[FrancesHinden]

Scoring: IMP

1♠ P 2♠ x
3♠ P P P

---

LHO leads a low spade.
What can go wrong? How do you play the hand?

(A very good English player went off by not thinking through the hand carefully at trick one.)

[jim420]

i guess...play ♠5 from dummy?

[inquiry]

jim420, on Mar 2 2007, 09:09 AM, said:

i guess...play ♠5 from dummy?

One can consider whether or not playing the ♠5 could be used as some sort of signal to dummy. Maybe high-lo when you want to say, nice bid partner. Or when you want to say, WTF where you thinking. I remember an entertaining article in Bridge World decades ago called the congradulatory Jack, where declarer threw away jacks to signal partner that "things are going great, good job"... the point being to calm his nerves say when he made a speculative "save" and doesn't know yet (seeing only his own hand) that his bid will work out great for your side.

Nothing like taking care of partner!!!

On this hand, I can't imagine playing anything other than a low ♠ to trick one. For the life of me, I can not see a difference between the two and the five other than as a signal to parnter of some sort.

[brianshark]

I guess that the only problem is that when you win cheaply in hand, cross to trump K, cash K then A of ♥s, and ruff a ♥, you've no immediate entry to hand to draw the last trump and there's a risk of a ruff or a trump promotion if they break 3-1.

The only alternatives to this risk is to win the trump K at trick one, then ruff a ♥, then you have a trump as an entry... but this hopes for a 2-2 break so seems sub-optimal... or the slightly better 50% shot of the ♥ finesse instead of ruffing a ♥. But surely the risk of losing a trump while getting back to hand in a minor is less than 50%?

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I would play low, but from the lead it is
fairly clear, that East holds the Queen of
spades, i.e. if one wins with the King, one
does not loose a trump trick (it may even
be, that the Queen drops).


With kind regards
Marlowe

[jim420]

inquiry, on Mar 2 2007, 10:20 PM, said:

jim420, on Mar 2 2007, 09:09 AM, said:

i guess...play ♠5 from dummy?

One can consider whether or not playing the ♠5 could be used as some sort of signal to dummy. Maybe high-lo when you want to say, nice bid partner. Or when you want to say, WTF where you thinking. I remember an entertaining article in Bridge World decades ago called the congradulatory Jack, where declarer threw away jacks to signal partner that "things are going great, good job"... the point being to calm his nerves say when he made a speculative "save" and doesn't know yet (seeing only his own hand) that his bid will work out great for your side.

Nothing like taking care of partner!!!

On this hand, I can't imagine playing anything other than a low ♠ to trick one. For the life of me, I can not see a difference between the two and the five other than as a signal to parnter of some sort.

lol...i was thinking if LHO led ♠4 and then RHO showed out after the ♠5 from dummy u can play the ♠3 from hand, giving the lead to dummy first

I think that's the only difference...

But there's not much variation one can do for trick 1 (playing the ♠K and u will lose to ♠Q later most probably if LHO holds it) ...what's the hint about anyway?

[FrancesHinden]

brianshark, on Mar 2 2007, 03:11 PM, said:

I guess that the only problem is that when you win cheaply in hand, cross to trump K, cash K then A of ♥s, and ruff a ♥, you've no immediate entry to hand to draw the last trump and there's a risk of a ruff or a trump promotion if they break 3-1.

That is indeed the risk.

After looking at the auction and the opening lead, what do you think the spade layout is?

[jtfanclub]

Looks like the case where I lose is where RHO has the Q singleton. I play low, play the hearts, and get a ruffing finesse on me later. If I play the king on the first trick, I can pick up the trumps without difficulty.

But that assums that the opponents aren't smart enough to underlead a spade from QTx, which I've been told in books is often a good lead (though I've never done it). So while I'm sure the answer is to go up with the king, I'm sure I'd never do it.

[Apollo81]

♠K catering to LHO having led from ♠10xx.

[the hog]

You may well get overruffed in a minor.
Play K of S, K A and ruff a H and cross back to hand, hooking the S if the Q doesn't pop.

[sceptic]

low spade then up to the King of spades if they split 4 / 0 and back to the A spades then King of hearts as below

and finese the j hearts and when it wins as I am sure it will dump a club and play clubs


I think 4 / 0 spade split and the spade guy has Qxx of hearts and a void in pards minor ace k holding in diamonds which he managed to signal


if it never split 4/0 then I think play a low spade then the K and Ace of hearts and ruff the J heart and you should be able to get ur 9 trx but I cant quite see how, I think opps have to make a mistake

[the hog]

"if it never split 4/0 then I think play a low spade then the K and Ace of hearts and ruff the J heart and you should be able to get ur 9 trx but I cant quite see how, I think opps have to make a mistake"

Try 6 S in hand, 2 Hearts and a H ruff. That is 9 tricks Wayne.

[pclayton]

Jlall, on Mar 2 2007, 03:47 PM, said:

kinda sad, I think there is a good chance I would get this one wrong unless I was focused.

Me too; its easy to get complacent on hands like this.

K♠. If the Q drops I need the heart hook. (edited - of course I don't )

Good hand for this forum.

[FrancesHinden]

jtfanclub, on Mar 2 2007, 04:23 PM, said:

Looks like the case where I lose is where RHO has the Q singleton.  I play low, play the hearts, and get a ruffing finesse on me later.  If I play the king on the first trick, I can pick up the trumps without difficulty.

But that assums that the opponents aren't smart enough to underlead a spade from QTx, which I've been told in books is often a good lead (though I've never done it).  So while I'm sure the answer is to go up with the king, I'm sure I'd never do it.

The important thing to understand is that if LHO has led a spade from Qxx (Q10x is too improbable) then, if you run the spade lead round to your jack and take a heart ruff, you are taking a line that needs a misdefence (or spades 2-2).

The auction tells you that RHO does not have Qxx in spades - he made a take-out double of 2S.

Either spades are 2-2 (and any sensible line works) or they are 3-1. If they are 3-1 you either need to take the heart finesse, or you need to play for RHO to have singleton queen. There are only two genuine lines:

1.
King of spades at trick 1.
King of hearts, ace of hearts, heart ruff.
Trump to hand.

This makes any time spades are 2-2 or RHO has singleton queen. (Singleton Q is quite likely on the auction and the lead).

2.
Run the spade round to hand
Draw a second round of trumps.
If they don't break 2-2, draw the last trump then (after playing some diamond first) take the heart finesse.

I prefer line 1 (there are enough points missing that the HQ could well be wrong) because the take-out double and the lead make the required trump layout very likely; but I don't object to line 2.

The one line that doesn't work is to run the spade round to hand and take a heart ruff. This is what declarer did at the table, and went off when either of lines 1 or 2 would have worked:

---

Spade lead, low, Queen Ace.
King of hearts, Ace of hearts, heart ruff.
King of spades (heart discard).
(ummmm....)
Diamond to the 10 and King
Diamond to the Jack
Queen of hearts, club discard, diamond discard
Ace of clubs
Ace of diamonds...

one off