[jocdelevat]

Scoring: IMP

only us biding opps pass all.
1♦ 1♥ 2♥ 4NT 5♦ 6♥.

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Hi all
I play basic SAYC and my level beginner-intermediate.
I had to play this contract last night and I did very bad. My partner an expert player who sub because my p got disconect left after that.(which I agree too much for him to support.I understand that and Im ok with him leaving table). After tourney I looked at traveller and I saw that from total of 9 tables 3 failed 6h 3 failed 4h and 3 made 4h.
The lead at my table was smal spade.
Im very curios about how should be play? Whats the plan after seeing the hands?

Thank you in advance for your advice
best regards
Jocdelevat

[luke warm]

i'd duck the spade, hoping for another and for 4/3 spades... say another spade comes, win the ace and hold your breath while you ruff a 3rd spade... now play ♦A,K, ♣A, and crossruff black suits... other plan for me is to finesse the ♦10, since the queen is always over the jack in a minor suit

[inquiry]

Before you feel like your "expert" partner was too put out with your bidding and play that he had to leave, ask yourself about his bidding. Why did he open 1♦ playing SAYC with a perfectly normal 1NT opening.

Of course if you are willing to drive to slam after 1D-1H-2H, I assume you would be more willing after 1N-2C-2H, but what I am suggesting is he didn't exactly display expert quality work here... First with his choice of opening bid (especially playing with a pick up partner, where 1NT accurately limits his hand quickly) nor in his behavior (true experts are more experienced and much more tolerant than this guy showed leaving after this hand).

As for the bidding, your hand is not quite good enough to take control with 4NT in my opinion, but it is good enough to consider making a slam try. I think if you make a slam try, your partner will certainly cooperate as he has underbid his hand.

Six hearts is a stretch, but is not without play. For instance, you could try for 1C, 3 club ruffs, 4H in dummy, 1S, and 3 diamonds on a line like:

Win spade ace,
club to ace,
club ruff low,
diamond finessee to the ten -- here we lucky and it wins,
club ruff with King,
low heart to ace,
club ruff with JACK.
Diamond to ACE,
HEART Queen
HEART TEN
DIAMOND to ACE.

Might even make 13 tricks if south lead away from QT of KT of spades and north played his top spade and south also held four diamonds on the spade-diamond squeeze, but 12 tricks are there is hearts are 3-2, diamonds at least 4-2, and diamond finessee wins.

[helene_t]

Ben, you misread the diagram: East opened 1♦.

As for the bidding: If 4NT is simple Blackwood (I suppose it is) then it's not good since you don't want to know if partner has an ace or not. Maybe you could make some subtle slam try, or a less subtle 5♥. You could also just bid 4♥.

Partner's behavior was not acceptable. When he subbed he's per definition willing to play with anyone. Now, if you insulted him that could be an acceptable reason for him to leave, but if he left because you misplayed this hand he should be reported to Abuse.

[hotShot]

1♦ - 1♥
2♥ - 4NT
4NT is an overbid, you have only 14 HCP because Jx in ♠ does not count.
To go for a slam your side needs about 30+ HCP and your partner did not promise to have 15+ HCP. In fact he showed a minimum hand.
He raised your 1♥ bid, because you are unlimited and he is limiting his strength at the lover end of the opening range. This is not an openers reverse, it's just a simple raise because you are unlimited yet.

As to the play, you should get:
1♣, 1♠, 3♥, 3♦ and a♠ ruff and a ♣ ruff => 10 tricks (if the ♥ are 3-2, if they are 4-1 you have some timing problems to solve,
ruff a club and loose the ♦Q prior to drawing the last trump).
So one should not go down in 4♥.

[FrancesHinden]

Bidding:
1D opening, 1H response and raise to 2H were impeccable (although some very conservative players might even pass the East cards rather than open).

4NT was very aggressive opposite a hand that is likely to be a weak NT. A better approach would be to see if partner has a nice hand: bid 3C or 3D as a forcing, exploratory call (either might work well) and listen to partner. If he signs off in 3H, just raise to 4H (or you could try 3NT in case he doesn't have 4-card support); if he jumps to game or cue-bids you can make another slam try.

As for the play, in some respects 6H is an easier contract to play than 4H, because you really need a very nice lie to make it. You have a certain spade loser, so you will have to find the queen of diamonds, and will need to take the ace of spades, ace of clubs, 3-4 diamond tricks and 7-6 trump tricks. That means either 3 club ruffs in dummy, or two club ruffs and diamonds for four tricks.

inquiry's line shows a good approach to taking 3 club ruffs in dummy, but it needs hearts 3-2. If you only take two club ruffs but you have 4 diamond tricks, you can also cope with 4-1 hearts, so I would time things fractionally differently:

Spade Ace
Club Ace
Club ruff low
Diamond to the 10 (which we do indeed need to hold)
Club ruff high (no cost)
Diamond to the ace

If the Queen of diamonds is played on this trick, we can draw trumps in four rounds. If LHO follows low, we have to guess what to do next: ruff another club and hope trumps are 3-2, or draw trumps and hope diamonds come in. As trumps are quite often (about 30%) of the time 4-1, I'm going to see what happens if I go back and duck the opening spade lead. They will probably switch to a trump, so the play goes:

Duck spade
Win HK on dummy
Club Ace
Club ruff low
Diamond to the 10
Club ruff high
Draw four rounds of trumps, discarding spades.
Now we are down to
A
-
KJx
-

in dummy and
x
-
Ax
J

in hand. We cash the ace of spades, and if RHO started with 4 or 5 diamonds and the KQ of clubs, or any 5-card club holding, he is forced to give us the 12th trick.

Is this better than the ruff-three-clubs line? My approach to timing that line makes (once the diamond finesse has won) as long as diamonds aren't 5-1 and hearts are 3-2, or there is Qx of diamonds onside with hearts 4-1. The squeeze line gains every time diamonds are 3-3 and hearts 4-1, or trumps are 4-1 and RHO is squeezed.

I think it's pretty close between the two lines. I'm tempted by the second, because i) people have a habit of leading trumps from 2 or 3 low and we didn't get a trump lead, so more likely they are 4-1; ii) if LHO has led away from one spade honour it makes it more likely he doesn't have a club honour and/or isn't long in clubs, making RHO more likely to guard clubs.

[helene_t]

FrancesHinden, on Jun 28 2006, 04:15 PM, said:

people have a habit of leading trumps from 2 or 3 low and we didn't get a trump lead, so more likely they are 4-1

Why's that? If you have two or three lows, a trump lead may let declarer catch partner's queen. If you have four lows, a trump lead is safe.

[jocdelevat]

Scoring: IMP

P 1♦ P 1♥ P 2♥ P 4NT P 5♦ P 6♥P P P

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Thank you all for your answers.
Those are the 4 hands.
I think this board fits well for double dummy with contract 4h

Best regards
Jocdelevat