Play at Trick 2

[ArtK78]

[hv=pc=n&s=sk7ht74dkj8642ckj&n=saq9532haq6dq93c6&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1d2c2sp3dp6dppp]266|200[/hv]

 

I hesitated to post this problem because of the bizarre nature of my partner's 6♦ bid, but the issue is not the bidding, it is the play.

 

Teams. 12 board match scored at VPs (part of a season long round robin event).

 

Opponents are fine players. So is partner (despite evidence to the contrary).

 

After long thought, LHO leads the ♦A, to which all follow, RHO playing the lowest outstanding spot.

 

After even longer thought, LHO plays the ♥J at trick 2.

 

Your play?

[wank]

i finesse. the trump lead and not attempting to cash a club suggest he's got a spade stop or a singleton and infers his partner's got one from the bidding.

 

anyway, if he doesn't have the ace of clubs he's bound to have the king of hearts

[AlexJonson]

West seems to have a weird hand. He definitely doesn't have an average overcall with two aces (if he is me) because he didn't cash after seeing a non club void.

 

There are some weird possible layouts and explanations, but I'll leave that to the experts.

[pooltuna]

well my gut instinct was to snatch the ♥A while the snatching was good, draw the remaining trump and hope ♠ were 32. Winning 6♠+ 5♦ + 1♥ but there are several curious things going on after winning the ♦A I would have slapped down the ♣A so fast the echos from the slap would be reaching you after circling the earth. Ergo he ain't got it. This makes the ♥ finesse near certain and I can see several lines where I will need a second entry to set up the ♠ suit or at least access it. So I probably would grit my teeth and take the finesse, accepting any ridicule for it failure to win.

[whereagles]

My instinct urges me to finesse, so that's what I do. If RHO has ♥K and ♣A I'll look dumb, but I'm willing to take the risk.

[mtvesuvius]

I finesse, if LHO overcalled on a true pile o'crap I'll congratulate him after asking him to play for money later.

[gnasher]

LHO definitely has ♥K - if RHO had [HE[K and ♣Axx he would have had a clearcut raise to 3♣.

 

The whole thing is mystifying, though. LHO appears to have something like xx KJ9 A Q109xxxx or x KJ9x A Q109xxxx, but what layout is he playing for?

[ArtK78]

[hv=pc=n&s=sk7ht74dkj8642ckj&w=s4hkjda7cqt985432&n=saq9532haq6dq93c6&e=sjt86h98532dt5ca7&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1d2c2sp3dp6dppp]399|300[/hv]

 

For some reason, while I was sure that LHO did not have the ♣A, it did not occur to me that he was nearly 100% to hold the ♥K. One thing I was sure of, however, was that if spades were 3-2 I didn't need the heart finesse. So I won the ♥A at trick 2.

 

There is no recovery on the lie of the cards.

 

This was a 12 IMP loss instead of a 13 IMP gain, as my teammates were in 5♣x in the other room.

 

West's choice of 2♣ rather than some larger number of clubs is interesting. If my partner's choice of rebid were somewhat less bizarre, we would have picked up 3 IMPs by getting to either 4♠ or 5♦. As it was, we had a chance for an even larger pickup.

[JLOGIC]

epic