[FrancesHinden]

"Friendly" rubber bridge, game all, no real systemic agreements other than 5CM, 14-16 NT.

You are East, dummy is North

Scoring: Rubber

---

North dealt
Pass  1♥  Pass  2♥
x  xx  3♦  Pass
Pass  x  All pass

Partner leads a trump to your king.
Plan the defence.

[hatchett]

I disagree with winning the ♦K. I would win the ♦A to tell partner I have nothing in clubs, Cash the ♦ K, ♥ K and play the ♦J

[Codo]

I would lead a club. Hoping to win 2 Diamonds 1 Heart 1 Club Ruff and an ace in pds hand.

[Halo]

Rightly or wrongly I'm confident about taking this off and I'm going for at least +500. so I will play King of hearts and another two rounds of diamonds.

[Gerben42]

I'm giving up my ♣ ruff but trade it for a non-ruff in ♥ by declarer. Cash a top ♥ and play 2 rounds of trumps.

[FrancesHinden]

What's the point of cashing a top heart?

[Gerben42]

Quote

What's the point of cashing a top heart?

1. It tells the table what I have in ♥
2. By doing so it tells the table I might not have that much somewhere else, allowing declarer to try and ditch a loser on a ♠ finesse (which unfortunately for him is losing)

[Halo]

FrancesHinden, on May 31 2007, 05:55 AM, said:

What's the point of cashing a top heart?

Just telling partner my Heart holding to make his choices easier when he gets on lead.

At the extreme I don't want any accidents if partner is:

xxx
(Q)xxx
xx
AKxx

and tells me I must be asking for a spade switch since I can't have both top honours in hearts.

I am giving information to opponents, but I'm not sure they can do very much with it in practice.

[Fluffy]

I'd play a club and see what happens

[jtfanclub]

Well, let's see...suppose I gave declarer a deadly hand of

xx
xxx
QTxxx
Axx

Is that possible? Well, that would give my partner the A of spades, K of clubs, Q of hearts, and 4 hearts. I'd bid 4♥ with that over 3♦. So I think he's even stronger.

xx
xxx
QTxxx
AKx

Partner still has the A of spades, Q of hearts, and 4 hearts. Looks like a raise to me, but one that can't/won't act over 3♦.

Other sample hands.

Ax
xxx
QTxxx
Kxx

Ax
Q9x
QTxxx
xxx

Axx
Q9x
QTxxx
xx

This post has been edited by jtfanclub: 2007-May-31, 10:46

[hatchett]

Quote

Ax
xxx
QTxxx
Kxx

If I lead a club back, we take a club, club ruff, two diamonds, and a heart. Down 1. If I play a heart and 3 diamonds, he can set up the spades easily enough, but has no entry to them. He has to lose two hearts, two diamonds, and a club. Still down 1.

OK, suppose he has

Ax
Q9x
QTxxx
xxx

Well, a club back gets two clubs, club ruff, two diamonds, and a heart. 3 diamonds and a heart gets us a heart, two diamonds, and two clubs. Still down 1 either way.

I'd check your analysis, on the first hand 3 rounds of diamonds beats the hand two tricks (2 diamonds, 3 hearts and 1 club), but if we take a club ruff it's only one off.

On the second hand both defence lead to two off, not one off

[jtfanclub]

hatchett, on May 31 2007, 11:00 AM, said:

I'd check your analysis

You're right. I took out all my analysis, and just left the sample hands. With my limited sample and skills, though, I don't see the club return being better.

[foo]

T2 for me is ♥K, and look at GOP's suit preference signal to see if I can better visualize the hidden hands.

Dummy is fairly anemic: ♠KJT9♥T♦872♣QJ974

Given my hand: ♠Q742♥AKJ74♦AKJ♣3
On some layouts the best defense is to pull trump. But not all.

The 3D bidder was forced to bid, so their values are unclear. But they can't have much.

GOP's 2H raise showed ~6-9 HCP and 3-4 H's. Unless they have a 4333, they are very likely at the lower half of that range.

25 HCP in the known hands + 6-7 in GOP's hand => 8-9 HCP in Declarer's.
If we give Declarer the DQ, that leaves 6-7 HCP unaccounted for.
EDIT: OOPS! Fixed.

[jtfanclub]

foo, on May 31 2007, 01:32 PM, said:

25 HCP in the known hands + 6-7 in GOP's hand => 8-9 HCP in Declarer's.
If we give Declarer the DQ, that leaves 4-5 HCP unaccounted for.
If Declarer has the DQ, they only have room for 1 A or 1 K in addition.
I really want to know which one it is most likely to be.

Good to see I'm not the only one making math errors.

8-9 hcp - 2 hcp = 6-7 hcp. Same as my partner.

So out of the two aces, one king, and one queen outstanding (excluding the diamond queen), I expect my partner to have two of them and declarer to have two, probably each with one ace.