[pclayton]

Scoring: IMP

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IMPs, short matches:

West.....Pard.....East.....You
Pass.....Pass.....1♥.....Pass
1♠.....Pass.....2♦.....Pass
2♥.....Pass.....3♣.....Pass
3♥.....All Pass

[luke warm]

♣K

why? i saw someone do it once and it worked

nah, it's pretty obvious my rho is 1543, my spades are gonna suck... if i give them a chance, clubs are gonna go on the spades... oh well, that's my lead

[the hog]

K of C.
I take 3C as an attempt to play 3N. Lho's retreat to 3H suggests weakness there. A trump could be right as lho is showing a preference for playing in H; however my H are not that good to play a forcing game and also I am not that happy with my S holding here.

[cherdano]

For me, the spade holding is good enough to lead a trump. Because dummy has shown only 6-7 HCP, and he is unlikely to have all of them in spades.

Arend

[inquiry]

With four trumps, a popular defensive stategy is to play a forcing game to force declarer to lose control. This is not the hand for that one. They played around, showing all the suits, and the avoided 3NT. They also didn't bid 4 hearts, so your partner is marked for some stregnth as well. IF they could win 9 tricks straight up, they would have taken a shot at three notrump, so they must be planning on some ruffing tricks. I will lead a heart now, and a heart everytime I get in until at least the dummy is depleted of trumps.

Ben

[Free]

♣K, full attack

[pclayton]

I'm late coming back to this one. Where I come from, the 2♥ call shows a forced preference, typically a doubleton. If West has a simple heart raise with spades, thats the call he makes. 3♣ is definitely 'patterning' out but with extras. 3♥ is a violent signoff, probably indicating wasted spade values. It does not promise any additional heart length.

They have values approaching game, and our partners might be playing 3N.

My 10xxx of hearts suggests that we need to establish a tap, and that spades is our tap suit. Leading the Ace isn't at all appealing, so I underled. Dummy hit:

Dummy hit with:

KJ9xx
Qx
xxx
xxx

Declarer put in the Jack, and pard didn't cover from Qxx
Declarer hooked the club losing to my King, and tried the underlead again. 9, SMALL!

Chalking up an embarrassing -140. Declarer's hand: x, Kxxx, AKTx, AQJx. Yes they are in a 4-2! Pard is now more aware of my proclivity to underlead aces through dummy's known suit now

[EricK]

What was partner's reasoning for his strange play at trick one?

In my slightly dazed state, I can't picture a holding for declarer where ducking can be right here.

Eric

[jtfanclub]

EricK, on Nov 5 2004, 03:16 AM, said:

In my slightly dazed state, I can't picture a holding for declarer where ducking can be right here.

Declarer is holding exactly AT, and the guy leading has Ax, Kx, or xx of hearts.

If he goes up third hand high, declarer takes the A and T of spades. He then leads a heart towards the queen. The A or K of hearts gets taken if available, a minor suit back to declarer and then a heart to the queen and two top spades, declarer sluffing two minor suit cards. On the other hand, if you don't go up with the Q, declarer can never make more than 3 spades. I believe there's also some cases where declarer has AT of spades and only 4 hearts where by playing it this way he can force LHO to ruff with a good trump.

I know it's far-fetched, but suppose your partner never, ever, upon pain of death underleads an ace. What is the harm in ducking?

[EricK]

jtfanclub, on Nov 5 2004, 09:07 AM, said:

EricK, on Nov 5 2004, 03:16 AM, said:

In my slightly dazed state, I can't picture a holding for declarer where ducking can be right here.

Declarer is holding exactly AT, and the guy leading has Ax, Kx, or xx of hearts.

If he goes up third hand high, declarer takes the A and T of spades. He then leads a heart towards the queen. The A or K of hearts gets taken if available, a minor suit back to declarer and then a heart to the queen and two top spades, declarer sluffing two minor suit cards. On the other hand, if you don't go up with the Q, declarer can never make more than 3 spades. I believe there's also some cases where declarer has AT of spades and only 4 hearts where by playing it this way he can force LHO to ruff with a good trump.

I know it's far-fetched, but suppose your partner never, ever, upon pain of death underleads an ace. What is the harm in ducking?

If the guy leading has two hearts, then declaer has seven. He also has 2 spades (if you are giving him AT) and some diamonds from the bidding. it just doens't add up. Unless I have misunderstood your point.

If declarer has the Ace, then he lamost certainly doesn't have the Ten (given the play of Jack from dummy and partner's leading the suit). In which case covering gains.

Eric

[inquiry]

If the spots are right, my low heart lead works wonders....

Partner has HEART AJ9, so we score 3H's it looks like (nine or jack forces the king), spade ACE, Club King and diamond Queen. Even if we drop a trick in here, it is down two... (on this bdding I don't see you ducking the first spade, EAST has bid three suits). So while it is unfortunate your partner failed to defend properly, do you think your spade lead even with an awake partner is superior to a heart? Just curious.

Ben

[flytoox]

pclayton, on Nov 4 2004, 11:27 PM, said:

Declarer put in the Jack, and pard didn't cover from Qxx
Declarer hooked the club losing to my King, and tried the underlead again. 9, SMALL!

Chalking up an embarrassing -140. Declarer's hand: x, Kxxx, AKTx, AQJx. Yes they are in a 4-2! Pard is now more aware of my proclivity to underlead aces through dummy's known suit now

I think you need to take this into account when underlead from A. Dummy is weak in this case, and declare is strong, so pd has his reason to duck his queen. If dummy is strong, then underlead from ace is a good idea.

[pclayton]

Hard to see how declarer could have AT of spades on this auction, and the jack from dummy holding a stiff ace is silly.

Declarer had K9xx I think Ben. 3♥ is a silly contract, basically the defense has to avoid tripping over itself and the hand gets beat.

[flytoox]

pclayton, on Nov 5 2004, 10:04 PM, said:

Hard to see how declarer could have AT of spades on this auction, and the jack from dummy holding a stiff ace is silly.

Declarer had K9xx I think Ben. 3♥ is a silly contract, basically the defense has to avoid tripping over itself and the hand gets beat.

If you are ldeading from Txx, and declarer has Ax, then ducking the queen is actually the right play.

I am not saying pd's play is necessary correct. What I mean here is that when you decide to trick the declarer, you also have to consider pd will be tricked as well.