[rogerclee]

Scoring: IMP

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1D-1H
3D-P

Opps play standard leads, UDCA. I would say calling both of them "advanced" in skill is a fair assessment. Apologies, I don't remember the exact spots, let me know if you think it's important.

1: ♠Q x x x
2: ♦x J x x
3: ♥x x T K
4: ♠J x x A
5-7: ♦AKQ, RHO following to all, LHO playing ♦/♠/♣
8: ♣Q K x x
9: ♠x ♣x ♠K ♠x

Now RHO plays another spade, which you ruff as LHO pitches a club, and this is the endposition

Whether you agree with this line, you're at trick 10 now.

Scoring: IMP

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You cash your last diamond, LHO playing a heart and RHO playing a spade; you have lost 4 tricks. You play a heart, and LHO plays the 9; hook or drop? (LHO is known to have started with exactly 4 spades and 2 diamonds, as a summary, so you can play LHO to have started with QJxx KQ9x xx Kxx or QJxx K9x xx Kxxx)

[Lobowolf]

Drop, but I bet it's wrong.

[dake50]

Finesse, as if drop is necessary to make 3D, won't it mean 3H makes also? If I'm right I want to win something -5 IMP, 2H= push

[Jlall]

A few comments:

1) Don't bid 3D

2) Your heart to the ten play seems completely random. If you play a heart to the jack you don't have to guess if it's KQ on or Hx. If you later get some kind of count (like RHO having 4 diamonds and 4 spades) and have a reason to play RHO for the short hearts you can lead the ten out of your hand and torture yourself later if you want for the same effect.

3) There are obviously 2 big reasons for going for the drop, restricted choice and the fact that QJxx KQ9x xx Kxx is a takeout double of 1D to a lot of people.

The reason to hook is that LHO pitched a heart. In an ideal world LHOs would occasionally pitch a heart from Kxx and keep their small club in order to protect the times they have 4 hearts and are forced to pitch a heart, but in the real world people never do that and as such a heart pitch always means it was forced. IMO that is a super strong clue and I'll go for the hook on that basis. If LHO really pitched a heart keeping a losing club, congratulations to him on a nice play, he got me.

[pooltuna]

Jlall, on May 30 2010, 09:11 AM, said:

A few comments:

1) Don't bid 3D

[SNIP]

Amen to this although IMO it is close ....T close. I assume you were looking for 3NT but adding the T♦ instead of an x increases your 6-1 holding to 10 of the 30 4-2 breaks for 6 tricks and the 6-2 holdings make when 4-1 breaks have a stiff J. With the given hand IMO your best game shot is to bid 2♥ obviously not risk free.

[rogerclee]

I was dummy on this hand, but my partner thought at trick 12 for so long that I also thought about it for quite a long time. I thought the ♥A was right at the table, but when we discussed it later we both concluded the ♥J was better, for all of Justin's reasons, and the fact that the restricted choice is a little questionable (also my read on this particular opp was that she would play the K much more often than the Q).

(It was KQ9x onside)