Two hands from last weekend

[LukeG]

Here are two hands from last weekend's tourney. The first is a declarer problem:

 

Dummy: Q65432

A8

K75

102

 

You: AJ

Q6

AQJ109

AKJ4

 

Your auction, playing a two-way club system, was 1C-1S-2D-3D-4C-4H-4S-5D-6D. The opening lead was the 8 of spades on which RHO plays the 9. Plan the play.

 

The second problem concerns greed, or perhaps folly. At favorable you have: x, AQJ97xx, Axx, 10x. LHO deals and passes, partner opens 2S (weak), and RHO bids 2NT.

 

What do you bid?

 

If you double, LHO bids 3C and partner doubles. Do you sit for it?

[Codo]

Hi Luke,

 

there are some possibilities to play the hand. I would play a diamond to the King and let the ten of clubs run.

1. The queen is onside and they cover:

Take it, win another club and ruff the third.

draw trumps and claim 12 tricks.

Needs clubs 4-3 or 5-2 and the 8 of H with the lho, or the 8 singelton some other layouts with trumps 3-

 

2. If the ten is not covered, take a second finesse, draw one more trump. Continue clubs and discard a Heart.

 

3. If the finesse loose, its get complicate:

If they return a heart, win the ace, play two round of clubs with heart discard ruff a heart and draw trumps.

But if the return a diamond, you loose the communication and need spades 3-2 or the single spade with the two trumps to return to hand twice.

 

I don`t care about a spade ruff as long as the lho is in lead. I doubt that he led from KT87 the 8 into the strong hand with a spade control. I give him the singelton and that is why I would refuse to play on spades.

 

 

For problem Nr. 2: I had happily passed any natural 2 NT bid and led a heart honour....

If I had double, I now have to sit and explain my pd why we just gave away 3 CLubs doubled and made...

 

Kind Regards

 

Roland

[luis]

Here are two hands from last weekend's tourney. The first is a declarer problem:

 

Dummy: Q65432

A8

K75

102

 

You: AJ

Q6

AQJ109

AKJ4

 

Your auction, playing a two-way club system, was 1C-1S-2D-3D-4C-4H-4S-5D-6D. The opening lead was the 8 of spades on which RHO plays the 9. Plan the play.

 

The second problem concerns greed, or perhaps folly. At favorable you have: x, AQJ97xx, Axx, 10x. LHO deals and passes, partner opens 2S (weak), and RHO bids 2NT.

 

What do you bid?

 

If you double, LHO bids 3C and partner doubles. Do you sit for it?

 

 

1) I'd take the sJ and play the sA, if west ruffs and returns a heart I take the hA, ruff a spade high, play dA, dto theK and ruff the last spade high. Now if trumps fall I can ruff a club in dummy and discard on the good spades. This wins if spades are 3-2 or if spades are 4-1 but west has 3 trumps.

 

2) Pass.

[LukeG]

Congratulations, Luis. You would have made the hand and won the event. I took a different line of play, based on the failure of my RHO to double the 4H cue bid. I played three round of clubs immediately, ruffing with dummy's seven. If the Queen of clubs was singleton, doubleton or tripleton I was cold. When the Queen did not fall, and both followed, I returned to a high trump and ruffed the fourth club with dummy's King. Now I played Ace and a heart, figuring that LHO would win the trick. Unfortunately, RHO won the heart King and gave his partner a spade ruff :-(

 

Codo, you might or might not make depending on what your LHO would return when he won the Queen of clubs. LHO had 8, Jxxxx, 8xx, Qxxx with RHO having K1097, K10xx, xx, xxx.

 

On the second hand, if you pass you should score an effortless +400, although my teamates lost a trick and let declarer escape for 300. That was still a gain of 4 IMPs because at my table this hand bid 3H for +170. This was the time to be greedy, as 3Cx is +800. Partner has QJ109xx, x, xx, AQ8x. However, I'm not saying that you sit should for 3Cx at IMPs because partner has a super-max for defense vs clubs. But it might be very reasonable to sit for 3Cx at MPs.