[jchiu]

The hand generator is not working, complaining about 'Sundefined in South, West hands'

North holds ♠ Q5 ♥ J32 ♦ A765 ♣ J1053
West holds ♠ J842 ♥ Q1074 ♦ J8 ♣ K64
East holds ♠ 76 ♥ K865 ♦ KQ1094 ♣ 98
South holds ♠ AK1093 ♥ A9 ♦ 32 ♣ AQ72

North deals at love all, playing IMPs, and the auction proceeds

Pass Pass 1♠ Pass
1N Pass 2N Pass
3N All Pass

The defense, playing standard honor leads and upside down carding

♦ Q-2-J-5
♦ 9-3-8-A
♣ 10-8-2-K
♥ 10-J-5-9

Ten tricks ...

[Echognome]

Translated and rotated to make South declarer...

Scoring: Imps

---

Pass Pass 1♠ Pass
1N Pass 2N Pass
3N All Pass

The defense, playing standard honor leads and upside down carding

♦ Q-2-J-5
♦ 9-3-8-A
♣ 10-8-2-K
♥ 10-J-5-9

Ten tricks ...

[whereagles]

East should play the ♥Q, a merrimac coup. Whether or not this is obvious is another matter... West should probably cover the ♥J, else he'd need pard to have ♠QJ, which is too much of a prayer.

[655321]

whereagles, on Apr 15 2008, 04:16 AM, said:

East should play the ♥Q, a merrimac coup.

Yes, East should play the ♥Q, but this is the Deschapelles Coup.
The Merrimac coup is when you play a high card to remove one of the declaring side's entries.

[gnasher]

♥10 is just the wrong play. It never gains over ♥Q, and loses by force when South has ♥J8x.

Given this, I think West is correct to play for partner to have ♥10xx and ♠QJxx. (♥10x and ♠QJxxx probably isn't good enough - declarer has an endplay for his ninth trick.)

[whereagles]

655321, on Apr 15 2008, 09:25 AM, said:

whereagles, on Apr 15 2008, 04:16 AM, said:

East should play the ♥Q, a merrimac coup.

Yes, East should play the ♥Q, but this is the Deschapelles Coup.
The Merrimac coup is when you play a high card to remove one of the declaring side's entries.

Correct. The Deschapelles is used to create an entry in partner, which is the case here.

[benlessard]

South would have showned 5H over the 2Nt with a 2542. So not putting the K♥ is ugly. Switching with the Q♥ is best but its clear East has to have QT or JT for playing T of H.

Quote

♥10 is just the wrong play. It never gains over ♥Q, and loses by force when South has ♥J8x.

On a bad day switching the Q of ♥ will allow partner to be squeezed while the T♥ will be the correct play. Not on this hand but on very similar hand. So we cant say the Q of H is an automatic play.

[ArtK78]

The play of the ♥Q by West would be a fine play, indeed. Assigning blame to West for not making that play is harsh.

East's failure to play the ♥K is stupefying.

I was tempted to assign 100% of the blame to East, but since West could have taken East off the hook by playing the ♥Q, I gave 75% of the blame to East.

[jdonn]

I agree with the queen of hearts. It is just possible to blow it if partner has Kx or so but this is unlikely, and it makes things much easier for partner in all other cases.

I disagree with the notion to never play a card that could blow a trick. If you have two plays, one of which will blow a trick 10% of the time, the other of which will never blow a trick but gives partner a difficult guess 50% of the time, then the play seems obvious.

[jdonn]

655321, on Apr 15 2008, 04:25 AM, said:

whereagles, on Apr 15 2008, 04:16 AM, said:

East should play the ♥Q, a merrimac coup.

Yes, East should play the ♥Q, but this is the Deschapelles Coup.
The Merrimac coup is when you play a high card to remove one of the declaring side's entries.

This is true, but I always found it strange that the same play has a different name based on the goal being attempted. I mean if you take a finesse to win a trick, or you take a finesse to keep someone off lead, or you take a finesse to get a count on highcards for a later suit, or you take a finesse to throw in an opponent, it's still a finesse.

[ArtK78]

jdonn, on Apr 15 2008, 01:09 PM, said:

655321, on Apr 15 2008, 04:25 AM, said:

whereagles, on Apr 15 2008, 04:16 AM, said:

East should play the ♥Q, a merrimac coup.

Yes, East should play the ♥Q, but this is the Deschapelles Coup.
The Merrimac coup is when you play a high card to remove one of the declaring side's entries.

This is true, but I always found it strange that the same play has a different name based on the goal being attempted. I mean if you take a finesse to win a trick, or you take a finesse to keep someone off lead, or you take a finesse to get a count on highcards for a later suit, or you take a finesse to throw in an opponent, it's still a finesse.

The naming of the plays is based upon the history of Bridge or, more specifically, the history of Whist, as these plays were named prior to the invention of Contract Bridge (probably prior to the invention of Auction Bridge).

They are the same except for the goal to be achieved.

Many years ago, I arrived directly from work in a suit and tie for a one-session Sectional pairs game on a Friday evening. Playing with a pick-up partner, I sat down against Jim Linhart on my right. On the first hand, Jim was declaring 3NT. Dummy had a long suit and I had one winner in the suit. I also held Kxx of spades, and dummy's sole entry was the Ax of spades. So I played the SK and cut him off from the long suit in dummy, resulting in down one. The SK lead beat the contract, but did give Jim an additional trick in spades.

Jim muttered after the round "He comes right from work, sits down and performs a Merrimack Coup on the first hand!"

All my partner could say was "Wouldn't we have beaten the contract another trick if you didn't play the ♠K?"

[gnasher]

ArtK78, on Apr 15 2008, 06:49 PM, said:

The play of the ♥Q by West would be a fine play, indeed. Assigning blame to West for not making that play is harsh.

At the top of this page it says "Advanced and Expert-Class Bridge". Doesn't that mean that we're supposed to make fine plays?

[gnasher]

jdonn, on Apr 15 2008, 07:00 PM, said:

I agree with the queen of hearts. It is just possible to blow it if partner has Kx or so but this is unlikely, and it makes things much easier for partner in all other cases.

If West has ♥Kx, or ♥K8, any heart switch - Q, 10 or small - costs one trick and possibly the contract. Switching to the queen costs an overtrick when West has ♥K singleton. I don't think there's any layout where ♥Q can let through a contract that was otherwise going down.

[jchiu]

ArtK78, on Apr 15 2008, 08:36 PM, said:

jdonn, on Apr 15 2008, 01:09 PM, said:

655321, on Apr 15 2008, 04:25 AM, said:

whereagles, on Apr 15 2008, 04:16 AM, said:

East should play the ♥Q, a merrimac coup.

Yes, East should play the ♥Q, but this is the Deschapelles Coup.
The Merrimac coup is when you play a high card to remove one of the declaring side's entries.

This is true, but I always found it strange that the same play has a different name based on the goal being attempted. I mean if you take a finesse to win a trick, or you take a finesse to keep someone off lead, or you take a finesse to get a count on highcards for a later suit, or you take a finesse to throw in an opponent, it's still a finesse.

The naming of the plays is based upon the history of Bridge or, more specifically, the history of Whist, as these plays were named prior to the invention of Contract Bridge (probably prior to the invention of Auction Bridge).

They are the same except for the goal to be achieved.

Many years ago, I arrived directly from work in a suit and tie for a one-session Sectional pairs game on a Friday evening. Playing with a pick-up partner, I sat down against Jim Linhart on my right. On the first hand, Jim was declaring 3NT. Dummy had a long suit and I had one winner in the suit. I also held Kxx of spades, and dummy's sole entry was the Ax of spades. So I played the SK and cut him off from the long suit in dummy, resulting in down one. The SK lead beat the contract, but did give Jim an additional trick in spades.

Jim muttered after the round "He comes right from work, sits down and performs a Merrimack Coup on the first hand!"

All my partner could say was "Wouldn't we have beaten the contract another trick if you didn't play the ♠K?"

I take it this wasn't Meyer Kotkin.

[ArtK78]

gnasher, on Apr 15 2008, 06:03 PM, said:

ArtK78, on Apr 15 2008, 06:49 PM, said:

The play of the ♥Q by West would be a fine play, indeed.  Assigning blame to West for not making that play is harsh.

At the top of this page it says "Advanced and Expert-Class Bridge". Doesn't that mean that we're supposed to make fine plays?

Interesting point.

If you poll most well known experts about what it means to be an expert, you might be surprised to find that it is the ability to play the routine hands correctly, defend correctly, and occasionally make advanced plays. In short, experts make fewer mistakes than non-experts.

You will also find that experts play routine hands in a manner calculated to make life as difficult as possible for the opponents to tell what is going on, often resulting in an unexpected extra trick.

The ability to find truly fine plays - such as the ♥Q shift here, or negotiating complicated hands effectively, is the difference between the "expert" and the "super-expert," such as Meckwell and others at the top of the bridge world.

[I may have mentioned this in another thread, but I found a statement by a friend of mine to be the best description of Meckwell's play. My friend, a Washington DC area player, played in two KO matches against Meckwell at last summer's Bethesda MD regional, winning one and losing one. He said that "The only time one of them touched a wrong card was on the way to the right card!"]

Scoff if you like, but the ♥Q play on this hand is not routine, and I suspect that very few would find it at the table.

[gnasher]

I am, in fact, keenly aware that amongst the things that distinguish me from an expert is the frequency with which I play routine hands incorrectly and defend incorrectly, as well as missing many of the advanced plays that come along.

I think, however, that you're overstating the difficulty of finding the right play on this hand. The player who originally held the East hand switched to ♥10. He seems, therefore, to have worked out that:
- The scoring is IMPs.
- Declarer has at least seven tricks already.
- West has some diamond tricks but no immediate entry.
- If declarer has ♥K, the contract is unbeatable, so West must have have ♥K.
- If declarer is left in peace he will set up his eighth and ninth tricks in spades without letting West in, so East must play a heart.
- If declarer has ♥J, a low heart switch is insufficient, because declarer can play low and keep control of hearts without letting West in.

Having got that far, he should have continued with:
- If declarer has ♥J8, the 10 of hearts is insufficient, because declarer can cover and keep control of hearts without letting West in.

♥Q is a play that I might or might not find at the table. Sometimes I would miss it, because I'm lazy, impulsive, easily distracted, and generally inexpert, but I'd be quite irritated with myself for doing so. If I switched to ♥10 and partner got the layout wrong, I would certainly regard it as my fault.

[pclayton]

Hands that are appropriate for the A/E class are hands that an accomplished player would find interesting, if not educational. I would not expect all experts to get all the plays in the A/E section right all the time.

Even some of the hands posted are difficult for even world class to get right at the table. When we are presented a 'problem' our radar goes up and we are more focused on very a potential problem. Only the very best can be as good at the table as away from the table.

Similarly, hands in the B/I section are hands that a B/I player would find useful.

An expert should get all hands in the B/I right all the time.

[FrancesHinden]

Here are a few other points

The DQ isn't 'standard' from that holding where I come from... maybe you mean the DQ is 'systemic'

Why did opening leader play the 9 of diamonds on the second round? This should be a suit preference card, so arguably partner should assume that declarer has the HK and, say, a singleton spade (1534) giving partner Jx in hearts. Now the HQ may be very expensive. I know that this hand for declarer is unlikely (no 3H bid), but then dummy didn't bother to show the nice club suit so maybe declarer didn't bother to bid hearts. Possibly a heart switch is still right on percentage grounds, but why not trust partner to signal accurately? (and see other comment below)

From the defence's point of view, why did declarer not duck the second diamond? Assuming the queen asked for unblock (did it?) couldn't diamonds be 4-3? That can only be because declarer was more frightened of a switch, thus the defence should assume that they have the KQ of hearts between them and West should play the king.

Why did partner of the opening leader not duck the first round of clubs?

Would declarer have made anyway? Diamond ducked, diamond won. Club finesse lost. Queen of hearts switch ducked. Second heart won in dummy. Club to the 10, club to the ace and (I assume) a heart discard. Unless the defence are being very clever (e.g. not cashing two winning diamonds), LHO is either 2452 or 3352 or possibly 1552. Does that make a first round spade finesse percentage? (I think not quite, but it's pretty close).

[gnasher]

The question of what is standard from KQ109x is comparable to "How do you pronounce 'lieutenant'?" and "What proportion of slams auctions should involve RKCB?"

I agree about the meaning ♦9 and the failure to duck ♣10, but if partner doesn't have ♥K it's going to be hard to beat 3NT once we've won ♣K. If declarer has a spade, he can play a spade to the 10; if he has five clubs he already has nine tricks; and if he has a five-card heart suit he has no real choice but to play to set it up. That leaves 0=4=5=4, in which case declarer has misplayed by not setting up his diamonds, but in any case a switch to ♥Q won't cost.

[bid_em_up]

FrancesHinden, on Apr 18 2008, 11:36 AM, said:

Here are a few other points

The DQ isn't 'standard' from that holding where I come from... maybe you mean the DQ is 'systemic'

The standard lead marked on the ACBL convention card is the Q from a holding of KQ109 (vs. NT) and specifically asks for the unblock of the Jack if partner has it.