[dellache]

Scoring: IMP

---

Oppos bid 2♥(weak) 4♥. Your pard lead the ♦7 (showing 2/4 cards). What is your plan, if any ? (strong oppos).

EDIT: pard lead x(x)xx, xx(x), (x)x so you probably know pard has 4 small.

[Fluffy]

mmm, switch to ♣10?

this way declarer will have 9 tricks and will need only one from spades, hence he is able to missguess. If declarer has singleton spade he is out of time to make it anyway.

[ONEferBRID]

How can that be 4th best ? Rule-of-eleven says that there would only be 4 cards in the other 3 hands that would be higher than pard's 7. You can see 5 higher.
That means pard has probably led 2nd highest from 3.

That puts Declarer with 6h, 4d and only 3 cards in the black suits.

[dellache]

ONEferBRID, on Oct 28 2009, 03:55 PM, said:

How can that be 4th best ? Rule-of-eleven says that there would only be 4 cards in the other 3 hands that would be higher than pard's 7. You can see 5 higher.
That means pard has probably led 2nd highest from 3.

That puts Declarer with 6h, 4d and only 3 cards in the black suits.

Sry that wasn't clear. Pard has 4 cards for sure.

[ONEferBRID]

dellache, on Oct 28 2009, 11:02 AM, said:

ONEferBRID, on Oct 28 2009, 03:55 PM, said:

How can that be 4th best ? Rule-of-eleven says that there would only be 4 cards in the other 3 hands that would be higher than pard's 7. You can see 5 higher.
That means pard has probably led 2nd highest from 3.

That puts Declarer with 6h, 4d and only 3 cards in the black suits.

Sry that wasn't clear. Pard has 4 cards for sure.

That's better.
That puts Declarer with 6h, 3d and 4 cards in the black suits.
Take the first trick and lead back another ♦ . Declarer may put you on a doubleton. Sooo, he is going to lead trumps rather than clear that 3rd high ♦ off the board.

Having that remaining high ♦ on the board is going to be a liabilty for Declarer in the end game. [ Either you are partner will be able to "safely" lead the 3rd ♦ when you are in with a trick... so you (especially) are not endplayed.

You are going to duck the 1st trump trick, win the 2nd and lead a 3rd ♥.

Declarer is going to lead a low ♠ and put in the Jack.
You DUCK ! !
How does he get back to hand to repeat the finesse ?
You should be able to get 2 black suit tricks no matter if
he started with 1/3 , 2/2, or 3/1.

[Phil]

ONEferBRID, on Oct 28 2009, 06:50 PM, said:

dellache, on Oct 28 2009, 11:02 AM, said:

ONEferBRID, on Oct 28 2009, 03:55 PM, said:

How can that be 4th best ? Rule-of-eleven says that there would only be 4 cards in the other 3 hands that would be higher than pard's 7. You can see 5 higher.
That means pard has probably led 2nd highest from 3.

That puts Declarer with 6h, 4d and only 3 cards in the black suits.

Sry that wasn't clear. Pard has 4 cards for sure.

That's better.
That puts Declarer with 6h, 3d and 4 cards in the black suits.
Take the first trick and lead back another ♦ . Declarer may put you on a doubleton. Sooo, he is going to lead trumps rather than clear that 3rd high ♦ off the board.

Having that remaining high ♦ on the board is going to be a liabilty for Declarer in the end game. [ Either you are partner will be able to "safely" lead the 3rd ♦ when you are in with a trick... so you (especially) are not endplayed.

You are going to duck the 1st trump trick, win the 2nd and lead a 3rd ♥.

Declarer is going to lead a low ♠ and put in the Jack.
You DUCK ! !
How does he get back to hand to repeat the finesse ?
You should be able to get 2 black suit tricks no matter if
he started with 1/3 , 2/2, or 3/1.

Why wouldn't declarer use his entries to hand more efficiently than this?

[ONEferBRID]

Quote

Why wouldn't declarer use his entries to hand more efficiently than this?

Like how ?

[Phil]

ONEferBRID, on Oct 28 2009, 07:55 PM, said:

Quote

Why wouldn't declarer use his entries to hand more efficiently than this?

Like how ?

Won't he be in hand twice to lead spades? What is the rush to draw trump?

[jdonn]

Phil, on Oct 28 2009, 08:01 PM, said:

ONEferBRID, on Oct 28 2009, 07:55 PM, said:

Quote

Why wouldn't declarer use his entries to hand more efficiently than this?

Like how ?

Won't he be in hand twice to lead spades? What is the rush to draw trump?

Giving up the diamond ruff to the supposed doubleton? I like his answer.

[Jlall]

Fluffys answer is cool but I would just play back a diamond and hope they are worried about a diamond ruff. Maybe they should know they're 4-3, still don't really understand our leads.

[Codo]

Jlall, on Oct 29 2009, 12:37 PM, said:

.. still don't really understand our leads.

Maybe declarer won't either, so that makes a diamond lead even better...

[dellache]

Scoring: IMP

---

West hand was :

Scoring: IMP

---

South gave it no second thought and played a diamond back. Maybe he hoped declarer would misread something (NB: the only one who could have a diamond doubleton here was North, and as those leads are very common in France, West would not have missed that) or do something silly in the Blacks. He scored a quick 10 tricks.

I liked fluffy's answer : I didnot think about that, and actually it might work if declarer was 2632 missing the ♠Q.

In the postmortem as it seemed unbeatable, I was wondering if South could have chosen another imaginative line of defense : Play back the ♠9 !?

North of course will duck (he doesn't have the Ace after all ), and if West is 3631, he may imagine South has played a doubleton back (North would duck with ♠Axxxx, knowing West didnot open 2♥ with ♠Qxxx, definitely not the local style). If West is convinced that Spades are indeed 5-2, he may play the ♠Q, and finesse the ♣K hoping to discard a Spade on the ♣Ace.

We'll never know if this idea would have worked. Playing ♠9 also is sometimes ridiculous when West is 1633 (less likely than 3631). I was really wondering the probability declarer would choose to finesse Clubs on the actual layout. Would you have ?

[ONEferBRID]

No amount of subterfuge is going to work without the ♠Q on our side.