[Nilz]

Scoring: MP

Lead: Club J

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Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.
South is declarer in 4H.
Weak P, weak opps, weak field. Can't remember the bidding except N opened 1D and neither opponent bid. In this field, you can't read too much into that.
How would you play? If you lose a trick to West early on, she leads a small diamond through dummy's 6 card suit. After a few replies, I'll give some more info about the distribution.

[pooltuna]

Nilz, on Jul 7 2010, 12:26 PM, said:

Scoring: MP

Lead: Club J

---

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.
South is declarer in 4H.
Weak P, weak opps, weak field. Can't remember the bidding except N opened 1D and neither opponent bid. In this field, you can't read too much into that.
How would you play? If you lose a trick to West early on, she leads a small diamond through dummy's 6 card suit. After a few replies, I'll give some more info about the distribution.

gut reaction is T1]A♣, T2]K♥,T3 pass the Q♦

[Nilz]

pooltuna, on Jul 7 2010, 01:58 PM, said:

gut reaction is T1]A♣, T2]K♥,T3 pass the Q♦

Hidden:

Spoiler

LHO shows out on the first heart.

Do you still run the diamond? If so (hidden):

Spoiler

RHO ruffs and returns a club.

[gnasher]

Quote

first time poster

I hope all of your posts are going to be as interesting as this one.

My plan at trick one is ♣A, ♥K, ♦A, ♦ruff (probably with the jack), ♥A, ♦ ruff, ♣K, ♦ruff, ♣ ruff, play winning diamonds.

If [HQ]Q is singleton on the right, I might draw a third trump and take a ruffing finesse in diamonds, so as not to waste my trump winner, but that depends on what I think the club layout is.

That line makes eleven tricks most of the time, and twelve some of the time. If the first diamond gets overruffed I'm still likely to make ten or eleven.


If LHO shows out on the first heart, it's probably best to run ♦Q next. If that holds, I can cross to ♣K, cash ♦A, ruff a diamond, and be reasonably well placed even if the diamonds aren't good.


In the rather unpleasant circumstances described in the hidden text, after winning ♣K, I ruff a diamond and lead a spade, planning to crossruff. After ruffing three diamonds in hand and three black cards in dummy, I can then lead a diamond from dummy to score my ♥J. It would be a mistake to lead ♦A after ♣K - RHO could ruff high and play back his last trump, possibly holding me to two club tricks and seven trumps.

[Fluffy]

I would had run ♦Q directly at trick 2,

after winning club ace its time to try a spade from dummy

[gnasher]

I don't understand running ♦Q before you know that hearts are 4-0. If hearts are 3-1 or 2-2, running ♦K loses when RHO has K, Kx, Kxx or Kxxx; it gains only when he has x, xxx or xxxx.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2010-July-08, 02:19

[Nilz]

gnasher, on Jul 7 2010, 03:56 PM, said:

In the rather unpleasant circumstances described in the hidden text, after winning ♣K, I ruff a diamond and lead a spade, planning to crossruff.  After ruffing three diamonds in hand and three black cards in dummy, I can then lead a diamond from dummy to score my ♥J.  It would be a mistake to lead ♦A after ♣K - RHO could ruff high and play back his last trump, possibly holding me to two club tricks and seven trumps.

Scoring: MP

Lead: Club J

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At the table, I led a spade from dummy at trick 2 to my jack. I was planning to ruff my losing spades in dummy, although why I decided to do this instead of setting up the diamonds I'm not sure.
LHO won the queen and led a diamond. Not expecting her to lead the suit if she had the king, and not expecting such a bad break, I played the ace, and LHO ruffed to return a club. I then ruffed 2 spades and a club in dummy, and 3 diamonds in my hand, similar to Gnasher's line above. The first time I led a small diamond from dummy, RHO ruffed and I over-ruffed, so she could only score one trump trick. My king of spades also got set up I made 10 tricks, although, evidently not on the optimal line. Thanks for the comments, any advice welcome!