[kenrexford]

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After two passes, South opened 1♥, West doubled, and North redoubled, played as a constructive raise of hearts. East bid 2♣, and South blasted 4♥.

West's lead was the club Ace, followed by another club, the 9 in Dummy forcing the King, ruffed.

South pulled trumps, splitting 2 with West and 3 with East; West ditching a diamond on the third round.

South, spotting the trouble West was in, played the last trump, West ditching a spade and East contributing a small club. (North threw a diamond.)

Now, your line?

[Hanoi5]

I might go down a lot, small spade all around. I'm hoping West held 3♠ to the K or J or both.

[kenrexford]

Hanoi5, on 2011-June-10, 10:39, said:

I might go down a lot, small spade all around. I'm hoping West held 3♠ to the K or J or both.

Your thought is that they started with 3-2-4-4 pattern for their double and threw a spade rather than 4-2-3-4? I'm curious why you are thinking this. I'm not saying that this is wrong. It just seems strange.

I mean, there is a line for when LHO has 4234 pattern.

[Bbradley62]

I think Hanoi means that he hopes West has held onto three spades, having started with four.

[jjbrr]

just a general off-topic comment: the redouble to show a constructive raise doesn't seem very good to me. i can see that on the actual hand it may have been the only action to persuade LHO to lead a club and thus give you a chance to make it, but on other hands i can see it giving the opponents more options and freedom to compete. it'd be really silly if, on a different hand, RHO got to bid 2♣ and then 2♠ after your side bid 2♥, or something like that. why is this better than natural or transfers after 1M (dbl)?

I'd play LHO for 3244 I think, which i think is most consistent with LHO's discards. I expect him to have KJx xx HHxx AJxx or something close.

[Hanoi5]

kenrexford, on 2011-June-10, 14:41, said:

Your thought is that they started with 3-2-4-4 pattern for their double and threw a spade rather than 4-2-3-4? I'm curious why you are thinking this. I'm not saying that this is wrong. It just seems strange.

I mean, there is a line for when LHO has 4234 pattern.

If RHO holds the ♠J?

If LHO had 44 in the minors why didn't he bid diamonds?

[kenrexford]

jjbrr, on 2011-June-10, 15:15, said:

just a general off-topic comment: the redouble to show a constructive raise doesn't seem very good to me. i can see that on the actual hand it may have been the only action to persuade LHO to lead a club and thus give you a chance to make it, but on other hands i can see it giving the opponents more options and freedom to compete. it'd be really silly if, on a different hand, RHO got to bid 2♣ and then 2♠ after your side bid 2♥, or something like that. why is this better than natural or transfers after 1M (dbl)?

I'd play LHO for 3244 I think, which i think is most consistent with LHO's discards. I expect him to have KJx xx HHxx AJxx or something close.

Redouble as constructive is not great at all, I agree. However, if you play with a partner who wants to play XX as constructive because that's how they think, no sense arguing about it. It works OK, from experience.

I think I understand the discards, now. If LHO started with KJx-xx-HHxx-AJxx, he will be at KJx-v-HHxx-Jx when making his first pitch on hearts. The diamond seems easy. Now, on the last heart, with KJx-v-HHx-Jx, he cannot pitch a club, so he has to either pitch a diamond or a spade. This might be 50-50, in theory, as he must bear down to tight honors in either spades or diamonds. This will be a tough pitch.

But, if LHO started with the same layout but with 4♠/3♦, he will reach this same situation but will have likely pitched a spade first and THEN a decision. So, he pitches first from the easy suit, not expecting me to play my last diamond. Makes sense.

[kenrexford]

Hanoi5, on 2011-June-10, 15:34, said:

If RHO holds the ♠J?

If LHO had 44 in the minors why didn't he bid diamonds?

Maybe his diamonds were Jxxx and his clubs Kxxx? But, good point.

In the end, I think I should have figured this out. I was enamored by the line I took, though, which is how I cater to RHO with the spade Jack (or not), so long as LHO started with KQx in diamonds (and did not find the jettison early) or KJx (and does not find the jettison now). Simply now cash diamond Ace and out. If LHO is in and plays a club, hook, cash the Queen, and then small spade to the 10, endplaying LHO again. If LHO plays a spade back, float this to the 10 (or overtaking Jack), spade to the Ace, and out a spade, endplaying LHO in spades to lead clubs. If LHO plays the spade King back, win the Ace and then Queen and a club, as a hedge in spades.

That's why this hand sucks. I wanted to do that, so I did. But, had I focused, I should have made this (on the defense I got).

[jjbrr]

kenrexford, on 2011-June-10, 16:41, said:

Redouble as constructive is not great at all, I agree. However, if you play with a partner who wants to play XX as constructive because that's how they think, no sense arguing about it. It works OK, from experience.

I think I understand the discards, now. If LHO started with KJx-xx-HHxx-AJxx, he will be at KJx-v-HHxx-Jx when making his first pitch on hearts. The diamond seems easy. Now, on the last heart, with KJx-v-HHx-Jx, he cannot pitch a club, so he has to either pitch a diamond or a spade. This might be 50-50, in theory, as he must bear down to tight honors in either spades or diamonds. This will be a tough pitch.

But, if LHO started with the same layout but with 4♠/3♦, he will reach this same situation but will have likely pitched a spade first and THEN a decision. So, he pitches first from the easy suit, not expecting me to play my last diamond. Makes sense.

Yes that's my line of thinking exactly. And I would also argue he won't pitch a second diamond frequently when he started with 4 because (imo) he can easily see that now you just play ♦A then low ♦ and he's in big trouble if he doesn't unblock (and he might have started with KQxx of ♦ and be too afraid to unblock a trick, whereas he doesn't know for sure where the ♠Q is, so he might survive a ♠ pitch).

[jjbrr]

of course if lho is a good defender you should be wary of this inference. also the fact that RHO bid 2C rather than 2D gives a slight clue as others have said.

[quiddity]

Why did LHO lead a club to the second trick if he knew we were void?

[jjbrr]

quiddity, on 2011-June-10, 17:24, said:

Why did LHO lead a club to the second trick if he knew we were void?

Because he led the A and expected us to misguess

[kenrexford]

jjbrr, on 2011-June-10, 20:02, said:

Because he led the A and expected us to misguess

Well, not exactly. LHO is the same person who opened 4♣ as Gerber (shocked that partner did not read this) because her hand was too light (only 20 HCP) to open 2♣.