dburn Posted November 8, 2008 Report Share Posted November 8, 2008 [hv=d=s&v=n&n=sk1084had973ca10543&s=saqj97hj2da104cq87]133|200|[/hv]You, South, reach 4♠ with no opposition bidding. The opening lead is a spade, to which East follows. How should you play [a] at IMPs or money bridge; at matchpoints? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JavaBean Posted November 9, 2008 Report Share Posted November 9, 2008 The hand seems to cry for an elimination, and the contract is secure on that line if trumps are 2-2, or if I can convince the opponent with short trump to be on lead. I expect East, if anyone, has short spades, so I'd like him to win the third diamond if possible. To that end, I cash ♥A and lead to ♦10, hoping to remove one of West's honors for the later throw-in. I'll win the return in hand, ruff ♥J, draw a second trump (If opponents haven't done so already), and play ♦A and another. If they manage a trump exit, I am left to play clubs myself, and I suppose I will simply cash ♣A and lead to ♣Q - the intrafinesse is certainly more exciting, but I don't see any reason why it should be right on this deal. At matchpoints, I think it is right to attack clubs early to set up diamond discards (as I have been spared a diamond lead): the club suit will play for one loser more than half the time, and the elimination sacrifices a diamond trick (or two) more than half the time, in exchange for a fairly small improvement to my chances for making four. So, finish drawing trump, ♣A, low to ♣Q, and hope for the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vuroth Posted November 11, 2008 Report Share Posted November 11, 2008 I agree with Javabean. Aside: I'm not terribly comfortable with chosing the best line in clubs in line 2. I spent some time trying to puzzle it out, but it seemed like you often needed to guess whether to finesse or drop on the second round of clubs. Maybe it's not very important, but I've never been able to work these things out. Ace first seems decent, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JavaBean Posted November 12, 2008 Report Share Posted November 12, 2008 ...it seemed like you often needed to guess whether to finesse or drop on the second round of clubs...It's true there is a guess, and I think it actually doesn't matter which you do - finesse (lead up to Q) loses when West was dealt Kx, and drop (duck the second round) loses when West was dealt Jx; in all other positions they are equal. Ace first seems decent, though.Cashing the ace first is a safety play designed to make it more likely that one of them will have to play an honor before you do, like when you hold AQT98 opposite xxxx and need only four tricks: cash the ace, removing the small cards, and when you lead up to QT West will be forced to play an honor if he has one, removing any element of guessing for you. Here you can't remove all the spot cards, but removing two of them improves your odds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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