Wrong contract

[Walddk]

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sj43ha1073dkj4c752&s=s86hkq95da32cakj3]133|200|Scoring: IMP

S: 3NT

Lead: H4[/hv]

Earlier today on vugraph South went wrong in the wrong contract. Can you do better?

 

South opened 1NT and was raised to 3. Although North is 3433 I think he should have used Stayman. Opener does indeed promise a balanced hand, but he could easily have a worthless doubleton in one of the black suits. He had as you see, and 4♥ is a much better contract than 3NT.

 

Anyway, it's your job to try and make 3NT. You are probably relieved not to have received a spade lead. West led ♥4 (4th best, low from a doubleton, middle from three). You decide to win in hand over East's jack.

 

Plan the play please.

 

Roland

[kenrexford]

For me, this seems like a premature question. My first four plays will be four hearts, which will yield three pitches. What are they?

[Walddk]

For me, this seems like a premature question. My first four plays will be four hearts, which will yield three pitches. What are they?

We can't tell, because declarer did not play the hand like that, but OK, say you cash four rounds of hearts. West started with three and pitches a diamond on the 4th. East discards a diamond and a spade.

 

By the way, Ken, I posted this problem in the B/I Forum with the intent of getting B/I'ers involved, not experts.

 

Roland

[qwery_hi]

Why would west lead a heart vs this auction? I figure east to be long in spades and cask the AK of clubs, if the Q doesn't fall then finesse the jack of diamonds.

[kenrexford]

For me, this seems like a premature question.  My first four plays will be four hearts, which will yield three pitches.  What are they?

We can't tell, because declarer did not play the hand like that, but OK, say you cash four rounds of hearts. West started with three and pitches a diamond on the 4th. East discards a diamond and a spade.

 

By the way, Ken, I posted this problem in the B/I Forum with the intent of getting B/I'ers involved, not experts.

 

Roland

Oops. OK, then. :unsure:

[hrothgar]

I'd be sorely tempted to cross to dummy and lead a Spade towards my hand...

[skjaeran]

I'd be sorely tempted to cross to dummy and lead a Spade towards my hand...

That would often work vs B/I opps. Not so often vs stronger opps, but even there it works on occasion.

 

However, I'm sure Roland is looking for the technically best line.

[kenrexford]

Message from the pitches, IMO: (hidden)

 

 

With KJx in dummy in diamonds, people generally will not pitch in that suit and give away secrets unless they have space with which to do this. So, I will expect a likely scenario where diamonds were initially split with one opponent having Qxxx and the other xxx.

 

The strange non-lead of a spade when LHO holds only three hearts suggests that RHO may well have five spades. and LHO three spades. I expect, therefore, a fair likelihood that LHO has some sort of 3-card spade fragment from which he does not want to lead, three hearts, and undoubedly the four-card diamond suit, it seems. May well be 3-3-4-3. This inclines me toward placing the diamond Queen there.

 

The "normal" initial thought was to play to possibly drop Qx in clubs, which immediately seems appealing, before finessing diamonds. Just checking, in case. That might make a lot of sense if LHO actually has Qx, but that give LHO a lot of cards in other suits and seems strange. Perhaps he has 4-3-4-2? Possible, in which case RHO might actually be ditching a diamond from Qxx precisely because he expects a finesse. Or, maybe the diamond finesse actually works.

 

The problem is in finding any alternative to the stand-out line. The one spade picth by RHO might be just enough, though, possibly reducing him to now just four spades. I have capacity to throw them in, planning to further reduce the holdings after they cash four spades (if they do this). I would end in a 5-card ending (presumably), with ♦Ax ♣AKJ in hand and ♦KJx ♣xx on dummy.

 

Not much has really changed all that much, except my confort level. When RHO presumably throws out a minor card, I win in hand to play the toptwo clubs at this late point, to see if the Queen drops. Then, I must read the diamond situation correctly, possibly with a count on the hand.

 

The risk is that RHO has six spades, but I think that to be remote enough to merit sitting back on the spades run.

 

Of course, RHO could counter this by NOT running spades. However, his exit would be a club, allowing me to play another spade, still achieving some info.

 

[vuroth]

Why would west lead a heart vs this auction? I figure east to be long in spades and cask the AK of clubs, if the Q doesn't fall then finesse the jack of diamonds.

I agree. If I had a spade stopper, I'd try for the 3/3 split in clubs, first, but since I can't afford to lose the lead even once, this seems like the best plan.

[hanp]

I'd love to hear the right answer to this problem.

[qwery_hi]

I don't know the hand, but I predict West had AQ tight of spades. Second guess would be AQx.

 

So the showoff way to play this would be to lead a low spade from dummy after East pitches a spade :P

[goobers]

I mundanely try to drop the CQ before finessing the DJ

[hanp]

A puzzling BI thread.

 

I'm sure Roland is looking for the technically best line.

 

If that is the case then I think that cashing the ace-king of clubs and then finessing in diamonds might be the best line.

 

However, it worries me that LHO lead from a 3-card heart suit against 1NT-3NT. Also, maybe if we take the diamond finesse immediately the opponents may not take 4 spade tricks if it loses and we can try clubs later?

 

Roland wasn't looking for expert input but I'd like to hear from pretty much anybody to see how they would play it. It is an interesting and difficult hand. I think I will still go for the technically best line because LHO almost surely has 7+ cards in the minors. Maybe I missed something really obvious though, not getting a BI problem makes me very uncomfortable.

 

South opened 1NT and was raised to 3. Although North is 3433 I think he should have used Stayman. Opener does indeed promise a balanced hand, but he could easily have a worthless doubleton in one of the black suits. He had as you see, and 4♥ is a much better contract than 3NT.

 

FWIW I like the 3NT bid. Sure, if I had known that partner has 4 hearts and a weak doubleton in a black suit then I would have played in 4H, but more often partner either does not have 4 hearts, or partner does and 3NT is still at least as good a contract. It is hard to estimate how much the information we give away by bidding Stayman costs, I think it is a significant enough downside to bid 3NT. And of course the fact that this time partner did have this hand does not prove anything. Whatever decision you make is going to cost you sometimes, the only difference is that if you bid stayman and you went down because of the extra information you gave the opponents, you might never know.

[y66]

This problem arose in the Slava Cup, Round 11, Board 20, Rudakov-Khven vs Piekarek-Smirnov.

 

lin file here.

 

If declarer takes the straightforward line proposed by 3 of 3 BIs on this thread and several former BIs, he will make 3N when East (Piekarek) leads the ♥4 from ♠AT9 ♥842 ♦T95 ♣T964.

 

I've seen this problem in BridgeMaster and I'm pretty sure I would have tested clubs before trying diamonds. I think I would also work out that East has 7+ cards in the minors and try hearts first as Ken proposes.

 

What do other experts think about trying spades before testing clubs, after (hypothetically) discovering East's heart holding and seeing West pitch a spade? Is this a legitimate extra chance or just wishful thinking / asking for trouble?