[pclayton]

Here's a hand I played in 4♥ yesterday. I'm not happy with the way I played it, although my mistake may not be totally evident:

Scoring: IMP

---

Pard opened 1♣, 1♠ on right. You choose 2♦ (its not really germane, but do you agree?)

2N from pard, 3♥ by you, 4♥ by pard.

I'll give you the first few tricks. If you think you see an improvement, let me know.

1. ♠Q, A, small, small
2. ♦ to Ace
3. Ruff diamond (all follow)
4. Heart toward hand; RHO pops Ace
5. ♠J to King

Your play.

[Walddk]

Tricks 1-5 seem OK to me. Let me try from trick 6 and onwards:

6. ♣A (spade pitch).
7. Heart to the king in case RHO rose from AJ. I expect him to show out though.

If hearts are 4-1 (assumption), I now need two diamond tricks along with my two top tricks in spades and one in clubs. In other words: I need LHO to have the two remaining diamonds (K10). I think I can add the five heart tricks if the layout is as hoped.

8. ♦Q, K?, ruff. *
9. Club ruff with the 10.
10. ♦J .... and ♥Q in the wash.

That must give me 10 tricks. Two top spades, ♣A, ♦A and Jack, two diamond ruffs in dummy and three trump tricks in hand.

* If LHO follows small (10), I will let it ride. At this point I don't think I can make it if diamonds are 3-3. First I must tap myself, and seconds later LHO will tap me.

Roland

[mikeh]

I'm not happy with the first few tricks, altho, as I type this, I'm still not entirely sure of a better line.

My thinking is that the odds favour the♦ hook against RHO.. after all, he overcalled on a miserable suit, altho at trick 2 it might be a 6 carder.

Low to the ♦ Q. If it works, ruff low ♦ and now a trump. If the ♦ hook works, I think I am virtually cold against most plausible layouts (not counting a huge trump stack on my left.. and I'd have been doubled if there were.

Roland's line seems to me to call for LHO to have remained silent with Qx J9xx K10xx (J)xx after we have our auction to 4♥. It seems to me that some opps would take a piece of our contract on that holding: after all, dummy's spades did not rate to be AK and our red suits look great on defence.

If the diamond hook loses, and back comes a spade... win, cash the ♣ to pitch the spade and lead a trump. If RHO flies, I am down on the hand with 4 trump on my left... but, as I say, I'm betting that LHO would have doubled.

RHO leads a top spade and I ruff with the K. I ruff a diamond and play a trump to my Q and run the diamonds... I make if trump are 3-2 and diamonds no worse than 4-2.... even when the diamond hook lost.

I'm still not convinced.

BTW, I have this niggling feeling that, if one were to reject the ♦ play, a low trump at trick one seems more intuitive... but since I think that the ♦ to the Q is the best line (and I am willing to be persuaded otherwise), I'm leaving that feeling unexplored.

[Walddk]

mikeh, on Aug 15 2007, 10:18 PM, said:

Roland's line seems to me to call for LHO to have remained silent with Qx J9xx K10xx (J)xx after we have our auction to 4♥. It seems to me that some opps would take a piece of our contract on that holding

A good defender would not double 4♥ in my view. If he did, it would be an open book, would it not? The fact that he remained silent gives me a losing option (your diamond finesse at trick two).

I honestly don't think that an expert player would double 4♥ at IMPs if he has that hand.

Roland

[jtfanclub]

mikeh, on Aug 15 2007, 03:18 PM, said:

I'm not happy with the first few tricks, altho, as I type this, I'm still not entirely sure of a better line.

My thinking is that the odds favour the♦ hook against RHO.. after all, he overcalled on a miserable suit, altho at trick 2 it might be a 6 carder.

I don't think it matters...I think the diamond hook on trick 2 or diamond to the ace and a ruffing finesse on trick 3 are both superior plays to ace of diamonds-ruff a diamond.

You're expecting to lose a diamond, a diamond ruff, and the ace of hearts. The real danger here is that you run out of communication and either get stuck in dummy or that they end up scoring a third trump.

Let's suppose that on trick 3 you try the ruffing finesse, and it loses. If RHO now leads another diamond, you play low, if it gets ruffed you now control the hand unless the ruff was with a singleton heart, which seems unlikely.

If RHO leads back a spade, you have plenty of time to try a heart back to the king, win the next spade*, discard your last spade on the club, heart to the king, ruff a diamond, dummy's last heart to the queen, and run diamonds until they take their last trump, then claim.

I can go through if the ruffing finesse works, but it should still come out the same. Unless one hand has exactly two diamonds and one heart, you should be fine.

I like the ruffing finesse better than the hook, because if both the king of diamonds and the ace of hearts are to your left, you could get caught by a club through and a club through making you ruff in your hand, which is what I'm trying to avoid.

EDIT: *on the ruffing finesse, sluff a spade in dummy. If they want to take a spade ruff instead of a diamond ruff for their third trick, let 'em.

[Fluffy]

I don't know if 2♦ is forcing or not, but I think that it must be right to bid it anyway .

[mikeh]

jtfanclub, on Aug 15 2007, 03:37 PM, said:

I like the ruffing finesse better than the hook, because if both the king of diamonds and the ace of hearts are to your left, you could get caught by a club through and a club through making you ruff in your hand, which is what I'm trying to avoid.

EDIT: *on the ruffing finesse, sluff a spade in dummy. If they want to take a spade ruff instead of a diamond ruff for their third trick, let 'em.

Unless the opps are at favourable, and not even then if RHO is over 50, the odds are overwhelming that LHO does not hold both the ♦K and then ♥A.... certainly, I wouldn't worry about catering to that possibility unless doing so was cost-free.

[jtfanclub]

mikeh, on Aug 15 2007, 04:40 PM, said:

jtfanclub, on Aug 15 2007, 03:37 PM, said:

I like the ruffing finesse better than the hook, because if both the king of diamonds and the ace of hearts are to your left, you could get caught by a club through and a club through making you ruff in your hand, which is what I'm trying to avoid.

EDIT: *on the ruffing finesse, sluff a spade in dummy.  If they want to take a spade ruff instead of a diamond ruff for their third trick, let 'em.

Unless the opps are at favourable, and not even then if RHO is over 50, the odds are overwhelming that LHO does not hold both the ♦K and then ♥A.... certainly, I wouldn't worry about catering to that possibility unless doing so was cost-free.

Good point. Although I think if LHO has the K♦, returns a club, then RHO has the A♥, and then he leads a club, you run into the same problem- the ruff of a club IMHO pretty much eliminates any shot of getting the diamonds to run if the hearts are 4-1.

EDIT: Then again, a lead of a club by RHO in this situation, you can assume that RHO has the king of clubs for his 1♠ call, and duck. If he tries the K♣, they just set up the clubs for you, so time for a dummy reversal.

So diamond hook seems safe again. So I guess you're right- try the hook.

[Foxx]

I agree with Walddk on all points.