[vuroth]

1♠ 2♥ 2♠ all pass

Heart lead, won in dummy. A♠ cashed, both follow low. Low ♠ gets the T♠ from RHO.

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Correct play is the J♠?

1♠ 2♥ 2♠ all pass

Heart lead, won in dummy. A♠ cashed, both follow low. Low ♠ gets the T♠ from RHO.

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Correct play is the K♠?

1♠ 2♥ 2♠ all pass

Heart lead, won in dummy. A♠ cashed, both follow low. Low ♠ gets the T♠ from RHO.

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Correct line to cash the AK♠?

[maggieb]

It's hard to say without knowing the rest of the hand, but just be aware that LHO would be unlikely to sell out to 2♠ with a small singleton spade and a good hand. In general when you are in a 9 card trump fit at the 2 level, they are splitting 2-2 extremely often.

On a purely vacant spaces level, it would be right to hook, but the first consideration is worth a lot.

[mikeh]

Given the limited information available, it seems right to finesse in both cases.

LHO will often hold 6 hearts for the overcall, and that assumption should be very close to 100% on the 2nd hand, given the suit quality.

This means that LHO has 6 or 7 non-hearts while rho holds 11 or 12. This difference, if all else is equal, more than outweighs the 'in a vacuum' 8 ever 9 never saying.

Maggie, however, has a good point. It would really help to see the rest of the hands and to know something about the opps' tendencies or skill level. The form of scoring and the vulnerability also factor into the equation.

While strong opps with good hands and, say, 1=6=3=3 may balance, even strong players may go quietly red v white...especially when their partner doesn't make a responsive double over 2♠.

I'd need to be 'at the table'...or have almost as much info as I would have 'at the table' to definitively state what I would do...but on what I see now...I hook.

BTW, on these hands, especially the first one.....sometimes we should be hooking as a safety play..... assume LHO wins the Qx....cashes 2 heart winners....and now may be endplayed....again....it depends on the hand, which you haven't given us.

[gwnn]

one of the forum search gurus could perhaps find jdonn's post?

Jdonn once posted that he almost always plays overcaller to be short in trumps and disregards that maybe the overcall implies more HCP because Qx is not a big extra for the overcall anyway. With that post he simplified my ineffective thought processes and the principle has never failed me yet (this is obviously partially a fluke though). Thanks jdonn.

[Jlall]

gwnn, on Dec 22 2009, 05:30 PM, said:

one of the forum search gurus could perhaps find jdonn's post?

Jdonn once posted that he almost always plays overcaller to be short in trumps and disregards that maybe the overcall implies more HCP because Qx is not a big extra for the overcall anyway. With that post he simplified my ineffective thought processes and the principle has never failed me yet (this is obviously partially a fluke though). Thanks jdonn.

This is true, but what maggie said often trumps this consideration.

[gwnn]

reread and edited out.