[Mbodell]

opening lead C9

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Playing IMPS all white what's your plan on the ♣9 lead?

[Fluffy]

I'd block clubs to takle trumps inmediatelly, ♣A then run ♠J

[rhm]

Not clear. Do not understand how South can force to game opposite a 1NT response.
Your plan may depend on whether the ♣ 9 lead can be from 3 cards. I assume it can not.
A simple line is to win the ♣ ace and take the ♠ finesse.
If that wins you are home. Assume it looses to West's ♠ queen.
A switch to ♦ may now look attractive to West, in which case East would either have to give West a ♣ ruff, in which case you will need West to have all the red suit honors, or East will need to find the trump return to create any problems.
If West switches to ♥, I will play him for the ♥ ace and go up with the ♥ king. If this fails I will have to hope that East will not switch to ♦.
If West continues with a black suit I will probably play him for the ♥ queen.

An alternative (and maybe better) line is to win the ♣ in hand and immediately play the ♥2.
The opening lead makes it likely that West has a ♥ honor.
This puts a lot of pressure on West not to duck with the ♥ ace.
If he does, play him for the ♥ queen.
If this looses to the ♥ queen, you are not down yet. East may have the ♦ king, in which case you may have time to establish a ♦ discard. You can always fall back on the trump finesse.
If East can give West a ♣ ruff, you must hope that West has both the ♥ ace and the ♦ King and that the ♠ queen will now drop.

I think I prefer the second line.

Rainer Herrmann

[Fluffy]

Rainer there is no pressure on LHO, he can see that dummy has ♦A and ♣A, ♥K will always be used to discard something unless partner has 3 trump tricks.

[billw55]

rhm, on 2010-October-25, 02:52, said:

Do not understand how South can force to game opposite a 1NT response.

Do not understand this part of your post

[rhm]

billw55, on 2010-October-25, 06:42, said:

Do not understand this part of your post

Sorry I got the bidding wrong. I overlooked the 1♣ opening bid.

Rainer Herrmann

[billw55]

Ah ok never mind then

[rhm]

billw55, on 2010-October-25, 07:41, said:

Ah ok never mind then

Of course you are right

Rainer Herrmann

[billw55]

Anyway, I think this is an interesting hand, with several lines available.

Personally I am tempted to take the opening lead in hand cash the trump AK. This avoids any problems with club ruffs and still brings in the suit if either op holds Qx. True it loses an extra trump trick to Qxxx in either hand, but this risk seems to be there anyway, since I really think the ♣9 is a singleton. Next I cross to the ♣A and lead a small diamond. If that fails I can still make it on a good guess in hearts (if ops don't have two trump tricks that is).

[gnasher]

billw55, on 2010-October-25, 07:55, said:

Next I cross to the ♣A and lead a small diamond. If that fails I can still make it on a good guess in hearts (if ops don't have two trump tricks that is).

Assuming it's going to be a pure guess in the heart suit, that doesn't gain over leading hearts twice from hand. If you get hearts wrong, East has to switch to a diamond, so you can still take the diamond finesse.

Playing hearts before diamonds gains because you can conceal the presence of the 10. If East has ♥AQ and ♦J, after winning the first heart he will have to guess which red-suit ten you have.

[billw55]

gnasher, on 2010-October-25, 08:20, said:

Assuming it's going to be a pure guess in the heart suit, that doesn't gain over leading hearts twice from hand. If you get hearts wrong, East has to switch to a diamond, so you can still take the diamond finesse.

Playing hearts before diamonds gains because you can conceal the presence of the 10. If East has ♥AQ and ♦J, after winning the first heart he will have to guess which red-suit ten you have.

Hmm clever of you .. I like it.

[Mbodell]

Fluffy, on 2010-October-25, 02:22, said:

I'd block clubs to takle trumps inmediatelly, ♣A then run ♠J

Well at the table that was my thought as well. I wanted to think about spades 4-1 with the Q on side and also tackle trumps first. Unfortunately this went:

T1 ♣9 A 3 8
T2 ♠J 2 4 Q
T3 ♣6 2 ♠3! ♣Q
T4 ♥9 2 A 4
T5 ♣5 4 ♠8 ♣K

And I was down. I forgot to ask about leads but evidently the 9 was the lead selected from JT9xx in clubs so must have been coded T and 9 (0 or 2 higher).

But now I'm not sure if win the first trick in hand and bang down the AK isn't better (it is always hard to tell after you go down). If the Q falls, you pull all trump. If not you start on hearts now from hand and still have lots of possible ways to win. The other table played it from the other side and got the stiff club lead and banged down the trump and made 5.