inquiry Posted October 22, 2003 Report Share Posted October 22, 2003 Ok, you are playing South with a very competent, but pickup online partner. For this problem, if you jump to the end obviously you will get the auction "right" as you will see the both hands. So think about your bids and the answers to the questions before reading on. You hold... IMPS, You vul and they are not S-K73H-AT42D-KT42C-T4 W N E S P 1S 3D ? (3D is weak) Question number one. Given the vulnerability, the type of contest, and of course your hand, what do you bid and why? Ok, we all probably come up with a good bid here. The ones that work best are the ones given in the text below, but even others should still work out ok. But let's say you bid either 3NT or 3S, the bidding continuesW N E S P 1S 3D 3y (3D is weak), (3y=3N or 3S)P 4C P 4SP 5H P ? What is your bid? The thoughts, even with a pickup partner, should point a glarring spotlight on their suit. You have their suit controlled thanks to the Diamond King so you are getting ready to leap to 6S when you realize something. Partner is inviting slam with control in diamonds, which you have. But if partner had Diamond ACE or Diamond singleton, no need for such an invitte specific to diamonds. Partner must have 2 (at least) diamonds. Give EAST 6 for his jump and your four. You can see the defense now. EAST starts with Diamond ace and a diamond which surely WEST will ruff, and 6S will be down one. But, with the well placed diamond KING, you take a stab at six notrump (after all, you will be held to at most 5S, and if you can make 5S with them ruffing out your DK, maybe you CAN MAKE 6NT. AQJ92KQ87AKJ6 S-K73H-AT42D-KT42C-T4 West leads the Diamond JACK and when you play low in dummy, RHO, a VERY, VERY good player, goes into a tank (maybe a poor connection or a phone call). Eventually RHO announces "sorry" and plays the diamond 9, and you win the diamond King. (when you cash two rounds of spades both East and WEST follow, and if you cash a top club both follow small). Plan your play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codo Posted October 23, 2003 Report Share Posted October 23, 2003 Hi Ben, 1.: 3 Spade: OF course X, pass and 3 NT are serious ideas too. But I like to raise competent partners. 2. Ok, 5 Heart, what is that? After my 3 Spade, the bidding had surely been different:1S(3d)3S4C 4D ? If we had agreed to serious 3NT, 4 Club had showed not much extra, so that my 4 Spade bid may had happen. But otoh: What is 5 heart then?And if 4 Club was just a cuebid, why didn`t I bid 4 Diamond?Anyway, I have no idea, what 5 Heart can be, so I take it as lackwood and bid 5 Spade, showing one KC outside hearts. Why didn`t he bid 5 Club with AKJx of club? Okay, somehow, we struggeled into 6 NT, sounds like a better, much better contract as 6 Spade.After the diamond lead Jack? nine from rho?I have 11 top tricks. (5+3+1+2)An easy line: Cash the high hearts go the the spade king and play the tird heart. If the jack is guarded from 3 or more cards, try the club finesse. This should be about 60%. Another idea: play all spades and don`t touch the hearts. You may squeeze lho in H+C and rho in D and Club. But I don`t see the endposition, so I play the "easy" line. Kind Regards Roland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henrik_r Posted October 23, 2003 Report Share Posted October 23, 2003 1) I would bid a slightly (on hcp count and controls) heavy 3S because even as the DK is worth a trick, but not helping any values in partners hand, so I downgrade it slightly. 2) I would cue 4D after 4C as Roland suggested 3) The play: This is quite an interesting hand. First question you would have to ask yourself is, why didn't E win the DA? "Easy" then I would have tvelwe tricks finessing the DQ. He probably just thought about whether it was more likely that I had KTxx or Kxx in diamonds. Given the bidding he probably opted for KTxx and therefore ducked. So it is dangerous to attribute too much to his tank at trick one. There are (at least) two possible lines: a) simple C finesse or :P endplay of E if he has C Q guarded. Regardless I'll start with H to the K and Q. aI) If E follows I play SQJ, S-> K noting whether E follows suit, HA again noting if E follows. If HJ drops I have 12 tricks, so of course it doesn't. If E only follows to 2 times HS I'll try for the endplay in D. If he follows to either 3 times H or 3 times S I'll try the finesse in C. I know I risk losing to the singleton CQ, but I need the C reentry for the endplay variation if he only follows two times in both spades and hearts, where I'll try for an endplay in D. I'm prepared to sacrifice the small percentage of the CQ singleton for the possible pleasure of endplaying E. aII) If E shows out to either the first or second H he has either 3-1-6-3, 2-1-6-4, 3-0-6-4 or 2-0-6-5 and I'll try for the endplay in D by playing S to the K, HA, S -> dummy, running the spades. He then has to come down to DA CQx. Regards, Henrik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inquiry Posted October 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2003 1.: 3 Spade: OF course X, pass and 3 NT are serious ideas too. But I like to raise competent partners. The response is interesting. Double is not in my bag of tricks here. So I think the three most likely bids at imps, vulnerable are 3S, 3NT and 4S. If this was matchpoints, I would bid 3S. If this was imps and I was not vulnerable, I would bid 3S. But vulnerable at imps, I begin to have a feeling I should strongly consider forcing to game. The presences of the diamond Ten in a four card suit suggest I have two diamond stoppers for NOTRUMP, and if not, either WEST has a doubleton honor or partner has a void. In the first case, their suit will block, and in teh second partner will not stick in 3NT. So at this vulnerability and at imps, I choose a 3NT bid. 2. Ok, 5 Heart, what is that? After my 3 Spade, the bidding had surely been different:1S(3d)3S4C 4D ? If we had agreed to serious 3NT, 4 Club had showed not much extra, so that my 4 Spade bid may had happen. But otoh: What is 5 heart then? And if 4 Club was just a cuebid, why didn`t I bid 4 Diamond? Let me address two issues here. The first is the issue of serious 3NT. After your limited bid of 3S, I can't imagine the ne need for serious 3NT. You have greatly lilmited your hand (especially at this vul), so your partner would signoff in game without slam interest in his own hand. Now to why you didn't cue-bid 4D. Because you are too smart to provide information that is not particularily useful to your partner. If your partner's 4C bid is fishing for a diamond control, you had best deny one. That is, if he is looking at two or three little diamonds, do you really want to be is 6S. If you bid 4D here, your partner will revert to blackwood and play too high in spades. If you feel an overwelming desire to cue-bid, cue-bid your heart ACE, if that is not last train to clarksville. Of course on my auction, I had bid 3NT not 3S, so I simply bid 4S to show my support. Anyway, I have no idea, what 5 Heart can be, so I take it as lackwood and bid 5 Spade, showing one KC outside hearts. Lackwood is used after a last train to clarksville bid of 4H. In this case it would deny a heart control and promise a diamond control. I think on this auction it has to be something completlely different. If partner wanted "good" trumps for the auction he would bid 5S. If he wanted number of controls, he would bid 4NT, if he wanted heart control, he would bid 5D, and if he wants a diamond contol, he would bid 5H. I suspect after a 3S initial bid, he might well try 5C instead of 5H, but after a value showing 3NT I suspect he was focusing attention on diamond. At least that is my understanding. I will not comment on play yet, becasue I am interested in what people think is the best line. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Posted October 23, 2003 Report Share Posted October 23, 2003 IF east gives you K10xx of Diamonds, why does he play the D9?? If they play obvious shift, then I wouldn't try the finesse in C, but if they don't play something similar you don't know. It can also be a falsecard,... IMO, if he's a really good player, he has just shown it, because if he takes the Ace, you win your contract. If West had CQ, I don't think you'd post this hand. So I place CQ in Easts hand, and so I have to go for a throw in. Play HK HQ, SA, SK, HA (throw away a small Club, if Jack drops you allready win), and some Spades. Play CA and throw East in with D. If he kept more than 1 Diamond, you play CA and CK and hope the queen falls. Free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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