[mike777]

I found it very interesting that today's JEC match was won in the play of the hand.
This is a refrain in the forum.


The forum members playing in the match more than held their own in the bidding. Well done.

[mtvesuvius]

Indeed, Mike... It was Me and Cam Shunta with Alex Hudson and John Marriott, it was a good practice for Turkey.

There were several interesting play problems, Numbers 1, 2, and 11:

Scoring: IMP

1♣ - (P) - 1♥ - (P)
1♠ - (P) - 4♠ - (P)
P - (P)

Lead: 5♦

---

Scoring: IMP

P - (P) - 1♣ - (P)
1♠ - (P) - 2♦ - (P)
2NT - (P) - 3♣ - (P)
3♦ - (P) - 3♠ - (P)
3NT - (P) - 4♦ - (P)
4♥ - (X) - P - (P)
5♦ - (P) - P - (P)

Lead: Q♥

---

Scoring: IMP

P - (P) - 1♣ - (P)
1♠ - (P) - 2♦ - (P)
2NT - (P) - 3♣ - (P)
3♦ - (P) - 3♠ - (P)
3NT - (P) - 4♦ - (P)
4♥ - (X) - P - (P)
5♦ - (P) - P - (P)

Lead: Q♥

---

Plan the play and I'll go step by step

[xcurt]

On 1 it looks like I need to play the ♦Q at trick 1 to keep control. Assuming I'm not immediately down, I would play a heart at trick 2 and stick in the ♥T.

If I go up at trick 1 and pitch the other diamonds on the clubs, they can tap my hand enough that I can never take a heart trick (maybe one heart trick if I can set up a third-round winner, and someone has 2-2 in the majors). I won't be able to crossruff enough either, with only 3 minor-suit tricks I need to make 7 spade tricks, which isn't happening.

I haven't thought about the other two hands yet.

Edit: my quick reaction on 2 is to go up, pitching a club, and run the ♠Q. On 3, I would pitch a club from dummy at trick 1.

[Hanoi5]

On the first hand I'd play ♦A and ♣AK tossing diamonds to continue with a small heart.

On the second hand I win in dummy discarding a club and finesse spades.

On the third hand I'll try to ruff 3 hearts in dummy and get rid of the club on the third diamond.

[xcurt]

Hanoi5, on Jun 25 2009, 05:43 AM, said:

On the third hand I'll try to ruff 3 hearts in dummy and get rid of the club on the third diamond.

Isn't this not going to work (unless south has specifically KJ, A??, xxxx, Kxxx) For instance

T1: H ruffed
T2: DQ
T3: H ruffed
T4: CA
T5: H ruffed

and now you're going to lose a diamond ruff (unless south is 4432 in which case you have other problems), a club, and two trumps. It seems to me that the point of the hand is to protect your fourth round heart loser by running south out of hearts to reach partner. The auction, assuming the double was a support double, together with the lead, make it seem like south has K?(?), AKx, xxxx, Kxx(x), which would give north something like Jx, Qxxxxx, x, xxxx. If you pitch on the first heart and south switches to a diamond, you get something like

T1: ♥A
T2: ♦Q

now you have to play like this

T3: heart ruff
T4: ♣A
T5: heart ruff
T6: ♠Q

making if you pin the ♠J out of the north hand (losing the heart at trick 1, the ♣K, and the ♠K. You can't do the following

T3: spade toward dummy, south must rise or you just take a second round of spades and play diamond winners
T4: diamond ruffed by north

because north can tap the table again and you come up 1 trick short

T5: heart ruffed
T6: ♣A
T7: heart ruffed

and now even if south began with 3 trumps, he will ruff the fifth diamond as you shed your last rounded suit loser, for down 1.

[gnasher]

On the first hand, North is the declarer. I win the diamond as cheaply as possible and play a heart to the ten. Say that that loses to the jack and they play another diamond. I win, throw a diamond on a club, and play another heart. Now, assuming that both majors break:

- If they play two rounds of trumps, I ruff the hearts good.
- If they force the South hand (which they may not be able to do), I play another heart, hoping that West has the doubleton. If he does, I can crossruff.

I can cope with some 4-1 heart breaks too - HJxx in East with a doubleton spade, for example.

[xcurt]

gnasher, on Jun 25 2009, 08:14 AM, said:

On the first hand, North is the declarer.

Adam got me with that mirror diagram . And I thought the whole point of the hand was to take the "practice" finesse in diamonds, when in fact it's just given to you. It would be a better problem played from the other side.

[gnasher]

xcurt, on Jun 25 2009, 02:26 PM, said:

It would be a better problem played from the other side.

So there was something good about North-South's bidding?

[gnasher]

xcurt, on Jun 25 2009, 01:22 PM, said:

[Third hand]
south has K?(?), AKx, xxxx, Kxx(x), which would give north something like Jx, Qxxxxx, x, xxxx.  If you pitch on the first heart and south switches to a diamond, you get something like

T1: ♥A
T2: ♦Q

now you have to play like this

T3: heart ruff
T4: ♣A
T5: heart ruff
T6: ♠Q

making if you pin the ♠J out of the north hand (losing the heart at trick 1, the ♣K, and the ♠K.

If you're running ♠Q at this point, doesn't North get a diamond ruff followed by a heart, for two down?

[gnasher]

On the third hand, I can't think of anything better than ruffing, crossing to ♣A, and playing a spade to the queen, hoping for ♠J to be doubleton. I would make when diamonds are not 5-0 and South has Kxx, KJ, xxx, or Jx (unless North ducks with his Kxx, which would be a good play).

[xcurt]

gnasher, on Jun 25 2009, 01:22 PM, said:

On the third hand, I can't think of anything better than ruffing, crossing to ♣A, and playing a spade to the queen, hoping for ♠J to be doubleton. I would make when diamonds are not 5-0 and South has Kxx, KJ, xxx, or Jx (unless North ducks with his Kxx, which would be a good play).

Agree with this. I can't refute your refutation of my pitching line . Although south hasn't found the diamond shift yet if we pitch (but he might, if he's a JEC pro).

[gnasher]

The second hand is quite awkward.

Against most players, I'd throw a small club on the heart, take a spade finesse, and then:
- If I think the spade is offside, run ♣J, planning to repeat the finesse if it works, and otherwise ending up playing for ♦Q to drop.
- If I think it's onside, take another spade finesse, then guess which trump finesse to take. I should definitely take one of them, in case RHO has Q10xx.
- If I think it's onside but it turns out to be offside (and they don't now take a spade ruff), play for ♦Q to be doubleton. That's better odds than playing to be able to force a club entry - which works only if there is ♣Kx somewhere - and find the diamond onside.

Against top-class opponents, I'd throw ♣Q and finesse twice in spades. If the second spade finesse loses I can force a club entry to dummy to take a trump finesse.

[gnasher]

[3rd hand]

xcurt, on Jun 26 2009, 02:21 AM, said:

I can't refute your refutation of my pitching line .  Although south hasn't found the diamond shift yet if we pitch (but he might, if he's a JEC pro).

Suppose that you pitch on the first heart and he continues hearts. What are you going to do now?

[xcurt]

gnasher, on Jun 26 2009, 04:47 AM, said:

[3rd hand]

xcurt, on Jun 26 2009, 02:21 AM, said:

I can't refute your refutation of my pitching line .  Although south hasn't found the diamond shift yet if we pitch (but he might, if he's a JEC pro).

Suppose that you pitch on the first heart and he continues hearts. What are you going to do now?

I guess I'm going to hope that the ♠J is doubleton. This line of play has less to recommend it now that I've had a few days to think about it.

I checked how Adam played it (south has something like Kx, AQx, xxxx, Kxxx). He made the right plays early (H ruff, CA, C up). Cayne switched to a diamond (a good play, though seems clearer now that I put myself in the south seat). The plan should have been to pitch a diamond on the CQ and then ram diamond winners through east and H losers through west, overruffing. He threw a heart instead, but the defense later lost their way, +420.

[xcurt]

gnasher, on Jun 26 2009, 04:45 AM, said:

Against top-class opponents, I'd throw ♣Q and finesse twice in spades.  If the second spade finesse loses I can force a club entry to dummy to take a trump finesse.

On the other hand, this ensures a club loser opposite most lies of the opposing cards and

* the trump finesse is only worth about 7% in isolation (you gain on Qxx onside, but sometimes you blow into Qx offside)
* sometimes you just have 2 trump losers, but we might be able to escape any black losers if both black kings are onside
* we might also run into a spade ruff if LHO ducked with ♠Kx, and the club king is onside, that would be an amazing play though
* if everything lies well, throwing the CQ concedes an IMP against the same contract in the other room

There's a lot of math here but my inclination is to just play this one straight.

[gnasher]

xcurt, on Jun 27 2009, 12:22 AM, said:

I checked how Adam played it (south has something like Kx, AQx, xxxx, Kxxx). He made the right plays early (H ruff, CA, C up). Cayne switched to a diamond (a good play, though seems clearer now that I put myself in the south seat). The plan should have been to pitch a diamond on the CQ and then ram diamond winners through east and H losers through west, overruffing.

That seems better than my suggestion.

[gnasher]

xcurt, on Jun 27 2009, 12:27 AM, said:

There's a lot of math here but my inclination is to just play this one straight.

I assume that you mean you're going to throw a small club, then take two spade finesses, the if you're still in dummy take two clubs finesses.

If the club is right but the spade is wrong, the first spade will hold and the second one will lose. So, you will have a club loser too, and you'll be 7% worse off than I am.

If the spade finesse works twice, when you play on clubs LHO will duck with ♣Kxxx, then win the next club and give his partner a ruff. That might be with a low doubleton trump.

Compared with my line, I think that:
- You gain when LHO has ♦Q10xx/stiff Q and no black king (which would make RHO's lead-directing double non-obvious).
- You lose 7% of the time that LHO has ♠K (with or without ♣K).
- You lose when LHO has ♦Qxx, ♣Kxxx(x) and no spade king.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2009-June-27, 08:42

[xcurt]

gnasher, on Jun 27 2009, 09:40 AM, said:

- You gain when LHO has ♦Q10xx/stiff Q and no black king (which would make RHO's lead-directing double non-obvious).
- You lose 7% of the time that LHO has ♠K (with or without ♣K).
- You lose when LHO has ♦Qxx, ♣Kxxx(x) and no spade king.

OK I agree. Looks like the first two cancel out and the third is worth about 2%. I was thinking the table action would be worth enough to beat this, but maybe not, especially online.

[gnasher]

I did say I'd only do this against top-class opponents. In this context, by "top class", I meant players who would be able to duck the black kings without giving me any clue that they'd done that.