[Phil]

You play in 3N after RHO make a WJO in spades.

Scoring: XIMP

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You get the ♠9 lead.

I'll post some continuations when I get some replies.

[whereagles]

♠Q, cash ♦AK. If nothing interesting happens (9 or Q come down or opps signal a 3-3 distribution), run the club jack.

Probably not optimal, but probably also my line at table.

[kenrexford]

I think I'll win the spade and lead a small diamond to dummy. If the Queen is taken, I just need diamond 4-2. There might be some recovery if diamonds are not 4-2, but I'm not going there unless I have to.

If the Jack wins, I'm now up to 7 tricks. I'll now lead a club toward my Jack, expecting to lose that trick. When I win the next spade, I can try diamonds out first before hoping that clubs split 3-3 or that the 108 is doubleton.

If the club Jack also wins, I'm up to 8 tricks. That has to be good.

I have no idea if this is the best line, but it seems like the sexiest line that does not involve a lot of thinking.

[gnasher]

Win, diamond to the jack, club to the nine (1). If that loses to the ten and a spade comes back, I cash the top diamonds, throwing a spade and a club. If the diamonds aren't good I play a heart to dummy's king, then test the clubs.

If I haven't already reached nine tricks, I'm going to need the spades to be 2=6 rather than 3=5. Given that:
-If LHO was 2344, 2524 or 2425, I endplay him with the last round of clubs to give me a second heart trick.
- If LHO was 2542, I play a heart back to the 10, again endplaying him to give me another heart.

I go down when I could have made if RHO has something like K109xxx Axx xx xxx, but some players would consider that too strong for a weak jump overcall. In any case, with spades 2=6 I'm more likely to find the heart onside than the clubs breaking.

(1) I note that Ken played a club to the jack in this position. I'm playing a club to the nine, because if the club finesse fails and diamonds don't break, I'm going to play for ♥A onside. If I reach that position, I want it to be unlikely that RHO has ♥A. A club to the nine loses when RHO has K109xxx Axx xx Qxx, but survives when he has K109xxx Axx xx 10xx. The first hand looks less like a 2♠ bid than the second.

[miguelm]

gnasher, on Apr 22 2009, 02:41 AM, said:

Win, diamond to the jack, club to the nine (1). If that loses to the ten and a spade comes back, I cash the top diamonds, throwing a spade and a club. If the diamonds aren't good I play a heart to dummy's king, then test the clubs.

If I haven't already reached nine tricks, I'm going to need the spades to be 2=6 rather than 3=5. Given that:
-If LHO was 2344, 2524 or 2425, I endplay him with the last round of clubs to give me a second heart trick.
- If LHO was 2542, I play a heart back to the 10, again endplaying him to give me another heart.

I go down when I could have made if RHO has something like K109xxx Axx xx xxx, but some players would consider that too strong for a weak jump overcall. In any case, with spades 2=6 I'm more likely to find the heart onside than the clubs breaking.

(1) I note that Ken played a club to the jack in this position. I'm playing a club to the nine, because if the club finesse fails and diamonds don't break, I'm going to play for ♥A onside. If I reach that position, I want it to be unlikely that RHO has ♥A. A club to the nine loses when RHO has K109xxx Axx xx Qxx, but survives when he has K109xxx Axx xx 10xx. The first hand looks less like a 2♠ bid than the second.

I don't know about the Club trick, but playing a Heart before trying the Clubs might be suicidal.

When the Diam. Jack holds, you have now 2S+3D+2C.
If the Clubs break you are home if not, you will need the Heart Ace to be in with LHO anyway, otherwise making is impossible.

If you find LHO with 4 clubs, then hand him the 4th, and all he can do is to cash the Diam. and exit a Heart, or just exiting a Heart, either way you are home giving away only the Heart Ace, Diam. Queen and two clubs..... or am I missing something...?

[gnasher]

miguelm, on Apr 22 2009, 11:12 AM, said:

I don't know about  the Club trick, but playing a Heart before trying the Clubs might be suicidal.

When the Diam. Jack holds, you have now 2S+3D+2C.
If the Clubs break you are home if not, you will need the Heart Ace to be in with LHO anyway, otherwise making is impossible.

If you find LHO with 4 clubs, then hand him the 4th, and all he can do is to cash the Diam. and exit a Heart, or just exiting a Heart, either way you are home giving away only the Heart Ace, Diam. Queen and two clubs..... or am I missing something...?

I hadn't thought of that, but I'm not sure that you're right. Presumably you're throwing a spade and a heart on the diamonds? You gain when LHO is 2443 without ♥A, but don't you give up the chance of making when LHO is 2542 with ♥AJ, or 2245 with ♥A and ♣Q108?

Would RHO overcall 2♠ on all three of these?
 (1) K109xxx x xx 10xxx
 (2) K109xxx Jxxx xx x / K109xxx xxxx xx x   [without ♣8]
 (3) K109xxx Ax xx 10xx

Personally I think (3) is a 1♠ overcall. If, however, all three hands would bid 2♠, it comes down to which hands are more likely to be dealt. Without doing any exact computations, it seems to me that the combined probability of (1) and (2) is more likely than that of (3).

If we think that (2) isn't a 2♠ bid, but (1) and (3) are, your line is probably better.

[Fluffy]

I can't get anything better that what gnasher suggested, ♦J and club to the 9.

[kenrexford]

gnasher, on Apr 22 2009, 02:41 AM, said:

(1) I note that Ken played a club to the jack in this position.  I'm playing a club to the nine, because if the club finesse fails and diamonds don't break, I'm going to play for ♥A onside.  If I reach that position, I want it to be unlikely that RHO has ♥A.  A club to the nine loses when RHO has K109xxx Axx xx Qxx, but survives when he has K109xxx Axx xx 10xx.  The first hand looks less like a 2♠ bid than the second.

I don't understand.

First of all, if LHO has ♠K109xxx ♥Axx ♦xx ♣10xx, RHO made a big play of ducking a club from Qxx. Second, the Jack would have won.

Second, if LHO has ♠K109xxx ♥Axx ♦xx ♣Qxx, the Jack forces the Queen just as much as the nine and makes the lead to the heart just as likely to succeed, as I agree that this holding is less likely than ♠K109xxx ♥xxx ♦xx ♣Qxx. However, the 9 leaves you confused as to the possibility that LHO has either ♠K109xxx ♥Axx ♦xx ♣10xx or ♠K109xxx ♥xxx ♦xx ♣Q10x.

Third, the Jack actually wins against a real layout. If LHO has 108 tight in clubs, RHO knows that flying Queen from Q543 yields the entire suit and may well duck. Granted, the work is not done yet in that event, as you are only up to 8 tricks. But, you can now just set up a heart and claim.

[pclayton]

If you play a diamond to the jack it holds.

I'm not sure what's going to happen if you play a club off the board (frankly I never saw the whole hand), but if LHO wins, and both clubs and diamonds are 4-2, it seems you are in trouble if RHO has the ♥A.

The person that played this hand played a ♦ to the J at T2 and when it won exited with the ♥K.

What's wrong with a heart up at T2?

[gnasher]

kenrexford, on Apr 23 2009, 04:33 PM, said:

I don't understand.

RHO is the one with six spades.

I'm talking about the situation where I have:
- Played a club towards my hand, playing either 9 losing to 10 or J losing to Q
- Won the spade return
- Found out that the diamonds aren't breaking
- Led a heart towards dummy, thereby playing LHO (the non-overcaller) for ♥A, and risking going down when clubs are 3-3 and RHO (the overcaller) has ♥A.

I'll go down unnecessarily when RHO has K109xxx Axx xx xxx, and also:

-If the first club trick went x-x-J-Q, I'll go down unnecessarily when RHO has K109xxx Axx xx 10xx.
- If the first club trick went x-x-9-10, I'll go down unnecessarily when RHO has K109xxx Axx xx Qxx.

I think that K109xxx Axx xx Qxx is a clearcut 1♠ overcall, but K109xxx Axx xx 10xx might be a 2♠ overcall for some players. Therefore I play the line that goes down if RHO has K109xxx Axx xx Qxx.

[gnasher]

pclayton, on Apr 23 2009, 05:20 PM, said:

What's wrong with a heart up at T2?

Whoever holds ♥A wins it and plays another spade. Now you need to set up a ninth trick without letting RHO in, and without an entry to hand outside the diamond suit. If hearts aren't 3-3, you will have to do some good guessing.

[kenrexford]

gnasher, on Apr 23 2009, 11:50 AM, said:

kenrexford, on Apr 23 2009, 04:33 PM, said:

I don't understand.

RHO is the one with six spades...

Oh!!! Oops!

I like my play better when LHO opened 2♠.

[Fluffy]

gnasher again faster than me . Heart looks very dangerous, maybe going down agains ♦3-3 or ♦Qx