[gnasher]

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Do you agree with the bidding? You could also have shown a one-suited invitation, a two-suited invitation, a two-suited game-force, or an autosplinter.

West leads ♦4 (4th from an honour, top from two, 2nd from xxx or longer). East plays the king. Plan the play.

Edit: IMPs

Further edit: 1NT was non-foricng, and denied any invitational hand,

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2011-September-25, 15:52

[Fluffy]

I would had shown diamonds GF, imagine partner with a random 1354, AJ109xx is good as trumps, but also powerful as side suit opposite singleton.

Sounds fun to ruff a diamond and then take a trump finese, ♦J protects the suit, but only momentarilly, west just goes passive and if East has ♠Hxx he will eventually come and play a diamond trhough.

This looks like one of those book hands where the key is to duck the lead.

[JLOGIC]

I hate the bidding, would have bid 3D or whatever the equivalent is in your system. Not hard to imagine 5D or 6D or 5C or 6C as the right spot (though the latter may be tough to reach in standard methods).

Is this matchpoints or imps? Agree with fluffy that ducking the lead is tempting.

[wclass___]

Yeah, one option is to duck ♦; ruff ♦ return and finesse in ♠ - hoping for ♠Hxx-Hx or something better for 4♠+1.

Other option would be to win ♦A and play ♠J, aiming to pick up more probable Hx-Hxx♠, but it has more downsides and less upsides.

[whereagles]

The bidding was rather agricultural. Better 2♦ over 1NT, no? Then, over North's preference, bid game.

The final contract was, however, just the same and perfectly fine.

[FrancesHinden]

I would have bid 2D over 1NT, then bid my club suit next. Couldn't partner have had the same hand with a club more and a spade fewer?

[gnasher]

FrancesHinden, on 2011-September-25, 15:30, said:

Couldn't partner have had the same hand with a club more and a spade fewer?

I'm not sure. That looks a bit good for a non-forcing 1NT response. Partner could have shown an invitational one-suiter in clubs, or an invitational hand with five hearts.

JLall said:

Is this matchpoints or imps?

IMPs, sorry.

Quote

Agree with fluffy that ducking the lead is tempting.

If you do that, how will you play after (a) a heart switch or (b) a club switch?

[Fluffy]

on any switch I win in hand and play ♠J from hand.

[gnasher]

Ducking the diamond has two risks:
- They play a heart, so you ruff and play a spade. They win and force you again. Now you're down if spades are Hxxx=H or x=HHxx and ♥A is on the left. (We can assume that RHO won't underlead ♥A on this bidding.)
- They play a club, then take a ruff when someone has a singleton club with either ♠xx or ♠Hxxx.

Instead, how about matching your agricultural bidding with some agricultural play? Win the diamond, ruff a diamond, club to hand, ruff a diamond, ruff a heart, ace and another trump. If someone has ♠KQxx they may be able to force you off, but you're OK against a singleton honour. Even when it's KQxx-x you have the chance that the long trumps are in the same hand as ♥A, and they can't cross to the other hand in diamonds.

I think this is fairly close. Maybe the duck is better because it's harder for them to find the right defence.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2011-September-26, 12:39

[kenrexford]

As to the bidding, I hate 4♠. Partner is allowed to have a five-card minor. King-fifth of either minor and Kx in spades makes this a GREAT minor slam, and a tolerable 6♠ for that matter.

3♦ is the obvious rebid, but I kind of prefer 3♣. This allows partner to bid 3♦, whereas 3♦ kind of shuts out clubs. Partner is unlikely, IMO, to blow this auction up with four clubs.

[ArtK78]

Hate the bidding. Just rearrange North's hand to be:

xx
Jxxxx
KQxxx
x

and 6♦ is virtually a claim.

As for the play, I would duck trick one. The hand becomes very awkward if you win the first diamond. Yes, there are some risks, but in all liklihood you will be able to make 10 tricks after ducking the first round of diamonds.

[ArtK78]

[Duplicate post]

[gnasher]

ArtK78, on 2011-September-26, 14:05, said:

The hand becomes very awkward if you win the first diamond.

I don't understand this comment at all. If you take the first diamond, the play isn't even slightly awkward. From that point there are only two conceivable lines, and it's just a matter of playing one of them and hoping that it works.

Edit: The lines are: (a) ruff two diamonds in dummy using a club and a ruff as entries, hoping not to lose control, and (b) ruff two diamonds in dummy using two clubs as entries, hoping not to lose three trump tricks.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2011-September-26, 16:09

[Fluffy]

as I said ruffing only 1 diamond and playing trumps form dummy once is also a strong line, if LHO has ♥A his only possible exit after winning his spade honnor is a club, and dummy has KJ9xx!, it is less legitimate than your lines, but it is a decent line also.

[phil_20686]

i would have bid 2d over 1N and then raised 2s to 3s. bidding 3c over 2s is also a contender. 4S feels like a lot. Maybe its right to drive game with all those first round controls, but the hand still seems ot have a decent number of losers, especially if partner has a stiff spade. He should not be eager to pass 2d so it should work out ok.

[jonottawa]

As Scottish Phil. (2♦ then 3♠.)