[Mbodell]

Playing in the second day of a 4 session regional championship pairs event where the field is quite good the following funny board came up (rotated).

Scoring: MP

1NT*-X-All pass

1NT is 10-12 and X is penalty.

---

T1 ♦K 4 Q 3 (leads K from AK)
T2 ♥K 2 6 3
T3 ♦A 5 ♠3 ♦6
T4 ♠T 4 J A

The field is quite good, although you don't recognize and haven't played this pair before and RHO swore a little on the opening lead. Do you play West for stiff ♣K offside or do you take the nicely created ♦J dummy entry and finesse in clubs? Choose right and you'll score +180 on your 12 points.

[Jlall]

LHO seems to have

Tx
AKJx
AKxxxx
?

He would double with or without the CK with that hand (which makes hooking a huge percentage play).

Not clear we can take much inference from his failure to drive out the diamond, but if there is any inference to be drawn it's that he was panicked that we could run the clubs. Of course he may be worried about that looking at the CK if he thinks we will drop it, but it's certainly much more tempting to drive diamonds if you think you will win the CK and cash a bunch of winners.

Anyways, I would hook. It is percentage and the only relevant inference points towards it also.

BTW if you really can't escape in 2C after your 1N gets doubled then that is really silly.

[nigel_k]

Normally, cashing the seond diamond before switching would have a strong odour of fish about it. But if East's ♠3 is reverse attitude then maybe he intended to clear diamonds but changed his mind after seeing the signal. Being at the table might help to decide which it is, but normally I would just stick with the percentage play as Justin said.

You definitely should have an escape mechanism after 1NT-X. If you need, I can sell you a used one for half what it's worth.

[gnasher]

I don't care who it is on the left, nobody produces the sort of miraculous defence you're imagining, at trick two against 1NT. Just play for them to have done something stupid.

[Fluffy]

creating an entry to dummy when you have a stiff King is an old trick, but if that was the case he would have played a diamond next himself. I think hooking is right.

[pooltuna]

I get a new partner who understands our runout system

[Mbodell]

The full hand was what Jlall put and indeed without the stiff K(T2 AKJ4 AKT872 5). I also decided to play with the numbers and took the finesse and scored +180 which was good for 24/25 match points.

We play run outs that I personally like, although my partner thinks we should be able to run out to 2m. But currently, when the responder is an unpassed hand, we play XX for business and pass to play. Both of those are important and useful. For escapes we play inverted psycho suction so 2♣ shows either ♣+♦ or just ♥ and is nf and so on (with 2nt for non-touching 2 suiters). When responder is a passed hand then XX is conventional and is either ♣ or ♦ or ♣+♥ or ♦+♠ with the obvious follow ons.

[JavaBean]

Amusingly, just this Wednesday night a similar hand came up (sorry it's ugly, I can't seem to make the hand formatter work).

♠T6
♥T43
♦8654
♣KJ76

♠K953
♥AQJ952
♦AK
♣8


North East South West
pass pass 1♥ 1♠
pass pass 2♥ all pass

You may not love the auction, but that's what it was.

Trick one: ♣Q K A 8
Trick two: ♥6 ?

[MattieShoe]

JavaBean, on Sep 11 2009, 02:04 AM, said:

Amusingly, just this Wednesday night a similar hand came up (sorry it's ugly, I can't seem to make the hand formatter work).

♠T6
♥T43
♦8654
♣KJ76

♠K953
♥AQJ952
♦AK
♣8


North  East  South    West
pass    pass  1♥  1♠
pass    pass  2♥  all pass

You may not love the auction, but that's what it was.

Trick one: ♣Q K A 8
Trick two: ♥6 ?

2♥. Either finesse works and we're on the board, or it fails and we've a board entry in the T♥. Right? :-)

[effervesce]

MattieShoe, on Sep 12 2009, 06:38 PM, said:

JavaBean, on Sep 11 2009, 02:04 AM, said:

Amusingly, just this Wednesday night a similar hand came up (sorry it's ugly, I can't seem to make the hand formatter work).

♠T6
♥T43
♦8654
♣KJ76

♠K953
♥AQJ952
♦AK
♣8


North  East   South    West
pass    pass   1♥   1♠
pass    pass   2♥   all pass

You may not love the auction, but that's what it was.

Trick one: ♣Q K A 8
Trick two: ♥6 ?

2♥. Either finesse works and we're on the board, or it fails and we've a board entry in the T♥. Right? :-)

A, dropping the K.

[JavaBean]

MattieShoe, on Sep 12 2009, 06:38 PM, said:

♥2.  Either finesse works and we're on the board, or it fails and we've a board entry in the ♥T.  Right? :-)

You already had a board entry with ♥10 if you wanted it - lead ♥Q, ♥J, forcing the holder of ♥K to win eventually.

And as effervesce noted, the finesse is certain to lose. Why would any East, holding ♥K and a doubleton spade, and knowing you have no entry to dummy to finesse in hearts, lead away from the ♥K? I don't think she necessarily has three small; maybe the ♥A will catch air if hearts are 2-2. But since we know East can't have ♥K, might as well play West for it singleton rather than giving up.

As it happens, this time the ♥K was singleton. Possibly a nice counterpoint to MBodell's 1NTX hand?