[42]

I tend to say that I am an advanced player, but I still have difficulties to work out the best - or correct - strategy when playing MP.
Here is an example of the latest German Mixed Championship:

Scoring: MP

contract is 4♠ from S (surprise )
You receive the friendly lead of ♦ K.

---

What is your plan? Especially, what are the thoughts of an expert?
Which plan is the best and why?
And so: how do you play?

I hope to get more detailed answers than "42"

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

you asked for expert advice, so ignore the following,
but I would not finesse in clubs, but I would go with 2
rounds of clubs, trumping a 3 round, drawing trumps
in 2 rounds, finishing in dummy.

This will ensure, in a safe way, that we may get
+2/+3 without risking too much.

You already got a nice lead, and the above line will
give you a fair chance to go +2/+3, around 50%
of the time without risking too much, if you finesse,
and the finesse fails (50% of the time), you will have
a sure bottom.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[FrancesHinden]

MP play is horribly difficult. I have no idea what the right line is.
There are three lines, of varying aggressiveness.

The all-out line is to win the ace of diamonds and take a club finesse at trick 2. If that loses, they may still try and cash a diamond.

The intermediate line is to cash the queen of spades, and if everyone follows then play A, K and a club ruff, making twelve if the CQ is short or they are 3-3.

The cautious line is not to risk anything less than 11 tricks. Win the lead, trump to dummy, diamond ruff, draw trumps, club to dummy, diamond ruff, run trumps and hope for the best.

Which is best? I don't know. I would probably take the middle road, but I bet the real matchpoint gods would take the aggressive route.

I had a similar problem on Vugraph on Saturday: playing a combination of point-a-board (BAM) and IMPs, I had to decide on the opening lead whether to take a safe 10 tricks in 3NT, or take a trick 1 finesse for 11 with the risk of 9 (or possibly 8 on a very bad day). I went for 11, only made 9, and the commentators said "that was a brave choice of play" which is a euphemism for saying they disagreed with me.

[pclayton]

Did the bidding reveal a club suit in dummy?

You stayed out of a bad slam, so your expectancy is already 55%.

You avoided a heart lead, so you have an extra chance for 1-2 more.

I would take Frances' #2 line.

[rbforster]

I hope the field isnt good enough to bid slams off AK♥, KQ♦ and some club honors. I think this one is about overtricks.

I'm going for 5 or 7. Cash 2 high clubs before drawing trump, ruff a club high. At this point if the clubs are 3-3 or the Q has fallen, we're getting 2 pitches for hearts. I'll play 2 trumps ending in dummy, hoping for 2-1 split, and run the clubs for 7. If clubs are 4-2, I'll play a trump to the K, ruff another high, and hope someone foolishly played high low from 82 of trumps giving me my last entry with the 6♠ when they're 2-1 so I still dump one heart loser for 6. Otherwise I fall back on making 5.

It seems the only risk here is that someone has a stiff club, which doesn't seem that likely and might have been lead if LHO had it.

[bid_em_up]

How did the auction go?

4S all pass? or something else?

[jdonn]

Yes it really does matter what the auction was. Obviously if you opened 4♠ then you won't try a club finesse at trick 2 since they probably won't play you for two outside aces (meaning they are likely to find the heart switch). However if it was an auction where I could easily have the ace of hearts, I love trying a club finesse, or at the very least leading the ten and reading the heart and soul of LHO.

[42]

I didn't play with a regular partner, we agreed on very simple stone-age precision (ja, ja... don't say it ). After some thought I decided to open 4♠ although I find this hand a bit too strong for that. I just listened to my intuition
So the whole bidding, without any hesitation, went:
4♠ pass pass pass

What happened at the table (hidden):

Spoiler

The lady on my left was very interested to watch my ♣10, so there was another intuition that she had the ♣Q. But when I learned something during my bridge career: you cannot explain female intuition! Should it fail (rarely), they shake their head and think it is a pre-sign of the menopause. So I fell back on refusing the finesse...
♣Qxxx was onside, naturally.
11 tricks gave 40/102 MP. This is not tooooo bad, sure, but still... Luck was with the brave and those with intuition. I just wondered how many of you would finesse and - if so - why.
Here the EW hands:

West
♠ 82
♥ K102
♦ KQ93
♣ Q872

East
♠ 9
♥ A97643
♦ J752
♣ 43

Thx for your answers!

[pclayton]

Maybe the club finesse is better in practice. RHO will probably shotgun a diamond at T3.