JEC #7, board 20

[gnasher]

[hv=pc=n&s=s73hajt9874da2c94&n=s62hk632djtcakjt8&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1d2cp2hp3h3s4h4s5hppp]266|200[/hv]

The was against the less sane half of the JEC team. The play began:

♠

A, RHO playing the 5 (odd encouraging).

♠

Q to the king,

♦

8 to the ace, LHO playing the 3 (either odd encouraging or standard count)

♥

A, RHO discarding

♦

4

I think RHO's carding implied an even number of diamonds.

 

How would you play?

[paulg]

It looks like West is 3352 or, perhaps, 2353 or has six or seven diamonds. In the latter cases he has one or two clubs, so you can draw trumps and take the ruffing club finesse safely preserving a trump entry in dummy.

 

When West is more balanced, if they are playing a strong notrump then West cannot hold the queen of clubs (presuming he has KQ diamonds), so the ruffing finesse is still the favourite.

[han]

Hard to say knowing the hand. It sounds like the spades divide 3-6, and the hearts are 2-0. How do the diamonds split? We pretty much have no idea. We can either play another heart and try to guess clubs, losing when RHO is 6-0-5-2 or when we misguess the clubs, or we can play clubs first, losing when RHO is 6-0-3-4. I think that RHO would have bid sooner (and more) if he was 6-0-5-2, which means that we should play him to be 6-0-4-3 or 6-0-3-4. If we are going to play for 6-0-4-3 we should play clubs first because we'd get the 6-0-5-2 for free, while if we are going to play for 6-0-3-4 we should play trumps first. Again, it isn't really fair to comment on this when you know all the hands.

 

What were your thoughts on bidding 4H instead of 2H? Again, easy to say I'd bid 4H in hindsight.

[han]

Looking at west's shape like Paul did doesn't seem to give many clues. And we know that west was not 2-3-5-3, we are only missing 2 hearts.

[mgoetze]

What were your thoughts on bidding 4H instead of 2H? Again, easy to say I'd bid 4H in hindsight.

2♥ was forcing per our agreement, no reason to take away all the space yet I think.

[paulg]

And we know that west was not 2-3-5-3, we are only missing 2 hearts.

It was all going so well up to that point. I think that the auction is most consistent with a 3-2-5-3 or 3-2-6-2 distribution and that the lack of a notrump opening is about the only clue available. This also copes with the 6-0-5-2 hand for East, as now West is 3-2-4-4 presuming that East would not lead a high diamond through when holding an honour.

[gszes]

[hv=pc=n&s=s73hajt9874da2c94&n=s62hk632djtcakjt8&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=1d2cp2hp3h3s4h4s5hppp]266|200[/hv]

The was against the less sane half of the JEC team. The play began:

♠

A, RHO playing the 5 (odd encouraging).

♠

Q to the king,

♦

8 to the ace, LHO playing the 3 (either odd encouraging or standard count)

♥

A, RHO discarding

♦

4

I think RHO's carding implied an even number of diamonds.

 

How would you play?

E didnt bid 5s I wonder why?? If they were say 6052 maybe even 6043

and no defense 5s would seem to be a stand out bid. That question

alone seems to indicate E thought they had some defense so I would

tend to try for the ruffing finesse. hight trump to table top clubs

and (assuming Q didnt fall from w try the finesse------- we still have

small trump as entry to the clubs if this works.

[gnasher]

I seem to have been rather sleepy on this deal. I didn't consider bidding 4♥ directly, but I should at least have thought about it. The opponents' silence suggested that partner had some spade length, but even Kxxx x Jxx AKJ10x makes a playable game.

 

I'd also missed the inference about the strong notrump. That seems pretty clear, now that it's been pointed out.