[nikos59]

I was playing today with an alleged expert pickup partner. West opens
2D weak and pard ends up playing 4S with no other oppo bidding.
West leads the 10 of clubs.

Scoring: IMP

---

To my horror, the alleged expert butchered the hand.

However, it is very simple:
West opens 2D and West leads another suit, hence 99% West
does not hold AK in diamonds, hence East is a favourite to
hold a singleton top honour, A or K. True, West may have
opened with a 5-carder, but how can it harm to draw two
rounds of trumps and then play the diamonds as if East
has a singleton honour?

Nikos

[HeartA]

Don't get too serious with self claimed "experts". I marked myself as "expert" in the beginning, but changed to "world class" after encountered too many "experts" of novice level.

[EarlPurple]

sorry I don't see the problem with the hand in question.

Even if I play diamonds by leading low to the jack (thus losing to stiff ace) , then running the 9 the next round, I can still make it by taking the marked ruffing finesse the next round (I have Q8 against K7xx), thus the way I might play the suit had West decided not to open a weak 2.

[jtfanclub]

EarlPurple, on Nov 9 2004, 05:47 PM, said:

sorry I don't see the problem with the hand in question.

I'm just guessing here..

Club won with the queen, three rounds of trump, heart to the ace, diamond to the jack and ace, heart ruffed, spade to the dummy to lead the diamond nine, and it's over.

Just a guess, mind you, but that seems like the easy way to lose it.

[EarlPurple]

The Mr Smug line would make it. Mr Smug is SJ Simon's character, who is generally a poor dummy player but doesn't do crazy stuff.

The Mr Smug line would be: club lead won in hand. Ace and King of trumps, diamond to the jack, losing to the ace.

East takes his trump then leads back a heart to the ace. Declarer now plays king and queen of clubs to see if they break, then runs the 9 of diamonds (East showing out).

West wins and probably leads a heart but South ruffs and takes the marked ruffing finesse in diamonds. Ok, he can't count, but he would notice East show out on the previous round.

[whereagles]

Inferences from what has NOT been done are much harder to draw. Even experts fail here, if they are not concentrated. Playing casually, it is VERY simple to miss a simple point like defender does not have AK.

[EarlPurple]

inference is irrelevant here though. The only thing you need to notice is East showing out on the 2nd round. You don't even need to know the 8 of diamonds becomes high. You will know it is high on the 4th round when West doesn't cover it.
(Or on the 3rd round West requires the King to cover the 8 so your Queen becomes high on the 4th round).