[fifee]

jlall wrote:
Final of the district 16 GNT (arguably the toughest district). A team with Bob Hamman is playing against a team with Bobby Wolff. You have these 2 hands:

8
Kxx
A98xx
KTxx

76
AQJxx
KQT
Jxx

Auction goes 1H by you, 1S overcall, 2D, 4S, p p 5H p p p. white/white. The lead is the spade king (ace from AK), your rho plays the 5 (standard suit pref). SQ is played, rho playing the 2 as you ruff. You pull 3 rounds of trumps as lho pitches the 9 of spades (RHO had 3 hearts). Now you play KQT of diamonds, rho starting with a small stiff. You lead a club up and lho ducks. Whats your guess?

My feeling is to play ♣ King. Once on the board, can of course lead last 2 good ♦s for pitches. (If you can trust their signals)

I think that LHO started with
♠ KQJT9
♥ xx
♦ Jxxx
♣ Ax

and RHO started with
♠ A5432
♥ xxx
♦ x
♣ Qxxx

S5 discard by RHO was his highest S other than the Ace and was a request for no ♣ switch.

S9 discard by LHO showed ♣ Ace.

P Anderson

[Winstonm]

RHO has shown up with 3 hearts and a stiff diamond...I can't make it if he has only 4 spades and 5 clubs because an honor didn't pop....so, he should have 5 spades and also 4 clubs. With 5314 pattern, why didn't he bid 5S? LHO, too, has KQJxx, xx, Jxxx, ??

I'm inclined to think that LHO may have switched to a low club from Ax at trick 2, and RHO may have bid 5S without the Axxx of clubs. I'm playing LHO for Qx, and will play 10 from dummy; if this wins, I bang down the K next.

Do I advance?

[beatrix45]

Find an easier bridge game. Seriously, I would say a prayer and play the king for three reasons:

1) Lho's overcall is somewhat more likely to be
KQJxx
xx
Jxxx
Ax

than

KQJxx
xx
Jxxx
Qx

2) If rho held

Axxxx
xxx
x
Axxx

he would not be certain whose hand it was at his first turn to bid, and he might have cue bid 2♥. Whereas with

Axxxx
xxx
x
Qxxx

four spades is pretty automatic.

3) Rho's initial play of the spade 5. With the club ace, he very likely would have played the spade deuce.

[cherdano]

I play the Ace, too. If RHO had Axxxx xxx x Axxx, he would most likely have splintered 4♦. If LHO had KQJxx xx Jxxx Qx he might have made a WJO with 2♠. Would be useful to know their overcalling style, of course.

If LHO has led the K from AKQxx, they got me. Did they?

Arend

[Chamaco]

I wonder why West did not switch to clubs at trick 2 despite pard's signal.

He made a neutral return in spades, so he must have been worried of giving away a trick, otherwise he would have made an aggressive continuation.

My guess is that West has Qx and did not want to open up the suit, so I'll finesse the Ten.

[Free]

Too much information has been given to play the K imo. Unless they falsecarded like hell, then I'll congratulate them. ♣K!

[MickyB]

King, for the same reasons as Beatrix gave.

And yes, find an easier game - find an opp who will cover the ten of diamonds!

[Fluffy]

I Take ♠5 as an ambigous switch indicator, having a feature in both suits: singleton and ♣Q.

I would play the ♣K.

[uday]

I'll mostly ignore the subtleties of the opps signals.

If I'd wanted to know, I'd ask LHO if RHOs carding suggested club strength. LHO, with his vast experience with RHO will know what the signals mean. I'd also ask RHO if LHO is a straight-down-the-middle guy or the type who occasionally falsecards on opening lead.



- if RHO had 2 Aces he might have taken a bite at 5H once his P overcalled
- if RHO had the SA ( yes, I remember they play A from AK) he might have overtaken to play a D thru. What if declarer had held xx AQJxxx Qx QJx ? Sure, some one or two people might not be tough enough to do this, but this pair would.


So, whatever is going on, I think LHO has the SA. Then, he'd have AKxxx xx Jxxx ?x

I assume that if RHO needed a club switch, this pair would have found it. So either RHO did not ask for a C or LHO knew a C switch was wrong. He can't know this w/o the CA

Thus, I play LHO for both black aces. The conclusion seems weird but I like it. At least we we now know why I don't play much

[Winstonm]

I believe you said Standard signals, in which case the importance of the encouragement at trick 1 and 2 to force dummy seems important. Why force dummy unless you know the K of clubs is not an entry?

I still finesse the 10.


winstonm

[mike777]

Jlall, on May 30 2005, 08:38 PM, said:

Final of the district 16 GNT (arguably the toughest district). A team with Bob Hamman is playing against a team with Bobby Wolff.

I just read about 7 teams in your GNT! Wow super tough bracket. I see Wold and Passel did not play, do they live outside of GNT area?

Very well done in a super match. All Wolfie does is win, win win.

I hope my buddies team at least gave you a test.

[Winstonm]

Did you get a chance to ask declarer why he elected to play the 10?

If not, what reasoning do you suspect?

Thanks

[Winstonm]

LoL. Not at you, JL, but the situation. I thought this was the very last board of a long and surely tiring match. No, I wouldn't want to ask either, under the circumstances.

And, alas, I would probably sulk as well.

Thanks for responding, though. Better days lie ahead!