[dburn]

Scoring: Chicago

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Zia to your right, Robert Sheehan to your left, fifty cents a point. You open 1♦ - your partner plays five-card majors. LHO bids 1♠ and partner doubles for penalty. Yes, yes, I know - but it might even have worked.

Redouble, says Zia, you pass, 2♥ says Sheehan and partner (bless him) bids 3♥. You bid 3NT, all pass, and Sheehan leads the six of clubs. You duck that to Zia's queen, and he plays the jack of hearts to the king and ace. Sheehan returns the two of hearts to Zia's nine; you duck, and Zia shifts to the six of spades.

How would you play if: [a] at this moment you hated your RHO worse than your LHO? [b] you hated both of them equally? [c] you hated your partner worse than either of your opponents (I mean, how would they have done in 2♥ doubled, after all)?

[mikeh]

Great hand, if I read it right Which, after a very long day, I might not.

If LHO has 5+diamonds, then we win the spade in dummy, cash the clubs, come to hand with a diamond and exit the low heart to Zia who, down to nothing by diamonds, is endplayed.. with our spade K preserved as the entry to the top heart.

OTOH, if we win the spade K at trick 4, we can cash the clubs, pitching a spade, and LHO is squeezed down to a stiff diamond, and we are cold if he began with either or both the Q or the 10.

I don't hate Zia... I have only played against him a handful of times and he has been very pleasant, but I'd go with line 1 anyway, because it is prettier, and I suspect Sheehan would not choose a stiff, therefore Zia rates to have 5+ diamonds.

[dburn]

Now I come to think about it - what would you Standard Americans do with the North hand after 1♦-(1♠)? Would you do it in tempo?

[gwnn]

2♣

[pclayton]

mikeh, on Oct 3 2008, 07:54 PM, said:

Great hand, if I read it right Which, after a very long day, I might not.

If LHO has 5+diamonds, then we win the spade in dummy, cash the clubs, come to hand with a diamond and exit the low heart to Zia who, down to nothing by diamonds, is endplayed.. with our spade K preserved as the entry to the top heart.

OTOH, if we win the spade K at trick 4, we can cash the clubs, pitching a spade, and LHO is squeezed down to a stiff diamond, and we are cold if he began with either or both the Q or the 10.

I don't hate Zia... I have only played against him a handful of times and he has been very pleasant, but I'd go with line 1 anyway, because it is prettier, and I suspect Sheehan would not choose a stiff, therefore Zia rates to have 5+ diamonds.

I think LHO shows ♠ + ♥ Mike.

[gnasher]

Hearts appear to be A8xx opposite J109. Hence:

If I hated Sheehan, I'd duck this spade and then squeeze him in the majors.

If I hated Zia and he were 1=3=5=4, I'd win in hand, strip him of clubs and pop him in with ♥10, to make him regret not having played a third round of the suit when he had a chance.

If I hated Zia and he were 1=3=4=5, I can't see anything better than to pretend I hated Sheehan instead. I'd have to take a diamond finesse to rectify the count.

If I started off hating Zia, found him to be 1=3=5=4, and then changed my mind and decided I hated Sheehan even more, I could still recover: cash a second spade to give Zia a chance to throw away ♥10, then cash the diamonds and endplay Sheehan to lead away from ♥8.

If I hated my partner so much that I didn't mind spending some money on it, I'd win in dummy, cross to a club, and take a diamond finesse.

[mikeh]

pclayton, on Oct 4 2008, 10:31 AM, said:

mikeh, on Oct 3 2008, 07:54 PM, said:

Great hand, if I read it right   Which, after a very long day, I might not.

If LHO has 5+diamonds, then we win the spade in dummy, cash the clubs, come to hand with a diamond and exit the low heart to Zia who, down to nothing by diamonds, is endplayed.. with our spade K preserved as the entry to the top heart.

OTOH, if we win the spade K at trick 4, we can cash the clubs, pitching a spade, and LHO is squeezed down to a stiff diamond, and we are cold if he began with either or both the Q or the 10.

I don't hate Zia... I have only played against him a handful of times and he has been very pleasant, but I'd go with line 1 anyway, because it is prettier, and I suspect Sheehan would not choose a stiff, therefore Zia rates to have 5+ diamonds.

I think LHO shows ♠ + ♥ Mike.

yes, that was a typo... read my post with rho having 5 diamonds, Phil... see that I endplay zia

[mikeh]

gnasher, on Oct 4 2008, 10:52 AM, said:

Hearts appear to be A8xx opposite J109.  Hence:

If I hated Sheehan, I'd duck this spade and then squeeze him in the majors.

If I hated Zia and he were 1=3=5=4, I'd win in hand, strip him of clubs and pop him in with ♥10, to make him regret not having played a third round of the suit when he had a chance.

If I hated Zia and he were 1=3=4=5, I can't see anything better than to pretend I hated Sheehan instead.  I'd have to take a diamond finesse to rectify the count.

If I started off hating Zia, found him to be 1=3=5=4, and then changed my mind and decided I hated Sheehan even more, I could still recover: cash a second spade to give Zia a chance to throw away ♥10, then cash the diamonds and endplay Sheehan to lead away from ♥8.

If I hated my partner so much that I didn't mind spending some money on it, I'd win in dummy, cross to a club, and take a diamond finesse.

edit

[dburn]

gnasher, on Oct 4 2008, 10:52 AM, said:

Hearts appear to be A8xx opposite J109.

What appears to be so is not always so, especially at rubber bridge against Zia.

Would he really make an SOS redouble with 1=3=5=4 or 1=3=4=5 shape? Perhaps, but it is rather more likely that he would first run to 1NT and then redouble that, in order to suggest that his partner rescue to a minor rather than to a three-card heart suit.

If Zia really is 1=3 in the majors, have both opponents false-carded in hearts? Yes, they have. But they are not on your side - that's why they're called opponents.

[gnasher]

This distribution had occurred to me, but it if West is 5=3 in the majors I can't see any way to do him, which seems to be a precondition of the question. In any case, I don't suppose that Sheehan and Zia have enough respect for my cardplay to bother falsecarding.

Against this distribution, I can either:
- Duck the spade, then play a double squeeze with diamonds as the pivot, or
- Win the spade, cash the black winners and exit with the fourth heart, endplaying Zia.