mikeh Posted April 16, 2007 Report Share Posted April 16, 2007 Firstly, the play problem, against competent opps at mps. The auction, with no-one vul., is 3♥ by dealer on your left, double by partner, 4♥ on your right and your 4♠ ends the auction. The lead is the ♥K and dummy hits with 1085 Ax AJ9 AJ98x You hold QJ732 x Kxxx Kxx You win the ♥A and play a trump to your Q, only to see LHO show out, with a small ♥ pitch. Plan the play... be very specific.... but I will help you a tad: if and when you play on ♣s, LHO shows with Qx. Next, the oddity: Playing the finals of a Regional KO against competent opps (Mike Passell at your table, with client, and Eddie Wold at the other) you hear an unusual auction of 1♦ by Passell on your left and 6N by the client on your right. You have to make a lead from xx 10xxx xx KJxxx. Now, given the hand as a problem, I suspect that many of us would find the right lead just because it IS given as a problem. However, I suspect that very few would find the right lead at the table: while if the opps were in 3N, you'd just lead a ♣ and pray. Well, of course, my partner led a ♥ and my only working card was the ♣Axx.... they got to a (realistically speaking) unbeatable 6N when stopping in 3N would have led to down 1. The good news is that our teammate psyched a 2♣ response to the same anemic 1♦ opener and that persuaded the opps to lead a major against 6♦. The bad news is that we lost the match by 11. However, for 3 married couples to stay close was very enjoyable :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
temp3600 Posted April 17, 2007 Report Share Posted April 17, 2007 It seems natural to start the clubs, so ♣K and a club. We now know a lot about West's hand, and the only problem is to determine whether he has 4 or 5 diamonds. Now West is a competent player, and therefore must have spent some time reading the BBO forums. If he has retained even a fraction of the knowledge here, he cannot possibly be 7-4 for his 3♥ opening. So he is 0=6=5=2, and it is now a pretty straightforward double-dummy problem. If he has psyched with a 0=7=4=2, to protect the ♦Q that he may or may not hold, well that was very cunning of him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwnn Posted April 17, 2007 Report Share Posted April 17, 2007 It seems natural to start the clubs, so ♣K and a club. We now know a lot about West's hand, and the only problem is to determine whether he has 4 or 5 diamonds. Now West is a competent player, and therefore must have spent some time reading the BBO forums. If he has retained even a fraction of the knowledge here, he cannot possibly be 7-4 for his 3♥ opening. So he is 0=6=5=2, and it is now a pretty straightforward double-dummy problem. If he has psyched with a 0=7=4=2, to protect the ♦Q that he may or may not hold, well that was very cunning of him. LOL I thought your reply was about the 6NT lead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mosene Posted April 18, 2007 Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 How about - play King and Ace of clubs - once the q of clubs shows up ruff a heart, cash the diamond K and then get back with a club and continue clubs - pitching a diamond if/when RHO ruffs. RHO is then end played to play a heart or a second diamond (or a spade). If it is a heart - pitch a diamond from hand, ruff on the board and play the last club - if RHO ruffs low overruff and play a diamond (RHO has only AK of spades left so it is ok to have that trick ruffed). if RHO ruffs high pitch another diamond. I think that works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh Posted April 18, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2007 How about - play King and Ace of clubs - once the q of clubs shows up ruff a heart, cash the diamond K and then get back with a club and continue clubs - pitching a diamond if/when RHO ruffs. RHO is then end played to play a heart or a second diamond (or a spade). If it is a heart - pitch a diamond from hand, ruff on the board and play the last club - if RHO ruffs low overruff and play a diamond (RHO has only AK of spades left so it is ok to have that trick ruffed). if RHO ruffs high pitch another diamond. I think that works. when he ruffs and you pitch, he is not endplayed: he cashes the top two trumps and exits a ♥ and he now has longer trump than you: you shortened your trump by ruffing a ♥ and now, when he leads his last ♥, you are down to one trump each... if you ruff, he gets his long trump for 4 trump tricks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffy Posted April 19, 2007 Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 lets see, we have 3♠, 3♣, 1♥ and 2♦, how can we make any more trick? We need to ruff a ♦ in dummy So only hope is finese ♦J, ♦A, cash 3♣ and play a ♦ from dummy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffy Posted April 19, 2007 Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 and about the lead thing, seems you got fixed, leading a ♣ is a reasonable option, just it doesn't seem the best one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherdano Posted April 19, 2007 Report Share Posted April 19, 2007 and about the lead thing, seems you got fixed, leading a ♣ is a reasonable option, just it doesn't seem the best one. There are players against whom I would lead a club (expecting that they are gambling with a running suit), but against a client whom I expect to have 20 hcp in a balanced hand... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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