[diana_eva]

I recently managed to get down in this fine slam (click Next to follow the play):

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IMPs, ACBL Speedball, unknown opps. If it helps, profiles show "Advanced" for both and they play 2/1 standard.

Hook the spade or not? Are there enough clues in the hand count by now so I get it right?

[WesleyC]

Against strong opponents, you shouldn't take the finesse in this situation because, they will often play a spade honour on the first round from ♠JTx (a pretty common holding).

However, If you don't think your opponents are capable of finding that play, then restricted choice makes finessing about a 65%-35% proposition.

[nige1]

I would play ♠ from the top

[gwnn]

There was a Thread of the Decade hall of fame entry about this suit combination

http://www.bridgebas...0-akq9xx-vs-xx/

[diana_eva]

 gwnn, on 2015-October-16, 07:35, said:

There was a Thread of the Decade hall of fame entry about this suit combination

http://www.bridgebas...0-akq9xx-vs-xx/

Thanks gwnn this is perfect.

Altho my question here was also whether I missed something in the play up to the point I'm left with guessing the spades or it really boils down to "would this sweet LOL do such a thing?"

FWIW she did falsecard (she had JT). And I misjudged her, apologies ma'am, well played!

[WesleyC]

If RHO held JT doubleton, then it's not really a falsecard - she had to play one of them. However if you walked into her JTx then congratulations and an apology are definitely in order!

Regarding the rest of the play, after a heart lead you're main hope is to win 3H, 2C, 1D and 6S (assuming spades are favourable). You've also got an extra chance to fall back on of 3H, 4C, 2D and 3S if the spades are ugly but the clubs come home as well as various potential squeezes.

However the way you played the hand you didn't quite give yourself the best chance, because you crossed to dummy in spades and while leaving the King of hearts on the table blocking the suit. If East had held the ♣A, they might duck the first club, win the second and then play a diamond. This play knocks out your only remaining entry to hand while the hearts are still tangled up. Now you're forced into taking the diamond finesse that you didn't even need!

A better line is to cross in hearts before playing a club up and establishing your tricks. You can cash a big spade first if you like, but that leaves the chance that West will win the Ac and put you to a spade guess early in the hand when you might've had a chance to squeeze them.

[mikeh]

 diana_eva, on 2015-October-16, 07:59, said:

Thanks gwnn this is perfect.

Altho my question here was also whether I missed something in the play up to the point I'm left with guessing the spades or it really boils down to "would this sweet LOL do such a thing?"

FWIW she did falsecard (she had JT). And I misjudged her, apologies ma'am, well played!

The sad thing is that she was possibly just giving honest count

[diana_eva]

 mikeh, on 2015-October-16, 10:18, said:

The sad thing is that she was possibly just giving honest count

LOL I thought about that too, but decided to give her a little more credit

[phil_20686]

I think that we should be able to cater to layouts with Txx club and the diamond k onside when spades are 4-1. To do that, I think you need to cash two spades and then play a club if the spades are 4-1. I think that your line of playing one top spade then a club broke up your communications in an unhelpful way. 4c 3s 3h and 2d will see you home, and you should work to cater for that chance.

[diana_eva]

 phil_20686, on 2015-October-16, 10:40, said:

I think that we should be able to cater to layouts with Txx club and the diamond k onside when spades are 4-1. To do that, I think you need to cash two spades and then play a club if the spades are 4-1. I think that your line of playing one top spade then a club broke up your communications in an unhelpful way. 4c 3s 3h and 2d will see you home, and you should work to cater for that chance.

Yes, and I shd probably untangle the hearts before considering how to play further. I played too fast, like always, and got overly obsessed with "what does the J mean" at the table.

[kuhchung]

I've taken the "restricted choice" hook against weak opponents who look very bored. I'm 1/1 so far.

[gszes]

The strongest clue might simply be the following: When lho won the club A they did NOT continue with a spade. If you were looking at Txxx of spades knowing declarer had only 1 more would you not be hugely tempted to give them an immediate guess when nothing else looks any good????? Play for the drop.

[PhantomSac]

 gwnn, on 2015-October-16, 07:35, said:

There was a Thread of the Decade hall of fame entry about this suit combination

http://www.bridgebas...0-akq9xx-vs-xx/

oh man blast from the past

[nige1]

For completeness, there are other considerations.

• Some players always play the knave from JT, making this decision more difficult (but when they play the the ten, the finesse is a near certainly).
• A non-expert who has never read about restricted choice might still play an honour from JTx, by mistake, or randomly, or to show upside-down count, or whatever. If you weigh such possibilities, you might play spades from the top.

[zillahandp]

Poor players seem always to play the higher of dbltn honours, exoerts vary, so restricted choice iworks beter against experts bit then experts would play the ten or knave. From jtxlho has fhts otherwise rho would have played ten on trick one, taking ac immediately suggests four clubs to tenso sorry thnk you are going down as spades prob four with rho so only chance pray for them to be 3/3, dont finesse

[xeno123]

Two questions:

1. Given there seems to be no wild distribution among the rest of the suits, doesn't that increase the chance of an even break in spades?

2. Isn't there some sort of inference to be made from E covering the ♦Q immediately instead of waiting to cover the J?

[allo_st]

One good player that I know says this:

When you are playing trumps with a 9 card fit, you cash the A (or K) and an opponent has QJ doubleton... With no information of the opponents, assume that when opponents plays the Q, he is MORE LIKELY to have QJ doubleton, even tho the restricted choice says otherwise. If he plays the J, then you should go for the restricted choice. More and more player will try to fool you this way and the principle of restricted choice is based that with a same opponent presented with this holding x number of times, he will play the Q 1/2 of the time, and the J 1/2 of the time...
With humans (especially for those who do not know the restricted choice), this is cleary not the case.

So how does it compare to here?
Well with J10 holding, you will more likely see the J rather than the 10.
So I would just play for the drop and too bad if they were 4-1.

But here, I do not believe I would finesse even if I see the 10... I mean it's too easy for opps to play the J or the 10 from J10 holding.

[thornbury]

odd that no one else has noticed this yet, but I have a question on the bidding. If 1nt was the standard 15-17 and in the sequence above, if 4nt was quantative, why would opener with a bare 15 hcp, jump to 6nt?

[davidmj]

one additional point. It appears the opening lead was from 10xxx. If they also had that holding in spades might they have lead spades? Almost a variation on "restricted choice"?