Trumpace Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 This is hand # 67 from the book "Masterpieces of Declarer Play" by Julian Pottage. You are South, holding J, AQJTxx, Jx, xxxx. East is dealer and passes to you. You open 2H, pass by West, 4H by partner and all pass. LHO leads ♣9 (they lead low from xxx) and you see: [hv=d=e&v=b&n=sathkxdakxxxxcqxx&s=sjhaqjtxxdjxcxxxx]133|200|Scoring: Rubberlead C9.[/hv] RHO overtakes with T and shifts to low spade, LHO playing the K as you win the A. Plan the play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old York Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Prefer to be in 3NT by North..... but, anyway.... Hidden: cash 5 trumps, duck a diamond and pray that clubs are blocked Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiddity Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Prefer to be in 3NT by North..... but, anyway.... Hidden: cash 5 trumps, duck a diamond and pray that clubs are blocked Tony The opening lead should tell you that the clubs are not blocked. You can make it even if West started with 9x. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vuroth Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 I must be missing something easy. The only layout I can see making involves a very specific hand with east. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trumpace Posted January 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 I must be missing something easy. The only layout I can see making involves a very specific hand with east. What did you have in mind? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigel_k Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 Hidden: Play one more round of clubs. They need to switch to trumps to stop me ruffing one in dummy. Now that West has no more clubs I can draw trumps and play ♦J, letting West hold the trick if he plays the queen. I think I need 3-2 diamonds with the Queen in West though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vuroth Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 I must be missing something easy. The only layout I can see making involves a very specific hand with east. What did you have in mind? Pretty sure I was thinking ruff a spade, cash a trump, and exit with a high club. hope east only had 1 trump, and was forced to give either give us a club ruff, club discard, or lead away from Q♦ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trumpace Posted January 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 I must be missing something easy. The only layout I can see making involves a very specific hand with east. What did you have in mind? Pretty sure I was thinking ruff a spade, cash a trump, and exit with a high club. hope east only had 1 trump, and was forced to give either give us a club ruff, club discard, or lead away from Q♦ From the lead and play to the spade trick, it looks like RHO has the SQ and the AKJ of clubs. Given that he passed as dealer, LHO must have the DQ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vuroth Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 Must be nice to play against opponents who never lead low from xxxx or xxxxx in spades. If you're convinced LHO has the Q♦, better to play RHO for xxx in diamonds, and run hearts. Hopefully when you run 5 rounds of trump on him, he'll have to chose between discarding the Q♠, a diamond, or the J♣. (If RHO started with 4 diamonds, he'll have to discard at least one diamond, but then the above applies). If your opponent would lead a low spade from xxxx or xxxxx, I don't see this line being much higher percentage than the line I gave above, so I guess I'm still looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiddity Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 Must be nice to play against opponents who never lead low from xxxx or xxxxx in spades. There are several inferences about the spade honors: 1. West might have chosen SK for his opening lead if he had KQ. 2. East led a low spade. 3. West played the K, not the Q. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vuroth Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 Not to sound petulant, but it must be nice to play against consistent opponents. I agree with points 1 and 3 if I'm on defense, but experience has told me that I really shouldn't read these kinds of things into my opponents when I'm declaring. I'll stop now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trumpace Posted January 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 Not to sound petulant, but it must be nice to play against consistent opponents. I agree with points 1 and 3 if I'm on defense, but experience has told me that I really shouldn't read these kinds of things into my opponents when I'm declaring. I'll stop now. Well, if you presume that LHO plays randomly from KQ, then a kind of restricted choice argument favours RHO to be holding the SQ. So even in that case, assuming you can rely on the bidding inference, it still makes sense to play LHO for the DQ. Things like playing Q from KQ in third hand are basic, and either only very good players (and only for a good reason) or very bad players will deviate from it. (As always there are exceptions, though). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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