[Simplicity]

Scoring: IMP

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You reach 3NT by the South hand, and West leads the ♠4.

EW lead 4/2nd highest. Plan the play.

[jillybean]

4♠ must be 4th best so I only have 3 losers in ♠'s.
I have 5♣, 3♦, 1♥, 1♠ trick. Win the A♠, cash A,Q♦ then start on ♣'s?

[nigel_k]

Surprising how often these B/I problems turn out to be difficult.

They could have led from Hxx or maybe West is trying to trick us. The likelihood of this will depend on the bidding to some extent. An alternative line is to hold up twice in spades or win A♥ if West switches. This gains if spades are 3-5 and West has ♣A.

It loses if East switches to a heart away from the king which would not be an easy defence to find when holding HHxx in the suit partner led. It also loses if East has KJ of hearts and West ♣A and he switches after the second spade. Maybe we can avoid the second losing scenario by winnng ♠A at trick two only if East returns the five since it would be dangerous and unusual for East to falsecard in that situation.

Overall I think this is for from obvious.

[Cyberyeti]

nigel_k, on Sep 19 2010, 06:55 PM, said:

Surprising how often these B/I problems turn out to be difficult.

They could have led from Hxx or maybe West is trying to trick us. The likelihood of this will depend on the bidding to some extent. An alternative line is to hold up twice in spades or win A♥ if West switches. This gains if spades are 3-5 and West has ♣A.

It loses if East switches to a heart away from the king which would not be an easy defence to find when holding HHxx in the suit partner led. It also loses if East has KJ of hearts and West ♣A and he switches after the second spade. Maybe we can avoid the second losing scenario by winnng ♠A at trick two only if East returns the five since it would be dangerous and unusual for East to falsecard in that situation.

Overall I think this is for from obvious.

I think the auction might be useful here.

If it was say 1N(weak)-3N a lead from Hxx is rather less likely than if suits have been bid along the way. Certainly I'd assume spades were 4-4 on that auction and win the first one.

[pooltuna]

jillybean, on Sep 19 2010, 06:22 PM, said:

4♠ must be 4th best so I only have 3 losers in ♠'s.
I have 5♣, 3♦, 1♥, 1♠ trick. Win the A♠,  cash A,Q♦ then start on ♣'s?

this is true you have 9+ tricks but the trick is to

Spoiler

win the A♠ immediately before the opps can do something truly nasty like switch to a ♥ which you probably will have to duck allowing them to win the ♥K before switching back to ♠ and now they have 5 tricks b4 you get your 9. This of course means you have to rely on the opps to make an honest lead which as someone on one of the BB forums noted is most likely to occur at opening lead.

[NickRW]

nigel_k, on Sep 19 2010, 11:55 PM, said:

Surprising how often these B/I problems turn out to be difficult.

It is actually quite hard to come up with a problem on a plausible contract that isn't a trivial beginners book problem, yet which is simple and pure enough for the b/i forum.

Nick

[NickRW]

I think a heart switch is unlikley against B/I opps, but small from Hxx is plausible (depending a bit on the auction of course), so the standard hold up ought to see you home most often.

Nick

[pooltuna]

NickRW, on Sep 20 2010, 11:02 AM, said:

I think a heart switch is unlikley against B/I opps, but small from Hxx is plausible (depending a bit on the auction of course), so the standard hold up ought to see you home most often.

Nick

agree but they are even more zealous about opening lead agreements (good for them) so while chance of a ♥ switch is low non 4th best ♠ lead is even lower