[jahol]

Playing against young skillfull players bidding and making crazy contracts from time to time.

Both vulnerable, you have this nice hand: 9---10975---8542---J1096.

Not surprisingly, you choose pass, LHO bids 1 diamond, partner 1 heart, RHO 2 clubs (forcing!), you 2 hearts (yes, you do ), LHO 3 diamonds, CHO 3 hearts, RHO six clubs pass, pass, pass.

In competitive auction you follow Cohen's LTT so that you promised 3 cards in H in your hand (at least), but partner should probably have good 6 heart suit for his 3H bid, not necessary having significant extra points. What you would lead to set this slam?

[mike777]

jahol, on Oct 4 2005, 02:58 PM, said:

Playing against young skillfull players bidding and making  crazy contracts from time to time.

Both vulnerable, you have this nice hand: 9---10975---8542---J1096.

Not surprisingly, you choose pass, LHO bids 1 diamond, partner 1 heart, RHO 2 clubs (forcing!), you 2 hearts (yes, you do ), LHO 3 diamonds, CHO 3 hearts, RHO six clubs pass, pass, pass.

In competitive auction you follow Cohen's LTT so that you promised 3 cards in H in your hand (at least), but partner should probably have good 6 heart suit for his 3H bid, not necessary having significant extra points. What you would lead to set this slam?

H

If you follow Cohen's LTT why not 3h instead of 2H? In fact it appears you do not follow LTT.

Not sure why partner did not bid 2h rather than overcall 1h if she has 6 hearts, you are a passed hand, if so then you could have bid 4h. The more I look at this bidding the more it seems you are not playing LTT .

[mikeh]

I do not know what I would lead at the table: heck, I barely know what I want to lead after almost twenty minutes of thought

I was going with the ♥ lead, and probably would at the table. Certainly, it is the 'safer' lead, in terms of the post-mortem. Failing to lead partner's suit when doing so is the only way to set a contract is one of the worst bridge sins.

But we have some clues as to how the cards lie.

RHO seems happy to blast slam with no support from partner, no effort to cue bid or use keycard. So he should be ready for a ♥ lead, altho being both young and crazy he may (1) assume that he can bluff me out of my normal lead (he can, he can!) or (2) assume that unsupported trump suits of AKQxxxx are no-loser suits.

If RHO's gamble was the only clue, I'd join with Justin.

The second clue gets me to lead a ♠.

No, I'm not trying for a ruff

Where is the ♠ suit?

Partner will not hold 5 decent ♠ (no michaels) Partner will not usually hold 5 poor ♠: might michaels then with 5=5 and might (should) blast 4♥ with 5=6, over my 2♥ overbid (I would bid 3♥)

So ♠ rate to be 444 around the table and LHO will not likely hold 4 good ones: no easy 2♠ bid over my 2♥. Similarly, RHO could have bid 3♠ over 3♥ with a good hand and 4 good ♠: if only to hear partner's bid.

So I think that RHO is ready for a ♥ lead and that he is gambling that he will get one.

QJxx xx AKQJxx x opp Kxxx void x AKQxxxxx or QJxx Ax AKJxxx x opp Kxxx void Qx AKQxxxx

Yes, the constructions are strained, but the bidding is odd, and that suggests odd hands.

I have absolutely no confidence in any of this ♠ 100, ♥ 98, others -20, is my ranking.

PS I hate playing young and crazy... I have no idea what is going on, because I don't think like they do. Make them old and crazy, and I have no such problem...

[jahol]

First to this LTT problem. I could have bid 3H, but I think, I should keep balance in some way (in every board). Yes, I had 4 trumphs, but just small cards...partner would expect at least something like QJxx or K10xx from me, this could have led to his wrong decision later in the auction. In addition, LTT is not just about trumphs, but also about corrections.... looks like spades are 4-4-4-1 around the world...can be problem for the opponents, partner may have defensive potential in his hand...in fact, I would be happy if opponents find their spade fit. Some more negative potencial is just in my hand, there is more probability, that the opponents have some defensive trick in hearts in addition to their values.

I could not bid 4H after 3H, because opponent from the right just bid 6 clubs.....

Yes, I decided to lead heart (after just 5 minutes of thinking). This was found to be disaster kind of action since the board was:

Scoring: IMP

---

The declarer said "Thanks a lot", took H ace, cashed three top trumphs, and discarded all four spades in a tempo.

Seems that my partner was the bad guy at the table this time (since I was not absolutely sure, I made this contribution here). First, I followed exactly the reasoning of Jill in the first reaction to my contribution (my partner should not bid 3H with such type of hand following LTT). Secondly, I think, my partner should have doubled 6C to direct my first lead to spade suit.....

[Trpltrbl]

Yes I wish you would have waited a little longer.
I didn't even have time to post anything.
Of course I was going to lead a♠

GBB