[Echognome]

Playing at the club the other day, my partner overbid us to the small slam below after a relay auction.

Scoring: IMP

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You are playing against bad opponents, so you don't really read too much into their leads or signals. You get the lead of the ♦J. I won this in hand, played the ♥A, ruffed a ♥. Played a ♦ back to hand and saw the T drop on my left. I ruffed another ♥ and crossed to hand with my last trump, LHO pitching a ♥. I then played three rounds of spades ending in hand with both opponents following to all three rounds. The following cards were left:

Scoring: IMP

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So the question is, should I take the simple finesse, or go for the elegant endplay?

As a follow-up question, my alternate line was to lead clubs towards dummy twice, inserting the 9 on the first round if no K, J, or T appeared and later finesse the K.

As this is imps, my only concern was making the contract, not worrying about any number of undertricks.

[whereagles]

I trust it you're playing 6♦, no? Anyway, if LHO's discard of a heart is to be trusted, he seems to have 3523 and RHO 3433. The end play of a club to the 9 would fail because RHO has a heart to cash. In fact, unless hearts began 6-3 (not the most likely of breaks..), the finesse is better.

Leading twice towards dummy's clubs seems to fail due to lack of entries in hand. (May have miscounted, though.)

[Echognome]

whereagles, on Jul 5 2006, 02:30 PM, said:

I trust it you're playing 6♦, no? Anyway, if LHO's discard of a heart is to be trusted, he seems to have 3523 and RHO 3433. The end play of a club to the 9 would fail because RHO has a heart to cash. In fact, unless hearts began 6-3 (not the most likely of breaks..), the finesse is better.

Leading twice towards dummy's clubs seems to fail due to lack of entries in hand. (May have miscounted, though.)

There are plenty of entries for the simple line. You needn't ruff any hearts! You simply play on clubs yourself and you have two diamond entries and two major suit aces... more than enough!

[SoTired]

if u lead a club and insert the 9, RHO could and probably does have a heart left. I see no alternative at this point except to take the club finesse.

If you had not wasted entries ruffing hearts, you could have drawn trump and lead a club to dummy and inserted the 9 and then tried the Q if the 9 lost to the J or 10. This works anytime LHO has the K or the J10.

[pclayton]

Appears the contract is 6♦.

I don't quite understand the rationale of ruffing hearts. If you are trying to manoever an endplay against RHO via a partial elimination - 2 trump, eliminate hearts, three spades and a club to the 9 specifically needs RHO to hold 3=?=2=? risking a spade ruff along the way. I'm glad you didn't try this.

If I didn't get the J♦ lead, I would never consider ruffing hearts, as I have made it impossible to pick up Jen-4th of trump on my left.

The way you played it you have catered to RHO holding specifically or 3=3=3=4 (but your weak LHO would definitely lead a stiff club).

However, if the 9 loses to the Jen, you have given up simple chances of picking up RHO with 3=5=3=2 or 3=6=3=1.

I'd have just taken a double hook in clubs earlier and kept my entries intact.

[whereagles]

Echognome, on Jul 5 2006, 02:32 PM, said:

whereagles, on Jul 5 2006, 02:30 PM, said:

I trust it you're playing 6♦, no? Anyway, if LHO's discard of a heart is to be trusted, he seems to have 3523 and RHO 3433. The end play of a club to the 9 would fail because RHO has a heart to cash. In fact, unless hearts began 6-3 (not the most likely of breaks..), the finesse is better.

Leading twice towards dummy's clubs seems to fail due to lack of entries in hand. (May have miscounted, though.)

There are plenty of entries for the simple line. You needn't ruff any hearts! You simply play on clubs yourself and you have two diamond entries and two major suit aces... more than enough!

In that case, low to the 9 and low to the queen wins about 62% of the time. Better than the finesse, even if you try and accumulate it with hearts 6-3.

[han]

The endplay seems worst, the simple finesse seems better but the normal play in clubs seems best.

[Echognome]

pclayton, on Jul 5 2006, 02:40 PM, said:

Appears the contract is 6♦.

I don't quite understand the rationale of ruffing hearts. If you are trying to manoever an endplay against RHO via a partial elimination - 2 trump, eliminate hearts, three spades and a club to the 9 specifically needs RHO to hold 3=?=2=? risking a spade ruff along the way. I'm glad you didn't try this.

If I didn't get the J♦ lead, I would never consider ruffing hearts, as I have made it impossible to pick up Jen-4th of trump on my left.

The way you played it you have catered to RHO holding specifically or 3=3=3=4 (but your weak LHO would definitely lead a stiff club).

However, if the 9 loses to the Jen, you have given up simple chances of picking up RHO with 3=5=3=2 or 3=6=3=1.

I'd have just taken a double hook in clubs earlier and kept my entries intact.

My first line says "my partner overbid us to the small slam." I guess people don't like reading the fine print.

Yes, if RHO is 3=3=3=4, then LHO would have a doubleton club.

I'm not sure how I would play it on a small club lead.

I played it this way (to have the choice), I guess kind of because I felt like it and I thought I might get some more information. I also think the endplay line is pretty as it gives you 100% chance in clubs if the distribution is right. However, I was just wondering the odds. I have a feeling I know the answer.

[whereagles]

Echo:

Well, in the beggining of the hand, that's the odds of 6-3 break with LHO holding 6. About ~15% (pavlicek's calc). After having played as you did, knowing of 9 cards in each player, the odds of hearts being 2-0 now are raise to ~21%.

Both lines are better than 62%, so seems like you should go for the endplay

[pclayton]

Echognome, on Jul 5 2006, 06:45 AM, said:

pclayton, on Jul 5 2006, 02:40 PM, said:

Appears the contract is 6♦.

I don't quite understand the rationale of ruffing hearts. If you are trying to manoever an endplay against RHO via a partial elimination - 2 trump, eliminate hearts, three spades and a club to the 9 specifically needs RHO to hold 3=?=2=? risking a spade ruff along the way. I'm glad you didn't try this.

If I didn't get the J♦ lead, I would never consider ruffing hearts, as I have made it impossible to pick up Jen-4th of trump on my left. 

The way you played it you have catered to RHO holding specifically or 3=3=3=4 (but your weak LHO would definitely lead a stiff club).

However, if the 9 loses to the Jen, you have given up simple chances of picking up RHO with 3=5=3=2 or 3=6=3=1.

I'd have just taken a double hook in clubs earlier and kept my entries intact.

My first line says "my partner overbid us to the small slam." I guess people don't like reading the fine print.

Yes, if RHO is 3=3=3=4, then LHO would have a doubleton club.

I'm not sure how I would play it on a small club lead.

I played it this way (to have the choice), I guess kind of because I felt like it and I thought I might get some more information. I also think the endplay line is pretty as it gives you 100% chance in clubs if the distribution is right. However, I was just wondering the odds. I have a feeling I know the answer.

Yeah I read the small print, and I inferred the contract was diamonds the way the play went.

Its early - thought the closed hand had 5 clubs, not 4.