[rogerclee]

Scoring: IMP

---

(2♠) - P - (3♠) - Dbl
(P) - 4♥ - AP

LHO is a beginner but bids aggressively, RHO is good and bids pretty normally.

LHO leads the ♠5, ducked to RHO's ♠J. RHO plays the ♠K (his partner following with the ♠6), and switches to the ♦2.

[mtvesuvius]

I play the A♥ and a ♥ to the King... When RHO shows up with 3♥, I cash the ♦ and play the A♣ then put RHO in with the Q♥... When ♥ are 2-2, there is no problem .

[emma]

Maybe play Ace, King of Club then put RHO in.

[Lobowolf]

Are beginners who are aggressive bidders more likely to preempt in T-high suits, or underlead aces against suit contracts?

[JanM]

I think it was RHO who opened 2♠, so LHO didn't preempt with a 10-high suit, he just raised partner's preempt.

It seems to me that we can either play RHO for a stiff diamond or 3 diamonds from the lead of the diamond 2 at trick 3. With a stiff, he'll probably be 6313 or 6214, and the former is more likely. With 3, he'll be 6331, 6232 or 6133; 6331 seems very unlikely (why not shift to a club).

If has 3 diamonds and either 6232 or 6133, we can make by winning in hand, cashing the heart A (just in case there's a stiff Q), then AK of diamonds (pitching a club), AK of clubs, and J of hearts finessing into RHO. If he wins this, having been 6232, he's out of everything but spades and has to give us a ruff-sluff to get rid of another club. If he was 6133, the finesse wins and we lose a club.

But if he has a stiff diamond, he'll ruff the second diamond and we may still lose a club. So which is more likely? This is the sort of hand where it helps to look at the hands you're playing both opponents for - maybe you can decide that one set of hands is more likely than the other.

RHO: AKJxxx, Qx, xxx, xx or AKJxxx, x, xxx, xxx, which gives LHO: Txx, xx, Jxxxx, Qxx or Txx, Qxx, Jxxxx, Qx. Pretty weak raises for LHO, but not unreasonable (of course he might have the spade A, but it seems strange not to lead it). or

RHO: AKJxxx, Qxx, x, xxx or AKJxxx, xx, x, xxxx and LHO: Txx, x, Jxxxxxxx, Qx or Txx, Qx, Jxxxxxx, x - might have led a club with that, mightn't he? But certainly the 7 diamonds make the raise more attractive.

I'm not sure. If you're looking for a "newspaper" hand, you definitely go for the endplay. And you did provide the "aggressive" information about LHO, so presumably he'd have raised 2♠ to 3, even vul against not, with something like Txx, xx, Jxxxx, Qxx. Also, if you think that RHO would have opened 1♠, not 2, with AKJxxx, xx, x, Qxxx or AKJxxx, Qxx, x, Qxx, that makes the endplay line a winner many times even when it's wrong, since LHO will have the club Q either stiff or doubleton a significant number of the times that RHO has a stiff diamond, so although you'll lose the diamond ruff, you won't lose a club.

[benlessard]

I think you can play 3 round of D to get some partial count of the hand, If RHO ruff at trick 3. you wont lose a trump and manage to endplay in clubs to avoid losing 2 clubs. If RHO has 3 you can play 2 round of trumps and if RHO has 3♥ your ok if LHO has 3 (likely) then his hand is something like

Txx
Qxx
xxx(x)
(Q)xx(x)

Hes likely to have the Q of clubs IMO,
so you cash 1 clubs and exit hearts.

[maggieb]

I would go for the normal endplay (cash two hearts, all the diamonds, one club, and throw whoever has the ♥Q in), since East could easily be falsecarding. He is already playing around as it is, showing me his ♠J for free.

[Fluffy]

♦Q, ♣AK, ♦AK If nobody ruffed we are now 100%, ♥A and ♥ finese.

EDIT: Better to play ♦AK before clubs if East is no expert, he will ruff. Or not ruff for a good reason.

[Fluffy]

What was the winning line?

[rogerclee]

Fluffy, on Feb 3 2009, 06:40 AM, said:

What was the winning line?

Either endplay will work.