[pclayton]

LHO.....RHO
1♦.....1N
2N.....3N

1♦ is precision - 11-15 - might be short
1N is 8-11


♠AQT9, ♥8x, ♦ Qxx, ♣K7xx

I chose the 8♥. I don't think their suits aren't breaking particularly well, and they have a maximum of 26 HCP, and probably less, since they are vul. Passive seems to the order of the day, but I also had my finger on the Q♠.

Dealer: ????? Vul: ???? Scoring: Unknown

♠ K853 ♥ Q6 ♦ K964 ♣ AQ4 ♠ AQT9 ♥ 85 ♦ Q53 ♣ K732

You are playing UDCA with Smith Echo (and Obvious Shift - but it doesn't apply here)

1. ♥8, Q, 2, 6
2. ♦2, 3, K, 8
3. ♦4, ♠6, J, Q

Over to you.

[Free]

♥5... You started something, lets finish it

[flytoox]

If you didnt start with sq, now it is time. Declarer rates to have HKJ, DAJ. He has enough tricks left to his own. He has five diamond, and his heart wont be short. He is likely to have singleton or void spade. It is time to trick declarer, lead SQ, if declare ducks, continue ST,9.

[Chamaco]

Q of spades.
Pard's entry should be in hearts (he signalled with an udca 2H) and we want that he plays spades after the spades K has been knocked out.

If declarer ducks I play on hearts

[Flame]

Declarer most likely distibution is: 2353 but can also have 3352.
I dont think dclarer would have bid 1nt with 54 in the minors, he should support with this.
Leading heart now is wrong, partner cant have AK from the bidding but even if he has AKxxxx we still have time, dclarer have at most 3 clubs+4 and a heart, to run now.
There are two better options, first The Q of spade, second a diamond.
The Q of spade seems good at first, but it isnt that great, even if declarer has Jx of spade, he will play low on the first round. leading spade can sell the contract if declarer doesnt have J10 of club and have the KJ of heart. in this case a spade will give declarer 2H,4D,1S,2C, while a diamond continuation would give him a problem of entries to his hand, he cant take the club finnse, the spade finnse and play a heart .
So i choose diamond.
Jxx KJx AJ10xx xx
this was the hand i taked about, leading a diamond , declarer cant make more then 8 tricks.

[Rebound]

For declarer, you can count 1H (already in), 4D, 2C, 1S. That's 8. If declarer has another heart trick (and I think it is likely if you lead them), I believe it makes for sure unless you shift to a spade now. It may turn out not to make any difference whether you lead spades or diamonds, as long as you don't give declarer an extra heart trick. However, the spade Q seems like the more agressive play.

[Flame]

Very intersting hand, i can see some squeezes potential after Q spade lead even when partner has the J.

[pclayton]

OK! Very good everyone. Are there any other possibilities to consider? Can partner's card give us a clue?

[inquiry]

Well, partner can't have heart AKxxxx because he failed to bid over 1♦.So declearer has two hearts, two clubs (with hook), 4♦ and 1♠ for nine tricks if given time. Now my SPADE QUEEN looks like it would have been best....

But, we can hope partner has heart ACE, but it is hard to believe he will have three sapdes left after the discard.. I want to wack him in the head for throwing a spade... If he had three sapdes and hte heart ACE, we could set this with spade queen out... but the spade discards has brought him to two spades at most, and the suit can be effectively blocked.

So let's assume partenr is not totally crazy and is trhowin away the setting trick. Declarer will need to lead towards the club ACE-QUEEN and the King, that requires two entries to his hand.

Declarer has heart King and probably jack, diamond AJ, and with partners spade discard the spade J.. That comes to 10 points. I think I will exit with the club king, playing declarer for 3-3-5-2 with two clubs without the jack. HE wins, knocks out an ace, we continue clubs. He comes to 4D, 2H, 2C but no spades.. if he knocks out spade ace instead, he comes to 4D, 1H, 2C, and 1S.

Ben

[Flame]

Curiosity is killing me

[inquiry]

Flame, on Oct 19 2004, 04:25 PM, said:

Curiosity is killing me

why? I told you the solution.... lollll :-)

[Flame]

inquiry, on Oct 19 2004, 03:27 PM, said:

Flame, on Oct 19 2004, 04:25 PM, said:

Curiosity is killing me 

why? I told you the solution.... lollll :-)

Your answer is nice, but why is it better to play K of club then small diamond, can declarer make it , on a diamond return with the hand you gave him ?

[pclayton]

Flame, on Oct 19 2004, 12:25 PM, said:

Curiosity is killing me

OK, OK, OK.......

1. Whats the heart situation? It can't be Qx opposite Kxx. Why would partner duck holding the (presumed) ace? He has to hope I led from a 3 bagger; so He might as was well bang down A-J 6th. Declarer can't (well, more than likely) hold K-T-x, either. With Declarer holding Axx or AJx, partner is covering, not just encouraging. So it looks like partner holds AT9xx and is ducking to maintain communication. And there isn't room for pard to hold AKxxx. Declarer has 4 diamonds, a heart and 2 clubs off the top, and will eventually come to a spade. We don't know about the secondary clubs.

The 5 diamonds was a little bit of a suprise to me. But its easy to peg declarer with a 5332 pattern.

There's one more possibility, and I'm surpised no one mentioned it. Pard could have AJT9xxx and didn't preempt (yes he's not quite all the way comfortable with overcall structure, but xx, AJT9xxx, x, xxx is a fine 3H call to me). This was actually the case at the table. But I think pard made a huge error by not discarding the JACK of hearts at T3. This makes the situation absolutely clear to me that declarer can't hold KJx. Declarer held JTx of clubs, so on my Q♠ shift, she made a spade, a heart, 4 diamonds and 3 clubs. A heart continuation gets it down 4!

As far as the spade discard, to me, well, that is just a little too subtle for me. Once pard pitches from xx of spades, we can never run the suit on my shift to the Q, which is another reason to play a heart, but why can't declarer hold Jx of spades?

At the other table, 3N was played from the other side, down on a spade lead.

By the way, the Q♠ lead works real well, but a low spade makes it easier for declarer, but can still go down if you don't find the heart shift early.

[inquiry]

Flame, on Oct 19 2004, 04:42 PM, said:

inquiry, on Oct 19 2004, 03:27 PM, said:

Flame, on Oct 19 2004, 04:25 PM, said:

Curiosity is killing me 

why? I told you the solution.... lollll :-)

Your answer is nice, but why is it better to play K of club then small diamond, can declarer make it , on a diamond return with the hand you gave him ?

you may be very right... of course... i am still wanting to wack my partner in the head.. i feel that way a lot of times... "-)

But the play might go, win dimaond in hand (unblock nine), lead king of hearts...

Partner wins.. .and? Returns spede? to late? returns club? too late.. Lets go with club. Win in dummy, cross to the diamond, cash heart, lead a spade... comes to 9 tricks... you got to knock out two clubs.. by going now I think

Besides.. doens't seem appropriate you should lead an unprotected black honor (queen at trick one), and failing to do that, you should lead a different one (king) at trick four? There is a beatiful symmetry to the plays.


Ben

[Flame]

inquiry, on Oct 19 2004, 04:05 PM, said:

Flame, on Oct 19 2004, 04:42 PM, said:

inquiry, on Oct 19 2004, 03:27 PM, said:

Flame, on Oct 19 2004, 04:25 PM, said:

Curiosity is killing me 

why? I told you the solution.... lollll :-)

Your answer is nice, but why is it better to play K of club then small diamond, can declarer make it , on a diamond return with the hand you gave him ?

you may be very right... of course... i am still wanting to wack my partner in the head.. i feel that way a lot of times... "-)

But the play might go, win dimaond in hand (unblock nine), lead king of hearts...

Partner wins.. .and? Returns spede? to late? returns club? too late.. Lets go with club. Win in dummy, cross to the diamond, cash heart, lead a spade... comes to 9 tricks... you got to knock out two clubs.. by going now I think

Besides.. doens't seem appropriate you should lead an unprotected black honor (queen at trick one), and failing to do that, you should lead a different one (king) at trick four? There is a beatiful symmetry to the plays.


Ben

Its very hard for declarer to play heart, he dont know hearts break 6-2, he would probebly play either club or spade and go down.

[inquiry]

Flame, on Oct 19 2004, 09:38 PM, said:

Its very hard for declarer to play heart, he dont know hearts break 6-2, he would probebly play either club or spade and go down.

hypothetical after diamond back...

---

Club lead can come later, i think we can all agree... no rush there.

So choice is spade and heart. Neither is attractive, but look at if from declarer's point of view.

1) needs the club hook,
2) needs the spade ACE on sides

You are probably right, he will not lead a heart, but rather a spade. While the problem with a spade is it will definetly set up three tricks for you in his minds eye. Actually, it will not because your partner pitched a spade (let's wack him in the head again). So in fact, if he lead a spade here, he will make, rather you duck or not.

The problem with the heart lead, is it sets up a bunch of hearts, but after the come-on in hearts and your refusal to lead them again, the 6-2 split seems like a reasonable best. And when your partner wins the heart, he is endplayed. he has to give up an entry in hearts or lead a black suit for declearere.

Ben

[Flame]

I agree, actually when i gave my answer i didnt know about the spade discard made by partner. So i agree with ur K of club.

[cf_John0]

Free, on Oct 19 2004, 11:41 AM, said:

♥5... You started something, lets finish it

The dummy's hand has proved the passive opening lead is right.