight.

I wonder what it's called. Good thing you had the 8 of spades! I assume you would have passed as dealer otherwise :) edit: or responded 2nt, whatever

Very cool hand! East is unlikely to pitch his last small spade (which would let us rectify the count), so he started with at least 4 spades. Similarly, West is unlikely to have led from anything other than QJT(+), and he has pitched a small spade, so he has least 4 spades. Thus spades are 4-4. So, we can play almost double dummy now: [hv=n=s9hk5dk4cqjt&w=sjthjt2dxxxc&e=sa4hdxxxxc86&s=s85h7dat86c7]399|300|[/hv] Diamonds are 4-3 (4 with East), the only thing we don't know is where the Q/J are. Say they are divided, we play off two rounds of clubs. East follows, we follow once and pitch our heart, West pitches a heart then a diamond. The interesting thing is West can't pitch a spade, otherwise we can rectify the count (spades are blocked)! In the 6-card ending, on the lead of the last club, East can't pitch a small spade either (same reason) and if he pitches the ace then West is squeezed without the count out of either his second spade guard, his heart guard or his small diamond (which lets us pick up the diamonds, he is down to bare honour). So East pitches a small diamond. So do we. Now West is squeezed without the count as before. Assume he pitches a spade (the only "non-material" pitch), now we lead a spade, West wins his bare honour, and we have simple squeeze on East regardless of West's return. If East has both ♦QJxx, we can't make on best defence. As before, West can't pitch a spade, but he can throw small diamonds. We come down to this ending [hv=n=s9hk5dk4cqjt&w=sjthjt2dxxxc&e=sa4hdxxxxc86&s=s85h7dat86c7]399|300|[/hv] and we have no recourse. On the other hand, if West has ♦QJx, we can play two rounds of clubs as before. Now he has to keep all his diamonds and 2 hearts, so has to pitch a spade, and we can rectify the count before squeezing him automatically, or just squeeze him without the count as before. Hope I didn't make any mistakes :)

Does playing fast to allow opponents less time to think go against some sort of law? I don't do this very often, but I would hate to think I was committing some sort of 'sharp practice'.

Ducking trick 1 was my first thought. Seems reasonably clear to get started on the diamonds, by leading a small one from hand now. I would have thought about this so I can play the diamond from hand within a few seconds of winning the first of second heart, so it's harder for LHO to duck smoothly from Kx.

This problem: 655321 is right, doubling with AQ32 will get you redoubled by good players for -730 or worse (although its all the same at matchpoints). Vs worse players, you give them a chance to show their spade support at a lower level, giving them an easier auction. You will also prevent partner from making the right lead (which could be a diamond or even a club) some of the time, and AQ32 in front of a 2NT opener is hardly going to create tricks much of time. Seems much more likely to set up tricks or give away a tempo. If you want to ask about how to defend if partner had led the T♥ after an uncontested auction, that's fine. But this is an alien problem, we would never have doubled, it's like asking what to do after forcing to game on the first round of bidding with an 8-count or something. Other stuff: 655321 didn't post just to make fun of the OP, there are bad bids and bad plays posted all the time, people post on here to improve. He offered you good advice about a bid which I used to make and which I see 'busy' (no offence) players routinely make and routinely give away tricks. About you denying you explicitly said the right thing: in the other thread you continued to put forward arguments against what literally everyone was saying. It was like there wasn't even a point to starting the thread. You said "Seemed right in this situation and was." and didn't seem to see the problem with it, and now you overreact when given good advice by a respected poster. All this is said with the best possible intentions, with the hope of convincing you to be a better poster, but I fear it will fall on deaf ears.

and yeah, double double pass, no alternatives at any point. not sure how close partner is to 4♠, probably not close at all

Game isn't that bad is it? After some top diamond leads you will normally know the diamond suit, then you can ruff a diamond, play some trumps (4-1 is still ok if the club queen is onside, if they are 3-2 you can mess around a bit more). If its safe to play hearts you can try that, find out the heart suit, and come to a reasonable opinion whether it's possible for the weak two to have the club queen. Might make :)

Having thought about this a bit more, it's frustrating because the contract is cold on any layout, we just have to pick which one to play for (I think - maybe there is a line I'm missing). 1) West has the ♣K - finesse; 2) East has the ♣K and 4+♦ - auto squeeze; 3) East has the ♣K, West 4+♦ - auto squeeze if West has 5+S, double squeeze if spades are 4-3. Now someone better at squeezes (and logic) than me can work out which line picks up the most (and more likely) combination of these.

My first instinct is to play 5 rounds of trumps (to try to induce some to discard a diamond or a spade from 3, followed my 3 rounds of diamonds, the ace of clubs, and a spade to the king, to come down to [hv=n=sa9hdtc&s=s7h5dcq]133|200|[/hv] which seems to preserve all squeeze chances. Now on the play of the last heart, we pitch the diamond (unless it becomes high!). This wins if: 1) West has 4+ diamonds and East has the ♣K (double squeeze); 2) West has 4+ diamonds and also 5+ spades (positional); 3) Either opponent has both 5+ spades and the ♣K (automatic). I'm having a bit of trouble thinking about all the possibilities - also, say diamonds are 4-3, do we get an indication (restricted choice) about who has the other diamond honour? Trying to get better at double squeezes and math :) Edit: Also cashing the ace of clubs seems kind of counter-intuitive now that I look at this again. Not sure.

What about pass denying the ♦A and higher bids showing it? Then redouble would show the ♦A but not ♥A, 4♥ would show both, etc.

I think starting with a club ruff is best. Does RHO drop an honour on this?