[Trumpace]

Scoring: Rubber

contract 4♥

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You are South, playing in the relaxed club.

You open 2H, LHO passes, partner bids 4H and then all pass. (If you don't agree with 2♥, fine, but this is not a bidding problem)

LHO leads the ♥6.

Plan the play.

[Dean]

Ace of hearts, ruff a dmd, club to Ace, ruff a dmd, club to King ruff a dmd.
Exit with heart, hopefully endplaying RHO.

I fthey have a 3rd heart then have to lead up to the spade King.

[PedroG]

Hi,

Assuming that ♣ break nice for us , we have 3 possible loser in ♠ and still de K♥...

play low planing to take with the Q♥, if that doesn't fall for me, I will have to rely on K♠ for the extra trick...

Pedro

[ArcLight]

Why is LHO leading a trump?
I assume its not from a holding like Kxx as that could blow a trick.
Also, why not a ♦ lead? I assume LHO doesnt have AK or KQ, thus RHO should have the K, or more.
Why not lead a ♠? With Q J xxx it would be ok. Maybe they have the unsupported ace?


I think LHO has a hand with tenaces and wants to avoid breaking a suit.
I go up with the heart ace, in the hopes of dropping RHOs stiff king. This isn't a percentage play, just based on my impression of the opening lead.

If you had more trumps, you could eliminate Dimes, and have one in each hand to end play someone.
I don't see that working here.

[Quantumcat]

Why don't you think an endplay will work on this hand? I thought Dean's post seemed very reasonable.

You know you will lose a heart. You have enough entries to ruff all the diamonds, and if RHO didn't have king singleton he won't have Kxx (and be able to lead back a small heart) because LHO probably knows the "rule" not to lead singleton trumps. And hope he had 2 clubs not three or he can just lead back a club. It gives you an extra chance so why shouldn't you play for it? Even if they had Kxx or 3 clubs, the spade finesse is probably working anyway, like you said. You need clubs to break no matter what so it can't harm you risking a ruff right?

♥A, ♦ruff, ♣A, ♦ruff, ♣K, ♦ruff, ♥exit to RHO?

[Trumpace]

No idea.

When i got this hand. I played the same way.

HA, D ruff, CA, D ruff, CK, D ruff, Trump exit. If RHO holds Kx trumps and doubleton clubs we have just given ourselves an extra chance. If he holds 3 clubs, we can fall back on the spade finesse.

But this is what happened:

HA, D ruff, CA, D ruff, CK, D ruff, Trump exit. LHO discarded on the 2nd round of trumps (had led a singleton trump), RHO played a spade to LHO and got a club ruff!

I don't think we can draw any kind on inferences on the lead, especially when playing in the relaxed club

[awm]

I don't like this elimination line. If trumps are 3-1, you're almost always going down! Say they win the heart king and return a trump. Now you are out of trumps having played three rounds and ruffed three diamonds. Even if the ♠A is onside, they might have two diamonds to cash.....

The opening trump lead also makes it look like the ♠A is onside, since lacking the ace he might've chosen to lead a spade. I think I'd just pull trumps and lead a spade up. People do also lead from Kxx of trump by the way (but not so much Kx).

[Trumpace]

awm, on Aug 7 2007, 03:55 PM, said:

I don't like this elimination line. If trumps are 3-1, you're almost always going down! Say they win the heart king and return a trump. Now you are out of trumps having played three rounds and ruffed three diamonds. Even if the ♠A is onside, they might have two diamonds to cash.....

The opening trump lead also makes it look like the ♠A is onside, since lacking the ace he might've chosen to lead a spade. I think I'd just pull trumps and lead a spade up. People do also lead from Kxx of trump by the way (but not so much Kx).

I agree.

Leading from Kxx of trumps seems quite normal.

It was just an interesting hand with possibilities... that's all. I am not saying elimination line is best (which basically commits to a 2-2 trump split).

Since it was the relaxed club, I just played a line that came to mind first (Usually do that everywhere else too )