[Phil]

Scoring: IMP

1N - 2C - 2D - 2S - 3N

---

You are loitering in the lobby yesterday when a friend needs you to fill in for one hand until their 4th arrives.

The opening lead is the ♣Q (standard). You cover and RHO plays the ♣2 (udca).

As you think about the hand, their 4th arrives.

Plan the play.

[dellache]

I find this hand tough to analyze.
Spade is out of question, it will probably lead to a fast 5 tricks for them.
If I lead a Heart to Queen and it takes the trick, I will be in a bad position.

That leaves a club to the 9. I like it for 2 reasons :
- you start to set a 2nd club trick for you ;
- West may be in trouble after this, and he may just decide to continue clubs himself. I may then have clues coming from East as how to finish this hand.

So I finally play my gut reaction to this : ♣ to 9. What happens ?

[kenrexford]

I'm not sure why a heart to the Queen, winning, puts us in a bad position. I'll do that. If it wins, I play the Jack. If that wins, I'll try two top diamonds to see if the Jack drops. If it doesn't, and I'm now up to seven tricks. Now I'll try a club.

[dellache]

kenrexford, on Nov 12 2009, 07:50 PM, said:

I'm not sure why a heart to the Queen, winning, puts us in a bad position.  I'll do that.  If it wins, I play the Jack.  If that wins, I'll try two top diamonds to see if the Jack drops.  If it doesn't, and I'm now up to seven tricks.  Now I'll try a club.

East takes the second Heart with the Ace and plays a spade. Your play.

[pooltuna]

dellache, on Nov 12 2009, 03:21 PM, said:

kenrexford, on Nov 12 2009, 07:50 PM, said:

I'm not sure why a heart to the Queen, winning, puts us in a bad position.  I'll do that.  If it wins, I play the Jack.  If that wins, I'll try two top diamonds to see if the Jack drops.  If it doesn't, and I'm now up to seven tricks.  Now I'll try a club.

East takes the second Heart with the Ace and plays a spade. Your play.

Since the J♥ is in the South hand do you mean the A?

[kenrexford]

dellache, on Nov 12 2009, 03:21 PM, said:

kenrexford, on Nov 12 2009, 07:50 PM, said:

I'm not sure why a heart to the Queen, winning, puts us in a bad position.  I'll do that.  If it wins, I play the Jack.  If that wins, I'll try two top diamonds to see if the Jack drops.  If it doesn't, and I'm now up to seven tricks.  Now I'll try a club.

East takes the second Heart with the Ace and plays a spade. Your play.

7.

[dellache]

kenrexford, on Nov 12 2009, 10:02 PM, said:

dellache, on Nov 12 2009, 03:21 PM, said:

kenrexford, on Nov 12 2009, 07:50 PM, said:

I'm not sure why a heart to the Queen, winning, puts us in a bad position.  I'll do that.  If it wins, I play the Jack.  If that wins, I'll try two top diamonds to see if the Jack drops.  If it doesn't, and I'm now up to seven tricks.  Now I'll try a club.

East takes the second Heart with the Ace and plays a spade. Your play.

7.

Taken by West, who exits with a Spade. Now we need 5-1 clubs, or good news in both red suits. Do we cash Diamonds now ?

The hand is very difficult to analyze because something may happen in all suits, and both declarer and defense have a lot of decisions to make. I have the opinion (maybe mistaken) that a club at trick 2 puts maximum pressure on defense while retaining many options for declarer. I guess Phil has his own idea on this hand.

Best regards,

[kenrexford]

Yeah, this is a mess of a hand. But, I don't think that a club puts that much pressure on the opponents either. Why not win a club and do the same thing, before we even set up hearts?

I mean, there is some merit to winning a heart and then attacking clubs.

After my line, I have three tricks if hearts work out and if I guess which way, one club, one spade, and three diamonds. Maybe the diamond Jack falls, maybe diamonds are 5-3 and I end up with a club. Spades could have been stacked to the right, or Hx somewhere. The fact that nothing neat happens yet just sucks.

[Phil]

At the table I played a heart to the Q which held (LHO played the 7 (udca)), so I continued the J, 10 on left and ducked.

At this point a club is probably better but I continued a heart. RHO and shifted to a diamond. Being way short on tricks I hooked and it won. Now the club. LHO cashed the ♣AJ and made a nice play of exiting the ♠Q from Qxxx. And I'm toast.

For some reason I always get hands like this when I first sit down and when I'm about to leave. Strange.

[rhm]

Phil, on Nov 13 2009, 12:36 PM, said:

At the table I played a heart to the Q which held (LHO played the 7 (udca)), so I continued the J, 10 on left and ducked.

At this point a club is probably better but I continued a heart. RHO and shifted to a diamond. Being way short on tricks I hooked and it won. Now the club. LHO cashed the ♣AJ and made a nice play of exiting the ♠Q from Qxxx. And I'm toast.

For some reason I always get hands like this when I first sit down and when I'm about to leave. Strange.

I think your real mistake was playing the ♣ king at trick one.
♣ is your only sure entry to the table and West is unlikely to continue ♣ if you duck and if West does continue it may cost him a trick in ♣ and you can play ♣ back to West if the ♣ break no worse than 4-2 .

Meanwhile any switch by West would be beneficial.

Having won the ♣ king I would also have continued with a ♣ to the nine.

Rainer Herrmann

[Phil]

rhm, on Nov 14 2009, 11:40 AM, said:

Phil, on Nov 13 2009, 12:36 PM, said:

At the table I played a heart to the Q which held (LHO played the 7 (udca)), so I continued the J, 10 on left and ducked.

At this point a club is probably better but I continued a heart. RHO and shifted to a diamond. Being way short on tricks I hooked and it won. Now the club. LHO cashed the ♣AJ and made a nice play of exiting the ♠Q from Qxxx. And I'm toast.

For some reason I always get hands like this when I first sit down and when I'm about to leave. Strange.

I think your real mistake was playing the ♣ king at trick one.
♣ is your only sure entry to the table and West is unlikely to continue ♣ if you duck and if West does continue it may cost him a trick in ♣ and you can play ♣ back to West if the ♣ break no worse than 4-2 .

Meanwhile any switch by West would be beneficial.

Having won the ♣ king I would also have continued with a ♣ to the nine.

Rainer Herrmann

Perhaps the best reason to duck the club is if LHO led from QJ8xx. Unlikely, but possible.

However, I can't see any reason why LHO will do anything but continue with a low club, which just transposes some of the tricks. It would be a gross error to continue with A♣, ♣ for instance. I think we are deluding ourselves if we expect the ♣K will ever be useful as an entry, but none of these are reasons to grab the first club either.

[kenrexford]

Phil, on Nov 13 2009, 12:36 PM, said:

At the table I played a heart to the Q which held (LHO played the 7 (udca)), so I continued the J, 10 on left and ducked.

At this point a club is probably better but I continued a heart. RHO and shifted to a diamond. Being way short on tricks I hooked and it won. Now the club. LHO cashed the ♣AJ and made a nice play of exiting the ♠Q from Qxxx. And I'm toast.

For some reason I always get hands like this when I first sit down and when I'm about to leave. Strange.

Huh? You told ME that the heart Jack would be won. Apparently not?

Plus, you end up with a "club being better." I actually played two top diamonds and then a club, if I remember right.

I mean, this hand is hopeless unless the opponents help out. But, what's with the making things up as to what happens next? If it did not happen that way at the table, and you made some of the same moves I made, why not just say what really happened?

Weird.

[Phil]

kenrexford, on Nov 15 2009, 09:03 AM, said:

You told ME that the heart Jack would be won.

No I didn't.

[kenrexford]

Phil, on Nov 15 2009, 02:18 PM, said:

kenrexford, on Nov 15 2009, 09:03 AM, said:

You told ME that the heart Jack would be won.

No I didn't.

By them.