Your play?

[Rossoneri]

[hv=d=s&v=b&w=saj8h754dak762cq2&e=sqth9dqj84cak9876]266|100|Scoring: MP[/hv]

 

Bidding went:

P - 1♦ - 1♥ - 2♥

P - 3♦ - P - 4♦

P - 5♦ - AP

 

Q♥ lead overtaken by the A, low ♠ returned. What do you play now? How do you continue?

[hanp]

Not sure what inferences to take from the obvious ♥A falsecard. I don't see any reason for south to mislead his partner, I think I will just ignore it.

 

I'd win, pull trumps and play on clubs.

 

This will make 12 tricks if diamonds are no worse than 3-1 and clubs no worse than 4-1. If diamonds are 4-0, I'll still make 12 tricks if clubs are 3-2 and 11 if diamonds are 4-0 and clubs are 4-1, with north holding 4 cards in both suits.

 

Those odds are pretty hard to beat with any other line.

[Free]

I don't see any reason to finesse. Take ♠A, draw trumps and play on ♣.

[Phil]

Not sure what inferences to take from the obvious ♥A falsecard. I don't see any reason for south to mislead his partner, I think I will just ignore it.

 

I'd win, pull trumps and play on clubs.

 

This will make 12 tricks if diamonds are no worse than 3-1 and clubs no worse than 4-1. If diamonds are 4-0, I'll still make 12 tricks if clubs are 3-2 and 11 if diamonds are 4-0 and clubs are 4-1, with north holding 4 cards in both suits.

 

Those odds are pretty hard to beat with any other line.

Maybe it wasn't the ♥A that was a false-card, especially since RHO didn't double the cue with ♥AK?

 

I think its more likely that LHO led the Q from KQ hoping pard would overtake to get a club ruff. He might have led a small one, but didn't want to blow a trick with the newspaper lead.

 

The spade shift is a little weird if RHO is looking at the ♠K and ♣JTxxx. So I'll pop Ace and hope trump are 2-2 (but this leaves LHO with 4720 or 5620 so I'm not holding my breath).

 

I see that when trump are 3-1 that I can make a newspaper play of my own by leading a middle club from dummy forcing a split, and then a ruffing finesse later, but do I really want to risk 12 tricks when people are going down in slam?

 

Maybe someone can talk me into this play, because everything indicates this LOL.

 

(aw hell it doesn't work - RHO doesn't cover the club and we are an entry short B))

Edited August 31, 2010 by Phil

[hanp]

Ah, I was thinking RHO had bid hearts.

[mikeh]

Unless N plays Rusinow or just likes to be random, he has a bridge reaon for leading the heart Queen....but why not the Jack? Hmm....so S has AJx in hearts and didn't make a noise? If so, then N has the spade K...which he rates to have anyway for his vulnerable overcall.

 

I also place N with 6 hearts, since S would surely raise with Axxx or AJxx even red.

 

So why wouldn't N make a weak jump overcall? Assuming that they play weak jumps?

 

I'm going to read N to be Kxxx KQxxxx xxx void and S to be xxxx AJx x J10xxx

 

I'm going to duck the spade. If I win the spade, I can't pull trump and establish the clubs on my assumed layout. And if I try to ruff hearts, I have communication problems in terms of rentries to my hand....if I try to get to my hand via the club Q, N ruffs and cashes the spade.

 

So I duck, and nothing N can do hurts me....I can ruff one heart, pull trump and pitch a heart on the third top club. This line also works with 4-0 trump.

 

if North just pulled the wrong card or was having fun.....well...he chose the right hand and the right opp to do it against.

[pooltuna]

Not sure what inferences to take from the obvious ♥A falsecard. I don't see any reason for south to mislead his partner, I think I will just ignore it.

 

[snip]

why do you assume South is the one misleading?

[hanp]

Not sure what inferences to take from the obvious ♥A falsecard. I don't see any reason for south to mislead his partner, I think I will just ignore it.

 

[snip]

why do you assume South is the one misleading?

Why do you only quote my first post?

[blackshoe]

Oh, that one's easy: because that's as far as he read before he decided he wanted to post a comment. :P

[bftboy]

I think the ♥ Q lead is either random or Rusinow. If I wanted a ♣ ruff as N, I'd lead my lowest ♥, since EW are unlikely to own the A (no cue). As declarer I just win ♠ A and expect normal breaks. If I'm wrong, well, it isn't the first time. If you think you have missed an odds-on slam that a lot of the field will reach, then you could duck the ♠ shift, hoping ♣'s are indeed 5-0, but that's a huge position to take. :P

[jdonn]

Poor han lol. Don't worry you are totally sane, not sure about all those around you.

[bucky]

I don't know how much significance you can attach with the ♥Q lead. I would think that, if North has void in clubs and wants to ruff, a small heart would be more proper lead. From North point of view, that lead would be more risky, but the problem is that ♥Q is not likely to achieve the goal. Say partner wins with ♥A as actually happened here, in order for partner to figure out that you made an unusual lead of Q from KQ, partner has to have ♥J as well (or that ♥J appears in dummy), that is a pretty narrow target. And if South does have ♥AJ, why hasn't he figured out the situation (looking at ♣JTxxx)? I think it is more likely that North just concealed ♥K for no obvious reason (he probably holds ♥J as well), maybe he just wanted you to have a different picture of where his values lie, etc.