[inquiry]

Here are some more interesting hands from the abalucy Thursday night event. The challenging ones were already posted in another thread,
http://forums.bridgebase.com/in...y;threadid=1235

The following three hands are more for fun or curiosity (the first hand isn't really a quiz anyway).


S 9853
H 54
D Q2
C QJT76

Bidding…

(1C)-P-(3N)-P
(P)-P-(P)

What do you lead? I pose this hand only because of the interest in the “when do you not lead fourth best thread. See… http://forums.bridgebase.com/in...y;threadid=1222

In that discussion, we raised the issue about avoiding blocking your suit, when your partner is suspected of being short in it, aand that it might be necessary to underlead a sequence. One piece of advice there was “to lead high from a sequence like KQJx or AKJx. However, there are times, (you have to figure these out) when you lack entries in a different suit or have maybe only one or you know your partner can't have much (or anything) in hcp and on each of these hands you have strong reason to suspect that partner is short in this suit but you still need 3 or 4 tricks from this suit. In these cases, it is sometimes right to underlead all this stuff and hope to catch partner with a fitting card. Maybe the Tx opposite” At matchpoint leading a low club here is much too risky, but it takes a low club from this hand to defeat 3NT. At imps I would at least give serious thought to leading a low club. Maybe not a perfect example of the point about underleading a sequence, but it is at least illustrative of the thought process. The full hands were…

Dealer North
Vuln. None
Matchpoints

S AJ7
H KT32
D J6
C A942

S 9853 S QT42
H 54 H 9876
D Q2 D KT7
C QJT76 C K5

S K6
H AQJ
D A98543
C 83

-----------------------------

Dealer South
Vuln. EW
MAtchpoints
S A9
H J642
D T986
C Q74

You hold this as north, you may not agree with all the bidding, but here goes…

Pard LHO You RHO
1D DBL 2D Pass
3C DBL Pass 3S
Pass Pass ?

a)   do you bid 4D? (YES or NO)
   If you bid 4D, and it goes 4D-(P)-P-(4S), what do you bid?


--------------------------------------

Dealer West
Vuln. All

S T75
H 92
D 8
C AQJ8542

Bidding
W Pard E You
Pass 1NT Pass ?

What do you bid at a) matchpoints, and imps, you are not vul, they are at both.

[the hog]

Hand 1 - I read an article recently about leading low from 3 hons - can't remember where though, and a similar example to Ben's was given after they had opened in that suit. The comment was that leading an hon is far too likely to cost a trick. I must admit, I would have led a Heart on this one though.

2) I would have bid 3D first, (or 1S if I was feeling frisky - who is frisky you ask?) I would definitely NOT bid 4D after having bid 2 on the first round. I pass 4S.
This is easier for me as our 1D promises 4, usually 5.

3) I bid 3N in all cases. Easy at Imps. At MPs I think this is what the majority of the field would do.

[pbleighton]

2) Pass. You have described your hand already, and you don't have 5 diamonds or a max.
3) 3NT. 2NT doesn't seem significantly more likely to make than 3NT, and I can't pass.

Peter

[inquiry]

The low club lead is very hard to play... the hand were... I only posted this one because of the discussion the day before. My partner made 3NT on the club QUEEN opening lead, the hands were:

Dealer North
Vuln. None
Contract: 3NT South

S AJ7
H KT32
D J6
C A942

S 9853 S QT42
H 54 H 9876
D Q2 D KT7
C QJT76 C K5

S K6
H AQJ
D A98543
C 83

-------------------

The second hand is interesting. First question of course is do you ignore your 4 hearts and show diamond support. Ron gets his hand off his chest with an immediate 3D bid. Over the dbl, the 2D and 3D raises are both weak. My partner and I play that over dbl, 2C by me would be a "good" diamond raise, and 2D could be 0 hcp and 4Diamonds. In fact, for what I could have held for my 2D bid, I have a great hand, and felt the SPADE ACE, club Queen were both working. If partner was serious about 3C, I think I have to either dbl 3S or bid 4D. After I bid 4D, they bid 4S which I did double. They can make 3S, we can make 3D. Of course, I have no idea what the right bid is.
Dealer South
Vuln. EW

S A9
H J642
D T986
C Q74

S KJ762 S QT53
H AKQT H 73
D 5 D 72
C KT2 C J9865

S 84
H 985
D AKQJ43
C A3

The results were:
3NNx=  550  100%
4SEx-2  500  87%
5SE-3  300  75%
3DS=  110  62%
4SW-1  100  50%
4DS-2  -100  37%
3SE=  -140  25%
5DSx-2  -300  6%
5DSx-2  -300  6%

-----------------------

The last hand is just an issue of your bidding philosophy. At imps vulnerable, the correct bid is 3NT. The reason is clear, at imps, you can bid risky game contracts, especially vul. But at matchpoints, I think more care is called for. I don't agree with the concept that at matchpoints you should bid game with this hand just because most of the field will. You have to judge if you think the game is 50% or better. IF you think so, bid it, if not, don't.

At Matchpoint, I would "invite" partner's participation by bidding 2S (four suit transfer). IF partner bids 2NT showing club King, I bid the game. If he bids 3C denying it,I will pass.... Almost everyone simply bid 3NT with this hand. But your partner had the club king, so the game rolls home.

[the hog]

For us bidding 2S is not helpful, as 2S is a Nt raise or a t/f to C. Pd bids 3C with a max - doesn't help me much.