[Gerben42]

Conditions: Individual tournament, opponents Intermediate.

After the auction
1NT (2♦) 3NT passed out, LHO leads the ♦6 (4th best):

Scoring: MP

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How do you play this hand and why?

Experts etc. please post in hidden text.

[helene_t]

I'm not an expert but I'll hide this anyway, just in case it makes sense:

Spoiler

Take the first trick with the ace and play ♣9.

[FrancesHinden]

I can certainly say I wouldn't be surprised to go off.

[badderzboy]

Hmmm , bound to be wrong lol but..

Spoiler

We have 6 top tricks 4 Aces and KQ ♥ as West's lead is 4th Best then rule of 11 says that East has 1 card higher than the 6 and also only 1 or 2 diamonds with West having 5+ for the o'call.

Now if West had KQJxx he would have lead the K so East must have an honor in ♦ this means by playing the Ace we either drop a stiff honour or we force the opps to promote the 10 to a stopper! (West must cover East's card on next round).

We hopefully can set up extra tricks in Clubs and/or the T♦ so I would cross to the A♣ and play the Ten back to dummy letting it run if not covered. We lose only to KJx or KJxx in East I think? If I lose to KJx(x) then I can always try the Q♠.

I'm a tad worried about finessing through West as West may attack spades b4 I remove clubs from West hand?

Steve

[ochinko]

I expect that LHO doesn't have DKQJ because he'd rather lead the King. This means that he intervened with 6 diamonds, not 5, so if I jump with the Ace I expect to see RHO dropping an honor. In a f2f tourney I could tell him to hold his cards closer

Now I turn to clubs. If RHO has dropped the DQ, I'll play him to have the CJ because if he has the CK LHO would have intervened with 11 points. If he had shown DJ, I'll start with CQ.

Petko

[Free]

Spoiler

LHO has 5 or 6 ♦s without all 3 tophonours. So we need to play for some blockage. Play ♦A, and finesse ♣s through your RHO, so low to ♣T, and develop ♣s.

[mila85]

Ducking the first trick doesn't look well. Diamonds will be cleared and after interference LHO must have an entry.
So I take with an ace and RHO will prabably unblock the suit. Time to play clubs. But how?

Spoiler

1. I can play ♣A and run ♣10. This needs both club honours with west or ♦9 with east (and not both club honours) because RHO can finesse my ♦10. (+- 35%)

2. ♣A and ♣ to Q. This needs clubs 3-2 and King with west or singleton honour with east. (cca 40%)

3. I can finesse from dummy but I can't finesse twice because I have only one entry. When west takes he can clear diamonds. Now I need two more tricks and second finesse can give me only one - I will never see my high clubs in dummy.
So if I finesse with:
- ♣9 - Needs doubleton honour with west or KJ sec with west. (Playing ace after first finesse) (cca 20%)
- ♣Q - Needs clubs Jxx-Kx or Jx-Kxx or Jxxx-K (+- 20%)

I vote for 2 with some extras.
If clubs are 3-2 or east has singleton honour it's easy.
West can make a mistake and play K from KJxx. If he recongnize the situation with this holding I can still make. I play three rounds of heards I know a full ditribution (and have 7 tricks):
1354 - try singleton spade king and endplay in clubs.
2254 - ace of spades and spade to queen. If he west takes with king he must give me ♦ trick. If don't I return club and ♦ trick is also my.
3154 - Ace of spades and spade to queen. LHO must cash clubs and exit with spade (it means he didn't discarded it). He can make easily a mistake. If he doesn't I play ♦10 and hope 9 will drop.

[Double !]

another case of the dog that didn't bark. what diamond lead did lho not make?

[pclayton]

I think this hand is developing into something that doesn't belong in the B/I section . My thoughts:

Spoiler

LHO certainly has HH9xx(x?) of diamonds and probably the K♣. Frankly, I don't think RHO unblocking from ♦Hx at T1 is a spectacular play, but LHO unblocking the K from ♣Kx under the Ace would be, and I don't want to give RHO the chance!

I'm playing a heart to hand and a club toward the board. If LHO has Kx, he can't spoil my party by winning or ducking. If he ducks, I just win the Q and duck a trick back to LHO.

I think this better than double hooking clubs into LHO, playing for split honors. They can take 2 clubs and 3 diamonds, and I only have only taken 1S, 3H's, 2D's and a club. I'm playing LHO not to be crazy and have both black suit kings.

[Double !]

How does one type a hidden answer?

[sceptic]

I think the best chance to make is duck first Diamond,to try to break the opps communication, if Diamonds are continued, play low club to Ace and finese the 10C if covered by jack then play QC hoping east has KC, if west has KC, your 10D may be a good stop and will give you 9 tricks, may be extras

if after you duck first D, tthey change to Spades then you rproblems really start and I am not sure of the bestway to play it

[Gerben42]

The full hand:

Scoring: MP

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As you can see it was essential to take the first ♦ (if not you are down on the spot), but you're still not home yet. I prefer mila's line.