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Late-night play problem


cherdano

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The lead could be:

Singleton

53

xx5(3)

98765

 

The main problem is losing K, AK and a ruff. I'll win the lead in dummy, cash another diamond dicarding a spade and then run the Q. If it wins I play a club to the king and play trump A,J. If Q loses to the king and it goes H, to H and east returns a I ruff high and draws trumps.

 

If the lead was a singleton I'm most probably going down.

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There is no reason to assume that the lead was from a short suit (or, for that matter, a very long suit).

 

I play diamonds from the top, pitching as many spades as possible.

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There is no reason to assume that the lead was from a short suit (or, for that matter, a very long suit).

 

I play diamonds from the top, pitching as many spades as possible.

Same here. The auction disclosed very little to the opponents, and there's no reason to think LHO led from shortness here.

 

It helps to be at the table in situations like this. You can ususally get a good read from LHO when dummy comes down. If its anxiety, then start running diamonds. If its calm, then its possible LHO led from shortness and likes the fact he's about to start getting diamond ruffs.

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Yeah I don't get this problem just play lots of high diamonds and discard...

Well, so far everyone is going down (and the lead wasn't from a singleton)...

so clearly that was the wrong line...

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Anyway, the reason I posted this hand is that I thought most players lead aggressively against this auction, which increases the odds of the lead being from a short suit. Agree/disagree?

Does that mean they start banging down aces?

No, by aggressive I just mean preferring Kxx or Qxx to xxx.

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My first instinct on this hand was to win the diamond and play the Q!h to the ace and chase hearts.

Then you'll go down if spades are Ax Kxxx, Kx Axxx or xx AKxx and the player with a doubleton has more than two trumps.

 

The defence after winning the trump king should be quite obvious.

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My first instinct on this hand was to win the diamond and play the Q!h to the ace and chase hearts.

Then you'll go down if spades are Ax Kxxx, Kx Axxx or xx AKxx and the player with a doubleton has more than two trumps.

 

The defence after winning the trump king should be quite obvious.

declarer could have Kx AJ109xx x xxxx and only a club switch would beat.

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My first instinct on this hand was to win the diamond and play the Q!h to the ace and chase hearts.

Then you'll go down if spades are Ax Kxxx, Kx Axxx or xx AKxx and the player with a doubleton has more than two trumps.

 

The defence after winning the trump king should be quite obvious.

declarer could have Kx AJ109xx x xxxx and only a club switch would beat.

That's true.

That's why many give suit preference when declarer plays trumps.

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The lead could be:

Singleton

53

xx5(3)

98765

 

The main problem is losing K, AK and a ruff. I'll win the lead in dummy, cash another diamond dicarding a spade and then run the Q. If it wins I play a club to the king and play trump A,J. If Q loses to the king and it goes H, to H and east returns a I ruff high and draws trumps.

 

If the lead was a singleton I'm most probably going down.

Btw, this line goes down whenever diamonds are 5-2 and the defender with short diamonds still has a trump left when the defense wins their K. They will return a club to remove your entry to the diamonds.

The other lines go down on the actual distribution (diamonds 5-2, hearts Kxxx off-side) for similar reasons, the A will get knocked out too early (although the defense is more tricky to find).

[but yeah I am convinced just pitching as many spades as possible seems right.]

 

My somewhat uninspired line (it was late at night, after all) went down for a funny reason. I ran the Q at trick 2, played a club to the king, heart ace and another, LHO showing up with Kxxx. He put me in dummy with a club, so I tried to cash a diamond, go back to hand with a club ruff, draw the last trump, and set up a spade trick.

However, at trick 10, when I had K and QJx in dummy left and x and xxx in hand, LHO rose with A and played a club to squeeze dummy.

(see http://korbelbridge.blogspot.com/2007/08/h...tch-on-bbo.html )

 

Reading LHO for a lead from shortness was apparently particularly wrong against this LHO as Daniel had led from xx rather than QJ9x.

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Okay, how about winning the A, the K pitching a spade, then run the Q. West will duck (or it's easy). Then we switch back to diamonds, the Q discarding another spade. West can have his ruff, but declarer is now in control. When we get back in we'll lay down the A. The defense only gets the K, a diamond ruff and a spade (or, if West wins trick three, the K and two spades).
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