Play this 5H

[sathyab]

[hv=pc=n&s=shakqj654d64ckj74&n=sat975h98dq82ca83&d=n&v=n&b=l&a=p4s5hppp]266|200[/hv]

 

MatchPoints.

 

♠Q led. You pitch a ♦, pull three trumps. RHO follows with stiff T and then discards two low ♠. You play a low ♦, low, low, 9. Now RHO plays back the ♦T.

 

Commercial break: Still looking for LM pd. http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/61483-anyone-looking-for-partner-for-open-lm-pairs-in-atlanta/

[rogerclee]

I ruff and play two trumps.

 

If he pitches two diamonds including the A, play for 1354 - a club to the ace, ruff a diamond, CJ unblocking the 8 and hope to pin Tx/9x or he stupidly splits from QT9x.

 

If he pitches two diamonds not including the A, do the same except pitch if RHO plays the K and claim.

 

If he pitches a diamond and a club, I would play for 1345 and do the same strip except play a low club out of hand.

[gnasher]

Roger's plan looks good, but I'd be surprised if LHO turned out to be 1354. That would give RHO something like KJ8xxxx 10 A10x xx, which doesn't look much like a second-seat 4♠ opening. 1345-7141 seems more likely to me.

[Winstonm]

I will pitch a low club on the diamond, which forces LHO to return a diamond, after which I will play for a show-up squeeze by running trump.

[sathyab]

I will pitch a low club on the diamond, which forces LHO to return a diamond, after which I will play for a show-up squeeze by running trump.

 

You've already lost one ♦ trick to the Nine. If you pitch now, LHO wins with ♦honor and returns a ♦ for his partner to cover with the remaining honor, thus wiping out the entire suit.

[gszes]

trick 1 spade A pitching a dia

trick 2 heart to A T falling from rho

trick 3 heart to dummy

trick 4 spade T perfectly safe makes sure rho started

with 7 spades (you never know) also prevents rho from

returning a top spade later in play (I wonder why they didn't

on this hand) if they win a dia. ruff high

trick 5 pull trump

trick 6 lead dia toward dummy (takes a lot of guts to duck the dia

K if you are lho not so much with ace). rho wins.

trick 7 rho returns a dia because they "know" that's the only play

that can cause you problems and they could not return a spade

(remember trick 4 :) ?). RUFF

trick 8 trump reducing everyone to 5 cards dummy has

T void Q A83 you have void 4 void KJ74

from the play we know rho started with 7s 1h 3d (could lho not

only avoid a dia lead holding AK but also duck when u led to

the Q only a mad genius would try this) so rho can have a max

of 2 clubs. This information alone gives us a huge idea on how

to play the club suit.

 

trick 9 play the club K and if nothing special happens

trick 10 lead the club J

 

This lop wins whenever rho has

Q T 9 Tx(3 cases) 9x(3 cases) and loses to Qx(3 cases) or xx(3 cases)

 

9 cases making 6 cases losing 60%

 

This is similar to rogerclee LOP but his goes down if lho reduces to 3c and 2d

(pitching the dia A) while mine does not.

[PhilKing]

I would basically play righty to be 7141, which in my opinion is completely marked by the bidding and play. West is basically caught in what is technically referred to in some books as a "striptease".

 

On the penultimate trump West is squeezed down to the necessary grid following the main Clee line, but I have a more inflexible view of the distribution. Never say never, but pretty much nothing is deflecting me from this line.

[rogerclee]

I would basically play righty to be 7141, which in my opinion is completely marked by the bidding and play. West is basically caught in what is technically referred to in some books as a "striptease".

 

On the penultimate trump West is squeezed down to the necessary grid following the main Clee line, but I have a more inflexible view of the distribution. Never say never, but pretty much nothing is deflecting me from this line.

It's free anyway, if you ruff a diamond and are wrong about his shape you still make.

[sathyab]

This was in a Robot tournament. At the table, I played it slightly differently. Pitched a ♦ on ♠A, pulled two rounds of trumps ending in dummy (LHO echoing in trumps to show three) and played a low ♦ toward my hand to see if RHO would fly with the Ace for some reason. It didn't, but after winning the Nine it tried to cash the Ace. Now I simply ran trumps reducing LHO in the four-card ending to ♦K and three ♣. ♣ to Ace, ♦Q and claim. I never had to worry about the ♣ position at all.

 

But afterward it occurred to me that I couldn't make the same play if RHO came back a low ♦. And that shouldn't be hard, because if declarer is void now, better for you to guard ♦ and let partner take care of ♣. When I re-played the hand, GIB told me that the hand was still makeable, which is when I started digging more.

 

Here's the full hand:

 

[hv=pc=n&s=shakqj643d64ckj74&w=sqh752dkj753cqt62&n=sat975h98dq82ca83&e=skj86432htdat9c95&d=n&v=n&b=5&a=p4s5hppp]399|300[/hv]

 

I thought there were a couple points of interest. In the five-card ending if you suspect LHO has come down to a ♦TH (Top Honor) and four ♣, and you ruff out his ♦, you have ambiguity about whether he has QT9x or Q{T/9}xx. I think a strong RHO would return a ♣ if he had xx, as that's what's needed to break up any end-play against partner. The ♦ play can wait as after all if he does have a loser it's not going anywhere. Likewise if you suspect LHO had 1-3-4-5, the reason why RHO he didn't return his stiff ♣ was because it was the 9 or T.

 

The other point is that trying to pin a 9 or T will lose to Qx on-side ! Don't think there's any way to combine any of the other chances to cater for that possibility.

[PhilKing]

Knowing it is a robot tournament is necessary information. For instance, nobody opens 4♠ with that, and the carding inferences are entirely different.

[nige1]

[hv=pc=n&s=shakqj654d64ckj74&n=sat975h98dq82ca83&d=n&v=n&b=l&a=p4s5hppp]266|200|

sathyab writes "MatchPoints. ♠Q led. You pitch a ♦, pull three trumps. RHO follows with stiff T and then discards two low ♠. You play a low ♦, low, low, 9. Now RHO plays back the ♦T."[/hv] [hv=pc=n&s=sh54d6ckj74&n=sT9dq8ca83&d=n&v=n&b=l&a=p4s5hppp]266|200|

IMO you shouldn't start from there. Instead, you could try a line like gszes':

♠A, ♥A, ♥8, ruff a ♠, ♥s, and lead a ♦ in the seven card ending on the left.

RHO would probably win cheaply and exit unhelpfully in ♠, leaving you in the dark about the minors.

Luckily, if you are RogerCLee, you can still correctly guess the end-position :) [/hv]

[sathyab]

Knowing it is a robot tournament is necessary information. For instance, nobody opens 4♠ with that, and the carding inferences are entirely different.

 

Fair enough, that 4♠ is somewhat unusual. But the truth of the matter is that most people would open it 3♠ regardless of whether they had 3-2 in the minors or 4-1. It being MP. you're still under the gun to make 11 tricks when you can. So all the deliberations about RHO's fragment distribution is still valid. Apart from the excessive pre-empting, I don't think the opponents' carding is all that different from what you'd find in a mixed field.