[pescetom]

I have no objections to the auction of this board.

But how many tricks would you expect partner to take?

[LBengtsson]

Agree. That was terrible

[smerriman]

LBengtsson, on 2023-July-12, 03:37, said:

Agree. That was terrible

Which play(s) do you think were terrible?

[thepossum]

I am following with interest too

Sometimes one could even think people are cruel enough to setup hands to bring down DD sims

[pescetom]

smerriman, on 2023-July-14, 15:59, said:

Which play(s) do you think were terrible?

I think delaying the spades was poor, as was not preceding the 3 with A (unless 3-3 was certain for some reason).

[smerriman]

pescetom, on 2023-July-16, 08:31, said:

as was not preceding the 3 with A (unless 3-3 was certain for some reason).

Hmm.. I'm probably missing something but why would ace be better? Don't you generally want to retain the ace in dummy in case south has Qxxx so that you can cross back to repeat the finesse? [Edit] I guess maybe in that case South gets squeezed when you play the last club to make up for the spade trick you're no longer getting..

As for playing spades earlier, that's something I would definitely have done, but I'm struggling to actually figure out *why* that's better.. or at least why the alternative is 'terrible'. Actually feels like it makes some sort of sense since that's the suit where you can control who is on lead. But I'm sure it's wrong, just don't know why..

[pescetom]

smerriman, on 2023-July-16, 14:17, said:

As for playing spades earlier, that's something I would definitely have done, but I'm struggling to actually figure out *why* that's better.. or at least why the alternative is 'terrible'. Actually feels like it makes some sort of sense since that's the suit where you can control who is on lead. But I'm sure it's wrong, just don't know why..

Why because it looks like the suit to set up before the storm (the defence are already trying to set up 5-2 hearts, the minors look fragile and we have little other control), or at least because most human opps would think that or something similar?
Maybe not, but almost all humans made a couple of tricks more for some reason.

[thepossum]

Testing it out and other DD sims suggest spades for some reason. I don't know why though - apart from looking like an obvious source of tricks, and looking hard for some signs in South's face

[smerriman]

pescetom, on 2023-July-16, 14:47, said:

the defence are already trying to set up 5-2 hearts

One potentially relevant point here is that South led a fourth best 2 of hearts, so a 5-2 heart break isn't of concern.