[Trumpace]

IMPS, N/S vul.

Lead ♥ Q

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West leads ♥ Q.

What is your plan?

[FrancesHinden]

This seems to have fallen on fallow ground.
Though actually, my answer is "I don't know".
I'm not replying with hidden text because no-one else seems to care....

i) At matchpoints, cash the AK of clubs (in case someone has QJ doubleton) then try and run diamonds. If diamonds don't run, go off. If RHO plays a diamond honour (J or 10) on the first round, do not finesse: this is a mandatory false card.

ii)
At IMPs you have to decide between ducking the first round of diamonds (in case they don't break) and risk they can cash four spade tricks, or hoping that diamonds come in. Either way you should of course cash the top clubs first in case they play for five tricks.

If you do plan to duck the diamond, put the 9 in, as LHO might have J10xx (if LHO has J10xxx you have exactly four tricks if he doesn't split whatever you do).

I'm not sure which is more likely. Assuming RHO gave an attitude signal at trick 1, LHO will know that hearts aren't cashing, so if LHO is going to win the diamond he will know to switch to spades.

But when you duck a diamond RHO is also going to know that you aren't wide open in hearts, and he is going to look to take four quick tricks.

So I think you are going to get a spade switch whatever. I would have thought that the chance of four spades cashing is higher than the chance of 4-1 diamonds, so I would take the simple line.

[Walddk]

FrancesHinden, on Dec 6 2006, 04:14 PM, said:

i) At matchpoints, cash the AK of clubs (in case someone has QJ doubleton) then try and run diamonds. If diamonds don't run, go off. If RHO plays a diamond honour (J or 10) on the first round, do not finesse: this is a mandatory false card.

ii)
At IMPs you have to decide between ducking the first round of diamonds (in case they don't break) and risk they can cash four spade tricks, or hoping that diamonds come in. Either way you should of course cash the top clubs first in case they play for five tricks.

If you do plan to duck the diamond, put the 9 in, as LHO might have J10xx (if LHO has J10xxx you have exactly four tricks if he doesn't split whatever you do).

I'm not sure which is more likely. Assuming RHO gave an attitude signal at trick 1, LHO will know that hearts aren't cashing, so if LHO is going to win the diamond he will know to switch to spades.

But when you duck a diamond RHO is also going to know that you aren't wide open in hearts, and he is going to look to take four quick tricks.

So I think you are going to get a spade switch whatever. I would have thought that the chance of four spades cashing is higher than the chance of 4-1 diamonds, so I would take the simple line.

i) I agree with your line, but you should also cash the other heart honour before you play diamonds. The RC point is moot because you don't have an entry to your hand even if you wanted to finesse.

ii) I don't agree with the first part. If you decide to duck a diamond, you should not cash ♣AK first. If you do and you don't see the QJ, the duck is much too dangerous because they only need *three* spade tricks. Your line sets up at least one club trick for them when the Q and J don't drop.

Roland

[inquiry]

At matchpoints, just play it wide open. Cash one top club, and if the Q or J does not appear behind you, try to run diamonds. You can not afford to duck a diamond.

At imps, it is much less clear. I think I will win the heart and duck a diamond. Don't show the club A or AK, as they will be able to unravel tht you have 2C, 2H, and 5D after that, and can jointly play in the spade suit to try for maximum tricks. You will feel foolish after ducking a diamond and they manage to take 4 or 5 spade tricks with diamonds splitting all the time, but maybe WEST will have three spades to an honor and they will block the suit somehow. When ducking the diamond, yes duck to the nine. I wish us good luck, after the diamond duck we are going to need some.

[zasanya]

I have the highest repect for the 3 posters who have responded .Yet I do not understand how the thought of ducking ♦ can even be mentioned.

[FrancesHinden]

Walddk, on Dec 6 2006, 04:05 PM, said:

ii) I don't agree with the first part. If you decide to duck a diamond, you should not cash ♣AK first. If you do and you don't see the QJ, the duck is much too dangerous because they only need *three* spade tricks. Your line sets up at least one club trick for them when the Q and J don't drop.

Roland

Yes, of course you are right. I muddled up my answer - cash the CAK first only if you are going to play diamonds from the top.

[FrancesHinden]

inquiry, on Dec 6 2006, 04:24 PM, said:

At imps, it is much less clear. I think I will win the heart and duck a diamond. Don't show the club A or AK, as they will be able to unravel tht you have 2C, 2H, and 5D after that, and can jointly play in the spade suit to try for maximum tricks.

Clearly this is a psychological point with no good answer - but if they see you ducking a diamond they _know_ that you have 9 tricks including five diamonds, because otherwise you would have played diamonds from the top.

[hatchett]

Knowing the bidding would be useful on this hand, both from the perspective what we have told they defenders and whether they had any chance to intervene at a reasonable level.

Playings MPs I agree just attempt to cash your tricks.

At IMPs I think there is far to much danger in trying to duck a diamond. If RHO wins the diamond and switches to ♠ we are going down against most 4-4 and most 3-5 splits. Things are better if LHO has JT diamond since we will survive most 3-5 splits and only go down against the 4-4 splits. Overall I think's right to cash from the top.

Incidently note with JTxx ♦ LHO can split on the first round of the suit, so low to 9 should never win the trick.

[FrancesHinden]

hatchett, on Dec 6 2006, 05:06 PM, said:

Incidently note with JTxx ♦ LHO can split on the first round of the suit, so low to 9 should never win the trick.

He can do. But in practice most people don't. (If declarer had 3 diamonds he looks very silly splitting).

[FrancesHinden]

zasanya, on Dec 6 2006, 04:56 PM, said:

I have the highest repect for the 3 posters who have responded .Yet I do not understand how the thought of ducking ♦ can even be mentioned.

Bear in mind that the majority vote so far is to cash diamonds from the top (after a top club honour in case there is QJ doubleton). But the reason we are all considering ducking a diamond is a layout like this:

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[hatchett]

Quote

(If declarer had 3 diamonds he looks very silly splitting).

Extremely unlikely to cost because declarer can still pick up the suit even if he play low to an honor on the first round.