Best line in 3NT ?

[Chamaco]

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=st8hajdjt52cakj84&s=saq3hqt873dk963ct]133|200|Scoring: IMP

1H-2C-2D-2S-2NT-3NT[/hv]

 

Like it or not, you find yourself playing a tight 3NT contract after opening a marginal hand.

 

The lead is the 2 of spades (attitude lead from unknown length), and East covers dummy's Ten with the spade king .

 

You can curse the bidding later, but right now, what is the line that offers most chances to make ?

[ArcLight]

Communications problems back to hand.

That 9 of diamonds may be important later on.

I duck, in case West has 5 spades.

Can't make any more plans, need East to lead, then plan from there.

[Chamaco]

Communications problems back to hand.

That 9 of diamonds may be important later on.

I duck, in case West has 5 spades.

Can't make any more plans, need East to lead, then plan from there.

say east returns the spade 6

[ArcLight]

Obviously you must win the Spade. Play the Q so opps know you have the A and may play another suit when they get in later.

 

It seems likely Spades are 5-3 (or 6-2) beacuse West doesnt have the A K Q T.

J 9 x x or J 9 x x x.

What do you know of their agreements?

Can you infer anything from the Spade 6?

Can I assume its from K 6 ?.

It seems unlikely its from K 6 ? ?.

 

If Spades are 4-4 you are in good shape as they only have 2 winners. 5-3 is more problematic.

 

You have a large number of guaranteed winners, but no time to develop them.

2 Diamonds. 3 Hearts. 3 Clubs. And 2 easy Spades.

 

What you would like to do is force West to use up his entries, and have him continue Spades, exhausting East in Spades. Then East wont be able to hurt you when he gets in.

 

However, the only way to do this is finesse in diamonds against Easts Queen.

 

It would be nice to end play West but how?

 

I lead the 3 of hearts top the Ace, then run the Jack.

If its taken, I get to hand by my last Spade when they continue the suit.

If they hold up I lead a club from dummy to the 10 in my hand.

[Al_U_Card]

LHO did not overcall 1S but led them into your stopper(s). He must have 2 sure entries (HK and DA perhaps) to make this a good lead but not a good enough hand to venture a 1S overcall. The AJ of H are your only real entries to dummy so I win the 2nd S and play the C T and overtake with the A. I then lead the D J to pick up the Q with RHO. When LHO wins his D ace, he can lead back the S to my ace but then I have 2S, 2H (I hope) 3D and 2C.....

[PMetsch]

I would win the lead and play ♥AJ. If they duck, then I finesse the ♦Q and hope to make 2♠, 2♥, 3♦ and 2♣. But I quess they take the ♥J and continue spades. Duck a ♠ and take the next ♠, cash all ♥s (discarding a ♣ and 3♦s from the dummy). Further play depends on discards of the opps, but I intend to take the ♣ finesse. I could cash ♣AK and play a ♦ to the king, if LHO has shown up with the ♥K, ♠s are 5-3 and opps have discarded a lot of ♣s.

[luis]

It's a very complex hand

I took 2 minutes to think as if I were at the table and I'm going to take the spade king with the ace and play the diamond jack intending to run it. If the diamond queen is onside I have 3 diamonds, 2 spades, 1 heart and 2 clubs for 8 tricks with the heart finesse and the club finesse plus some squeeze and showup squeezes for the 9th.

[Fluffy]

I'll try for the ♥ break (3-3, 10 falling second, or K falling second at the right) overtaking ♥Q. Of course if East discards I don't overtake! :(

[Rebound]

This is likely to be way off base, but tell me what you think of this:

 

Regardless of how things actually turn out, in order to make 3NT, you will need some kind breaks somewhere. How about running the club 10? Granted, if it loses, a spade is coming back but such is life. Were it to win, you could then cross to dummy with the ♥ A, cash out clubs (if the Q drops, then great, but if not, oh well), then lead the ♥ J, overtaking with the Q if the K does not appear.

 

Again, granted, this could be a total disaster, but it offers chances of taking bunches of tricks. Format was not mentioned, but at MP I'm fairly certain I would play it this way. It does appear to be an inferior line, but heh, that's bridge :-)

[Chamaco]

It's a very complex hand

I took 2 minutes to think as if I were at the table and I'm going to take the spade king with the ace and play the diamond jack intending to run it.

How do you cross to dummy to run the diamond J ?

Low to the ♥Ace or low to the ♥ J , or overtake the ♣ Ten with the A or overtake with the J ?

 

Or did you mean to play a low diamond from hand towards the diamond J ?

[Free]

I take ♠A and play ♣10 (let it run). If it holds, I cross to dummy's ♥A, cash ♣AK and overtake ♥J.

[luis]

It's a very complex hand

I took 2 minutes to think as if I were at the table and I'm going to take the spade king with the ace and play the diamond jack intending to run it.

How do you cross to dummy to run the diamond J ?

Low to the ♥Ace or low to the ♥ J , or overtake the ♣ Ten with the A or overtake with the J ?

 

Or did you mean to play a low diamond from hand towards the diamond J ?

Ok then I think for 6 minutes and then run the diamond jack from dummy.

 

Are you still awake? Do you still remember I won the first trick in hand and not in dummy?

 

If after 6 minutes calling the diamond jack from dummy doesn't work then I have to think about something else!

 

Luis

[Winstonm]

I don't know if this is best or not but I'm sure this is how I would play at the table.

 

With attitude leads, I would presume LHO to hold Jxxxx to lead low, so I would duck the first spade and win the continuation. Then I lead a heart to the Ace and run the diamond J. If this holds, I lead a heart, forcing a duck, then turn back to diamonds. If the diamond loses to the Ace and spades are cleared, I'm going to play for the heart K offside and again lead to the Jack. If the diamond loses to the Queen, I'm going to practice finessing as many times as I must to come to 9 tricks.

 

Winston

[ardf10987]

Last post was a week ago... So I think I can tell I played this hand, which was something like...

 

[hv=d=s&v=e&n=s108hajdj1052cakj84&w=sj976542h2d4cq976&e=skhk9654daq87c532&s=saq3hq10873dk963c10]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

I played as free (may be other used the same line, but his explanation was the shortest)

take ♠A and play ♣10 (let it run). If it holds, I cross to dummy's ♥A, cash ♣AK and overtake ♥J.

Having discarted a ♠ and a ♦ on AK♣, all was well because at the end I played K♦ (hoping to crash the queen)... Est had to play small now or after, and then I obtained anyway another trick. This doesn't means at all my line was best... just to give you the hand as it was...