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What's the name of this position?


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I believe that this position or play is called a "pinning play"

 

a smother play is something like the following/

spades trump, lho on lead:

 

Assume spades are trump, it's lho's lead trick 12, (lho has no spades) dummy's last two cards are the JT of spades , rho's last 2 cards are the Kx of spades, and you have stiff ace and another card (loser) in another suit. you trump anything lho leads with the ten and rho is dead.

 

DHL

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Technically, a smother play (not just smother) refers to

 

[hv=n=sqjhdc&w=shdxxc&e=sk10hdc&s=sahxdc]399|300| are trump and West is on lead. The forced return smothers East's K.[/hv]

 

and an intrafinesse refers to the suit combination

 

[hv=n=sq98x&w=s10x&e=skjxx&s=saxx]399|300|Needing two tricks from this suit, South plays low to the eight, then leads the queen on the way back, pinning the ten. The intrafinesse is the first play in the suit.[/hv]

 

I think this position is just called pinning.

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I've always called it "Down 1?". :P

 

Playing to pin the ten is rare as it requires a known Queen offside.

why? there are alot of instances holding 8 or 9 cards where this situation comes up. Are the odds gonna be better to play for HX on side? I imagine tactics and which opp you may want to keep off lead have alot to do with it also, plus entries to hands.

 

But i would call it a smother play :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
I've always called it "Down 1?".  :P

 

Playing to pin the ten is rare as it requires a known Queen offside.

why? there are alot of instances holding 8 or 9 cards where this situation comes up. Are the odds gonna be better to play for HX on side? I imagine tactics and which opp you may want to keep off lead have alot to do with it also, plus entries to hands.

 

But i would call it a smother play ;)

If you want to keep a particular opponent off lead, it's called an avoidance play. But then you are not really trying to play the suit for no losers, only to control who wins their trick.

 

There are very few situations where this is the percentage line in the suit. To take this particular combination, low to the jack picks up Qx or Qxx on your left, while ace and run the jack only collects 10x on your left. You would usually only take this line to try for no losers in the suit if you are certain the queen is offside.

 

I usually see this called 'pinning' the ten.

 

A similar position is something like this:

 

      KJ98

 

10xx           Qxx

 

      Axx

 

You run the Jack, covered by the queen, and finesse against the 10 on the way back. This is usually known as a 'backwards finesse'. Again, it is only the percentage line in the suit if the queen is fairly certain to be over the jack.

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