[inquiry]

IMPS, EW VUL

♠	K63
♥	972
♦	AKQ62
♣	T3

♠	Q975
♥	KJ85
♦	JT8
♣	AQ

Quote

South West North East
1♦    Pass  2♦   2♠
2NT       Pass  3NT   All Pass 

This is a hand from a recent Abalucy tournment. Four Souths played 3NT. Can you do better than they did?

2♦ was "inverted raise"

Opening lead CLUB 4 to Club KING... (fourth best marked).. thanks luis

Ben

[luis]

Lead?

[helium]

guess dimonds are 4-0 now sow dimont to ace hart to jack, and if Q take trick only chance whould be club 7-2 and bouth ace on the short club hand, if Q ceep trick or ace take it i play hart to 8 next time

[paulg]

♦J, then ♦10 to dummy and lead spade through East to the Queen.

East must duck (Morton's Fork), otherwise 9 tricks (5♦, 2♣, 2♠), cross back to dummy and cash the remaining diamonds.

Then lead heart to king - you make 1♠, 1♥, 5♦ and 2♣.

Actually it is a heart guess, but East is more likely to hold the ace especially at this vulnerability.

[inquiry]

Well done. Yes Paul is right. I also want you to note one little "trick" on this hand in red below.

Quote

                         ♠ K63          
                         ♥ 972          
                         ♦ AKQ62        
                         ♣ T2 
♠                                     ♠ AJT842                              
♥ AT63                            ♥ Q4   
♦ 9754                            ♦ 3  
♣ 98643                           ♣ KJ75      
                         ♠ Q975         
                         ♥ KJ85         
                         ♦ JT8          
                         ♣ AQ 

This is an important hand if you happened to landed in 3NT from the South side of the table. If played by north, a ♠ lead will give your 9th trick. Indeed everyone playing 3NT NS had no trouble making 3NT after a ♠ lead. If ♦ split, there are 5♦ tricks, plus 2♣. But the ♣ has but you into trouble. Imagine if you cross to dummy and lead a ♥. They will win the ♥ACE and clear the club suit. Now unless you can grab 2♥ tricks, you are sure down. The correct play (I think), is to cash 1♦, cross to dummy in ♦’s, and lead a ♠ towards the Q. East can’t afford to play the ♠ ACE since that would give you 9 sure tricks (2♠ + 5♦ + 2♣).

So after the ♠Q wins, you run your ♦’s then lead a ♥ and hopefully quess correctly which one to play (if EAST has both that you COULD have won 2♥ tricks if you had played on ♥ instead of a ♠ when in dummy first time, you can’t go down.

Now, a special honorable mention to gold star RITONG who, on defense, played the ♣J at trick one. This was a GREAT play, which is why he has a gold star. This gives the impression that WEST has the ♣K, increasing the chance that South would miss guess the ♥ suit. I know if I had been playing the hand, I would have played then played EAST for the ♥Ace. Why? With six spades AJT and club J, and heart Q, he might have tried preemptive jump in ♠ or not overcalled.

Ben

[Trpltrbl]

inquiry, on Jan 27 2004, 05:39 PM, said:

Now, a special honorable mention to gold star RITONG who, on defense, played the ♣J at trick one. This was a GREAT play, which is why he has a gold star. This gives the impression that WEST has the ♣K, increasing the chance that South would miss guess the ♥ suit. I know if I had been playing the hand, I would have played then played EAST for the ♥Ace. Why? With six spades AJT and club J, and heart Q, he might have tried preemptive jump in ♠ or not overcalled.
               
Ben

I actually think it is a very standard play, the J of. But I do always enjoy playing with Henri because he thinks ahead, not just about the trick to be played.

Mike

[paulg]

inquiry, on Jan 27 2004, 10:39 PM, said:

Now, a special honorable mention to gold star RITONG who, on defense, played the ♣J at trick one. This was a GREAT play, which is why he has a gold star. This gives the impression that WEST has the ♣K, increasing the chance that South would miss guess the ♥ suit. I know if I had been playing the hand, I would have played then played EAST for the ♥Ace. Why? With six spades AJT and club J, and heart Q, he might have tried preemptive jump in ♠ or not overcalled.
               

Of course it looks pretty silly when declarer holds

♠	Qxxx
♥	AKxx
♦	JTx
♣	Qx

...

It is the standard play in a suit contract, I'm not so convinced about NT.

[inquiry]

Well, Mike sugeest that the ♣JACK is the "standard" play. I don't think I agree with this. From ♣AQx, standard is probably the ♣QUEEN to keep declarer from using a hold-up play. But here, as Paul points out, playing the JACK runs the risk of looking pretty darn silly, but then, the hand he constructs is hardly a free-2NT bid over 2♠'s. Wouldn't expect everyone to pass with piece of junk over 2♠ (if not originally)? BTW, I play 2/3 doubles here as well (see other discussions pushing 2/3 doubles) and would make a forcing pass with 4 cards in ♠'s.

We would have to ask Henri why he found, what to me seems the killer anti-discovery play of ♣Jack.

Ben

[luis]

Trpltrpotrpltr

Have you ever heard about the "impossible queen" ?

Not standard at all, well done by Henri!