dellache

Finesse on both cases. Case 1 : the ♥Ace on this sequence points toward QTx in North's hand (it is still dubious, but with ♦xx it is awful). Case 2 : vacant places tells us to finesse.

I might have opened 2♣ and don't have strong feelings about 1♦ Vs 2♣. I would just bid 3N now, the most probable game. To explore game/slam in ♣ I should have chosen the 1♦ option.

Clearly East has led under ♦Q, while his pard couldn't double the 4♦. East's choice of lead might have been between ♣T2 and ♦Qxx+ What would East lead with ATx QJxx Qxxx T2 ? I expect that a small proportion of the players would try (rightly or wrongly) the ♣2 (NS appear to have a 9+ ♣fit). Hence I finesse, although it's very close (need to have cool teammates at times).

50/50 between ♥Q and ♦finesse. Why ? 1. Let's suppose first that South had the ♥J instead of the 10. Let's suppose that the Kings are split (East might have bid 1♠ with both, and the deal is over if West has both). The situation should be clear for the opponents, but anyway this is usually what the "honest" ones do : - they don't bare their Kings ; - they keep as many cards as possible in their pard's suit, "in order not to give the show away". So in that case, I guess that : - west would keep (Spade) (Kx) (xx) [any king] - East would keep (QT) (Kx) (x) [the other king] East King is in the suit where there are the most cards remaining, whatever each player does indiviually. In that case East has kept the Diamond King, and I would finesse the ♥K. 2. What happens when we don't have the ♥J ? a- If East has the HJ, the same reasoning applies and actually, East will bare this Jack hoping West has the ♥Ace (actually he was triple squeezed) Thus we can play the HQ. We have 4x6 = 24 cases where it works (West had ♥Kx, and East had ♦Kx initially). What do wo loose if EW are "honest" ? -o- The ♥K might have been stiff all the time : 6 cases. -o- West had Axxx x Kxxxxx xx (no 2♦ opening ? No michael by East ?) : 24 cases. We have to interpret the "non-bidding", to decide the likeliness of this 4162//5512 distribution. b- If West has the HJ, the reasoning may still apply, except that we cannot "finesse" Hearts conveniently. The relevant case is Axxx KJ Kxxxx xx by West and we have to interpret the "non-opening" 3rd to speak. That's 21 cases. Even if we interpret the "honest" discards correctly, the choice of abandonning the Diamond finesse is NOT that clear. I think it is very close between ♥Q and ♦Finesse. Would like to be at the table.

A. In theory, there are 3 possibilities depending on the Hearts : 1- East has long Hearts : no double squeeze of any sort works(*) : [(*)Even if we can isolate the ♣menace in West, Oppos can break the squeeze by "simply" returning a Spade when in with the ♦Ace : the second Spade honor is needed to keep an idle Card in North's hand] 1-a we must usually rely on a simple Major squeeze against East ; 1-b there's a very remote possibility of black squeeze against West. 2- Hearts are 3-3 : next board. 3- West has the long Hearts : note- no communication in ♣ => no compound squeeze possible (West simply keeps Clubs/Hearts, East keeps Clubs/Spades) a- West has HH+ in Spades : guard squeeze, the Heart acting as the unilateral menace against W ; b- West doesn't have HH+ in spades : we must squeeze him (unlikely) in the rounded suits. B. In practice the bidding and the club played by East at trick 1 gives us clues : we should normally get the ♣ count accurately. Let's suppose the defense actually returned a Spade (Best defense : C2 double squeeze is out). We reach this position (we ruffed 1♣) : [hv=pc=n&s=sk8h5d6c&n=s6hk6dc8]133|200[/hv] We play the last Diamond and have to decide : - normally there's no black squeeze against West (unless East showed an unlikely 2542 in the process, which we should detect in due time: just disc a Heart now and play ♥K) - if we really think West is the only one to have the rounded suits at this stage (unlikely!), we discard a Spade and cash the last Spade ; - otherwise we still might have to guess correctly ! For instance if West doubled, we may have to guess between 3415 ou 4315. West discards his last Club leaving the East guard to East, but what is the final position ? if Hearts were 3-3 we discard a black Card and claim. But if West was initially 3415 we must discard the Heart now to finish the working guard-squeeze. Maybe there's is more about card-reading than squeeze theory on this one.

I would just bid 3♦ here meant as strong (why play it weak ??). I don't want to take the risk to play in 1♣-X. The goal is to play 3NT or some diamonds (4M is possible, but I notice that partner could not find a 1M overcall). Sidenote: I have always been wondering if 1♦ in BALPOS should not be strongish for fear of oppos finding an alternative contract (game) in one Major. It seems that everytime I have a moderate hand with diamonds, either I make a T/O, or I may want to pass when short in one Major. Actually, I can't remember the last time I did balance with 1♦... what do other posters think ?

Most of you advocate to play 2NT as scramble here (I also play that in one partnership). I was wondering if playing 2NT as NAT was really inferior at **MP** ? What about hands like a weak NT with spades stopped (KQx Kxx xxxx KQx, like in the OP) ? W/W 2NT could also be the best save (2NT down 1, 2♠ making). Unlikely ?

2♠ : I've got 5 of them and decent values.

I'd blame both, even though the result is the consequence of North's initial action. + I don't understand double : where are we going if pard is 3+3-4+3- ? What are we going to do over 3♦ ? + I would just balance 3♣ w/ North's hand (double would be ok w/ 6♦, I can revert to Diamonds over 3♣) + I have sympathy for south's pass (trying to go plus when pard's double hits the wrong hand by us), but it's rather unlikely that we can set 2♠. We will not get many MP by passing. + I would just have bid 3♦ which gives me 3 chances to get MP when pard has his DBL : - they fail to DBL me and I score -100 - I score 110 - LHO bid 3♠ + all in all it seems difficult to recover after North's double on these cards.

I've an opening bid, so I open. 1♥. Wtp.

[hv=pc=n&w=skqh8d76ckj987654&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=4s]133|200[/hv] What do you do and why ?

[hv=pc=n&s=sq5hj8642daqt5ckq&n=s73hk3dkj982cat63&d=n&v=b&b=13&a=1d1s2h2sppdp]266|200[/hv] 1. Do you agree with 2 Hearts ? What else ? 2. Do you agree with Double ? 3. How should it proceed frome there ? 4. What would the following bids from North now show : - 3C - 3D - 3H - 3S - 3N - 4H

[hv=pc=n&s=st752h9732da52ca5&d=e&v=n&b=2&a=1hp2h2s2n]133|200|2NT = natural Game Try[/hv] What is your plan ?

[hv=pc=n&n=saj96542hj6432d7c]133|100[/hv] What is your choice, 1st to speak, White versus red, and why ?

You then loose 2 tricks if RHO really had the stiff 8 :-). Anyway, even if running the 9 (gnasher's line) is the best theorical play, playing low from dummy rates to be often the best practical play : RHO might play the K from Kx fearing also Jx in your hand (crucial at MP, and even at Imps, RHO might not know how many tricks you really need from the suit). Can RHO really take the risk that you finally score *6* tricks and play low from Kx ? It depends on the whole deal context.

I agree with that, and in the OP I specified that West discards the 13th Heart to simplify matters. So let's suppose that East has a stiff Club, so that only the respective ♠/♦ count matters (Diamonds are unknown in the following diags) : Case 3-3 : [hv=pc=n&w=sj87hjt98dc432&e=st96h765dc5]266|100[/hv] Case 2-4 : [hv=pc=n&w=sj8hjt98dc432&e=st976h765dc5]266|100[/hv] Case 4-2 : [hv=pc=n&w=sjt87hjt98dc432&e=s96h765dc5]266|100[/hv] It seems to me that in all the 3 cases : - West will just discard his Heart ; - Even if you play the 4th Club through East (good play), he probably WON'T discard any spades, in any of the 3 cases (BTW if he does, the problem will be solved before trick 9, so that there's no more choice at the end !) Now clearly, if East has discarded 3 Diamonds what do we do at trick 9 ? Do we assume that he doesn't have exactly 3 Spades because he didnot discard One ? Do we really think that if we cash the ♣Ace at trick 9, somebody may discard a Spade now ? (situation is clear for the defense or not ?) In other words, don't we overestimate our ability to read the end position if EW didnot make any mistake before trick 9 ? What am I missing ?

Hi all, I was wondering if there were many cases where a criss/cross was the practical play at the table. Say we have this classical position : [hv=pc=n&s=sakqha32dq2cajt92&n=s5432hkq4da3ckq43]133|200[/hv] We play 6NT on the ♥J lead after a 2NT opening by South. We cash 4 clubs, 3 Hearts, and ♠AK and this is what we see : - spades are not 5-1 ; - Hearts are 4-3 ; - West discards the 13th Heart and Diamonds ; - East discards Diamonds. Oppos are expert and they discard "aequo animo". [hv=pc=n&s=sqhdq2ca&n=s54hda3c]133|200[/hv] Now the choices are : Choice 1- Cash the ♣Ace discarding the ♦3 and guess if somebody was squeezed (criss/cross option) ; Choice 2- Cash the ♠Queen checking first the Spades, and fall back on the imperfect squeeze if West holds 4 Spades. Double dummy, the criss/cross is of course the right play. Single dummy however, if nothing very interesting has appeared before trick 9, I'm really wondering if the normal line is not to play for choice 2 (you win when spades were 3-3 all the time, or when West has 4(♠)+♦K) Any opinions about this ? Actually, can someone provide an example + explanation where the criss-cross is the right practical line against experts when you have no deterministic ways of locating one of the menaces ?

♥6, and consider it a "wtp".

I bid a straightforward 2♥ now. If partner's has say AKxx, I probably want to be in game, but that's too specific a hand : most of the time he'll have useless points in the blacks, and will make somme game try (and I'll accept). Now I don't see why I should do extreme things (like bidding 2♦, OMG) to stop partner : 1. Opening 1♦ was certainly curious, but I got the "dream-bid" of 1♥ ; 2. I'm not ashamed of my hand now (I can make 4♥ with a few topcards by CHO) ; 3. Why should we assume that pard has all the HCP ? He could be 4423 w/ say 11HCP, the rest being 10/10 HCP, 4-4 spades and 5-4 clubs by oppos, so what ? 4. Slam is now a matter of keys. The danger when accepting a GT is that pard will finally bid BW, discover that 2+ keys are missing and stop in 5. If 3 keys are out this is awful. If 2 keys are missing : too bad, we may suffer a ♦ruff or something bad (unlikely though) but if pard has 4 KC slam will usually be cold : do we really want to stop pard with AJxx AKxx xx AJx ? 5. Are we really much worse than KJx QJxx QJxx Ax, a hand with which we would happily accept a game try ?

I think running is awful : 1. I could have x xx KQJxx KQJxx (BTW I'd bid 3♣ if playing GB-2NT) 2. Instead I have much more defense than I already promised (A AK!, even the ♣J may matter) 3. Partner clearly has doubled on the basis of no defensive tricks in my hand. 4. Actually running means "partner's double was probably totally stupid, LHO know probably what he's doing, let's trust LHO". This could seriously damage partnership's confidence. Oh la la :)

I appreciate Rainer's line, but against weak oppos, I would play (quick) like this : cash the ♣Ace, cash the ♦Ace, ♦ to dummy, ♠ to queen. Now if West scores the ♠K I guess that West will play the easy ♣K. GAME OVER.

Hi Fluffy. I suspected you to have created the dreaded club return by West in the line when you first run the Heart at trick 2 ;). Actually when you think about running the Heart 9, you have of course to take the possibility of the club return into account but in practice this really won't happen very often when West has the Q (see other posts). After all, he has a safe (and potentially good) ♠ return. Even then, when he plays a club back, you still have good ressources, and I don't see how you could be in a better guessing position with your line. Moreover, with your line, it seems you will be forced to guess. With the other line, only the club return forces you to guess. Another possible flaw is that West might well score an uppercut when he has 5=2=2=4 (I don't know if this spade length is compatible w/ the ♠5 lead though).

Mmmmm... If LHO doesn't play a Club back : I don't have to guess anymore ♥/♣. If I guess the clubs to be 3-2 : I don't have to guess ♥(play ♣J, Cash top ♥, go back to dummy if needed). So let's suppose clubs are 3-2 and West plays the ♣T back : now the problem is a bit different. I have now to weigh QT9x against QT9 and think again about that "standard falsecard situation in trump that experts seldom forget to make". When the ♣9 is returned QT9 is much more remote, and I reject it. Actually the ♣9 (instead of the Ten) is a little extra argument to play for the double 4-1 distribution, and if you agree that playing Q from QJx is "standard but rarely achieved", one must take this into account.

I blame East 100%, the 3♠ bid is a common mistake with this Heart holding. The Total tricks on this hand rate to be much lower than expected... for partner, who will have to take a decision with his stiff/void♥ over 4♥. Clearly East knows in advance that bidding 4♠/4♥ will be poor. So what is the purpose of 3♠ ? 1. Preventing LHO to make a trial bid ? He will bid 4♥ now instead, and pard will SAC even when LHO was wrong (and anyway it may well cost 500/800 in average when the oppos game finally scores) 2. Trying to buy the Hand ? Just bid 2♠ then 3♠. 3. Preventing them to find a double RED-fit ? I remains to be seen that 2♠ (3♦) ... leads to a loosing position for E/W. 4. Expressing one's joy to have Kxxx in partner's overcall ? Maybe. Bidding 2♠ with East hand is just anticipating the future problems, and so this is the correct bid by essence. As to the 4♠ bid by partner over 4♥ in the situation where East (over)bid 3♠, it seems 100% mandatory to me. Cheers.

Exactly the same as mikeh.