[cherdano]

Midnights BBO team match, expert opponents.

Scoring: IMP

2♥-4♥.
Lead ♦5 (3rd/5th)

---

RHO plays the ten under the ♦A at trick one.

[skjaeran]

The lead could be:
Singleton
53
xx5(3)
98765

The main problem is losing ♥K, ♠AK and a ruff. I'll win the lead in dummy, cash another diamond dicarding a spade and then run the ♥Q. If it wins I play a club to the king and play trump A,J. If ♥Q loses to the king and it goes ♠H, ♠ to H and east returns a ♠ I ruff high and draws trumps.

If the lead was a singleton I'm most probably going down.

[ArtK78]

There is no reason to assume that the lead was from a short suit (or, for that matter, a very long suit).

I play diamonds from the top, pitching as many spades as possible.

[pclayton]

ArtK78, on Aug 11 2007, 07:53 AM, said:

There is no reason to assume that the lead was from a short suit (or, for that matter, a very long suit).

I play diamonds from the top, pitching as many spades as possible.

Same here. The auction disclosed very little to the opponents, and there's no reason to think LHO led from shortness here.

It helps to be at the table in situations like this. You can ususally get a good read from LHO when dummy comes down. If its anxiety, then start running diamonds. If its calm, then its possible LHO led from shortness and likes the fact he's about to start getting diamond ruffs.

[cherdano]

Jlall, on Aug 11 2007, 12:46 PM, said:

Yeah I don't get this problem just play lots of high diamonds and discard...

Well, so far everyone is going down (and the lead wasn't from a singleton)...

[cherdano]

Anyway, the reason I posted this hand is that I thought most players lead aggressively against this auction, which increases the odds of the lead being from a short suit. Agree/disagree?

[pclayton]

cherdano, on Aug 11 2007, 11:26 AM, said:

Anyway, the reason I posted this hand is that I thought most players lead aggressively against this auction, which increases the odds of the lead being from a short suit. Agree/disagree?

Does that mean they start banging down aces?

[cherdano]

pclayton, on Aug 11 2007, 01:32 PM, said:

cherdano, on Aug 11 2007, 11:26 AM, said:

Anyway, the reason I posted this hand is that I thought most players lead aggressively against this auction, which increases the odds of the lead being from a short suit. Agree/disagree?

Does that mean they start banging down aces?

No, by aggressive I just mean preferring Kxx or Qxx to xxx.

[skjaeran]

The lead looks like a passive lead from a hand with no good alternatives, probably holding ♠Ax(xx) and ♣Qx(xx) or Jx(xx).

[shoeless]

My first instinct on this hand was to win the diamond and play the Q!h to the ace and chase hearts.

[skjaeran]

shoeless, on Aug 12 2007, 10:50 AM, said:

My first instinct on this hand was to win the diamond and play the Q!h to the ace and chase hearts.

Then you'll go down if spades are Ax Kxxx, Kx Axxx or xx AKxx and the player with a doubleton has more than two trumps.

The defence after winning the trump king should be quite obvious.

[Fluffy]

skaeran, on Aug 12 2007, 09:10 AM, said:

shoeless, on Aug 12 2007, 10:50 AM, said:

My first instinct on this hand was to win the diamond and play the Q!h to the ace and chase hearts.

Then you'll go down if spades are Ax Kxxx, Kx Axxx or xx AKxx and the player with a doubleton has more than two trumps.

The defence after winning the trump king should be quite obvious.

declarer could have ♠Kx AJ109xx x xxxx and only a club switch would beat.

[skjaeran]

Fluffy, on Aug 12 2007, 03:38 PM, said:

skaeran, on Aug 12 2007, 09:10 AM, said:

shoeless, on Aug 12 2007, 10:50 AM, said:

My first instinct on this hand was to win the diamond and play the Q!h to the ace and chase hearts.

Then you'll go down if spades are Ax Kxxx, Kx Axxx or xx AKxx and the player with a doubleton has more than two trumps.

The defence after winning the trump king should be quite obvious.

declarer could have ♠Kx AJ109xx x xxxx and only a club switch would beat.

That's true.
That's why many give suit preference when declarer plays trumps.

[cherdano]

skaeran, on Aug 11 2007, 02:53 AM, said:

The lead could be:
Singleton
53
xx5(3)
98765

The main problem is losing ♥K, ♠AK and a ruff. I'll win the lead in dummy, cash another diamond dicarding a spade and then run the ♥Q. If it wins I play a club to the king and play trump A,J. If ♥Q loses to the king and it goes ♠H, ♠ to H and east returns a ♠ I ruff high and draws trumps.

If the lead was a singleton I'm most probably going down.

Btw, this line goes down whenever diamonds are 5-2 and the defender with short diamonds still has a trump left when the defense wins their ♥K. They will return a club to remove your entry to the diamonds.
The other lines go down on the actual distribution (diamonds 5-2, hearts Kxxx off-side) for similar reasons, the ♣A will get knocked out too early (although the defense is more tricky to find).
[But yeah I am convinced just pitching as many spades as possible seems right.]

My somewhat uninspired line (it was late at night, after all) went down for a funny reason. I ran the ♥Q at trick 2, played a club to the king, heart ace and another, LHO showing up with ♥Kxxx. He put me in dummy with a club, so I tried to cash a diamond, go back to hand with a club ruff, draw the last trump, and set up a spade trick.
However, at trick 10, when I had ♦K and ♠QJx in dummy left and ♥x and ♠xxx in hand, LHO rose with ♠A and played a club to squeeze dummy.
(see http://korbelbridge.blogspot.com/2007/08/h...tch-on-bbo.html )

Reading LHO for a lead from shortness was apparently particularly wrong against this LHO as Daniel had led from ♦xx rather than ♣QJ9x.

[dank]

Yeah I don't know if my lead was right in theory but I don't always like leading from QJ9x when LHO is marked with strength. It sure worked in practice, and gave a cool ending.

[Foxx]

Okay, how about winning the ♦A, the ♦K pitching a spade, then run the ♥Q. West will duck (or it's easy). Then we switch back to diamonds, the ♦Q discarding another spade. West can have his ruff, but declarer is now in control. When we get back in we'll lay down the ♥A. The defense only gets the ♥K, a diamond ruff and a spade (or, if West wins trick three, the ♥K and two spades).