[gwnn]

MP's weak-ish field versus one of the better opposing pairs.

Scoring: MP

---

Undisturbed bidding went

1♣-1♦
2♣-3NT

(I realize this would be bid different in the US and in 90% in Europe. please accept it as it is)

Lead was ♥8, explained as "lack of interest". RHO covers with the ten. How would you play this one?

[gwnn]

Of course rightie wins and plays the Jack of ♥?

[jdonn]

I would also start diamond to queen. I would win the heart return because if I can slip a spade to the king I might have 11 tricks, but if I duck they might switch to a spade and then they won't duck the ace. Next I would play a spade to the king, and presuming that wins I would run clubs planning to decide what to do based on the discards, but most likely just going for broke in diamonds. The discards might convince me to play a spade and try to throw in LHO for a diamond into me instead, if I decide he started with four.

[kenrexford]

I may be too trusting, but my line:

Win the heart, small club to 10, small heart toward K9x, winning King when RHO splits (if not, stick in nine).

Back to dummy, overtaking my club King. Run off the clubs.

If clubs happen to be 5-1, I'll hope for a spade or diamond trick somewhere in he wash. But, if they split 4-2 or 3-3, I'll then lead another heart toward my remaining 9x. I took three diamond pitches on the clubs, BTW.

[cherdano]

Ken, I think your line has the small problem that you have no heart lefts in dummy to lead one up to your ♥9x.

[kenrexford]

cherdano, on Jun 16 2007, 09:26 PM, said:

Ken, I think your line has the small problem that you have no heart lefts in dummy to lead one up to your ♥9x.

Yeah, that does cause a problem.

OK -- small diamond toward Queen.

[pclayton]

Win heart, D to Q, win heart.

I can't tell where the HQ is because many would lead the 8 from Q8xx. Still it feels natural to now play a club to the 10 and hook the diamond 10. I'll trade the possibility of 5-1 clubs to maintain some flexibility with my entries, and because I dont want to squeeze my hand on the clubs.

Josh's line might work, but I dont have the stones for it. Id hate to win the Ks, lose the diamond hook and they figure it out to cash 3S's.

[gwnn]

At the table I tried Phil's line. Perhaps it's needless to say Leftie showed up with ♦J98x. Minus one.

I like the idea of running clubs. But what could I have discarded from my hand?

[Free]

I think it's a normal MP play to go for the ♦s... You can easily make your contract with ♦K onside, you can easily make overtricks if RHO has the ♦J later on with 3-3 split.
In imps I guess ♠s are safer to go for, since you need only 1 extra trick. But you may as well hope that you'll get an extra trick handed over to you by the defense if you go for the ♠s...

[foo]

gwnn, on Jun 16 2007, 05:56 PM, said:

MP's weak-ish field versus one of the better opposing pairs.

North,????,MP,
♠Kxx♥xx♦Qxx♣AQJTx
♠JTx♥AK9x♦ATxx♣Kx

Undisturbed bidding went

1♣-1♦;2♣-3N

(I realize this would be bid different in the US and in 90% in Europe. please accept it as it is)

Lead was ♥8, explained as "lack of interest". RHO covers with the ♥T. How would you play this one?

I'm late to this, and I'm going to go out of my way not to read the whole thread so that I hopefully don't see the DD answer.

EDIT:
"Lack of interest" to me implies the LHO's suit is 8, 8x, 8xx, ?8x, or ?8xx
Seeing as I'm looking at the 8, 9, T, K, and A; J8xx or Q8xx seems unlikely.
Since a 3:4 break fits the odds and lead best, that's my 1st view.
I'm going to learn everything I can about the opponent's defensive methods before I choose my plan of play.

This may seem silly, but I'm strongly considering Ducking the ♥T and letting RHO win this trick.

I've got 2 ♥'s + 1 ♦ + 5 ♣'s = 8 tricks.

My expectation is 9 tricks and I'm in the normal spot for the board, so I have to take 10 tricks to get a good MP score.

LHO is the Danger Hand, not RHO. So having RHO on lead is best if They are in.
If RHO returns a ♣ (highly unlikely), I'm no worse off than I was before.

If RHO returns anything else, including a ♥, they risk helping me get my 9th trick.

In addition, RHO's return will tell me more about the hand and helps tighten up the position, AKA rectify the count, for any squeezes I may later want to try.