[Echognome]

Scoring: MP

P - 1♣;
1♠ - 3♠;
All Pass

---

T1: ♦A - 6 - J - 3
T2: ♦K - Q - 2 - 5

1. At trick 3, West leads the ♥9. How do you play?
2. At trick 3, West leads the ♦7. How do you play?

[Fluffy]

1. Table feeling, against a LOL I'd raise, against a mind gamer I'd play low.

2. I am ruffing this in dummy.

[jjbrr]

1. Ace.

2. Aren't I always cold if I just pitch a ♥?

[pooltuna]

jjbrr, on Jan 19 2010, 12:58 PM, said:

1. Ace.

2. Aren't I always cold if I just pitch a ♥?

since this is MP you need to play this with the assumption that 4♠ will fail against reasonable defense.

[jjbrr]

I swear I looked and it said IMPs. Hence my answer before lol.

OK I see. Ya we have to ruff and then hope for clubs.

[jdonn]

What's the point of ruffing on the diamond continuation? Isn't RHO out of diamonds for sure?

On 1 I go up draw 2 rounds of trumps and probably play on clubs to pitch a heart.

[billw55]

removed nonsense

[Fluffy]

Ooops, I missed that the ♦J had been played already

[gnasher]

pooltuna, on Jan 19 2010, 07:11 PM, said:

since this is MP you need to play this with the assumption that 4♠ will fail against reasonable defense.

No I don't. If 4♠ is making, I've already lost to the people in game, so the only people I'm competing with are the ones who're in a partscore. If 4♠ is going down, then as long as I make at least as many tricks as the players in 4♠, I've already beaten them and again I can ignore them.

The only way the people in 4♠ matter is if I do something anti-percentage that costs a trick, and 4♠ is going down. That will make me tie with the players in 4♠, and turn my good board into a bad one.

[hanp]

jjbrr, on Jan 19 2010, 12:58 PM, said:

2. Aren't I always cold if I just pitch a ♥?

Ruff, club ruff, another diamond.

[Echognome]

Scoring: MP

---

[jdonn]

I admit it, I don't see how you would know to play on diamonds rather than clubs after the heart switch and drawing trumps.

[Vilgan]

Most will fly A on 1 I think. Even if the finesse WAS working (which seems anti percentage), I might still escape if LHO is the one with 3 spades. Taking the finesse just seems a bit strange.

Even asking about 2 seems strange, as anything but discarding a heart would be pretty insane.

[aguahombre]

jdonn, on Jan 20 2010, 12:17 PM, said:

I admit it, I don't see how you would know to play on diamonds rather than clubs after the heart switch and drawing trumps.

restricted choice?

[Echognome]

jdonn, on Jan 20 2010, 11:17 AM, said:

I admit it, I don't see how you would know to play on diamonds rather than clubs after the heart switch and drawing trumps.

I agree. Odds are pretty against it. Note that West could have played a third round of diamonds and to make 4 you would have to guess to play East for Q9 or J9 rather than QJ9 (which you may very well do). A better defense is for West to shift to a heart at trick 2. Then you can never make 4.

[jdonn]

But how does west know whether to shift to hearts or clubs? Tough one.

[aguahombre]

No one took the bait about restricted choice. From my standpoint as a less than expert, the cards played so far in diamonds and in hearts reveal that the eleven black cards are close to evenly divided.

So, when I play two spades, I will guess that the missing spade quack is in the hand which did not play a quack on the second round. In, this case that would mean cashing the diamonds and pitching hearts from dummy.