[Cyberyeti]

We had a strange pairs competition over the weekend, after qualifying for the A final comfortably we scored 40% in the first session of the final (worst in the room) and 60% in the second session (best in the room) without playing that much better in the second session, lots of strange things were done by us and opps in both sessions, and the luck went largely their way in the first, and ours in the second.

We missed 2 opportunities against jallerton in the second session to be even better, we got 2 zeroes and a top in the 3 boards, but the 2 zeroes could have been big boards as well.

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Small club lead, plan the play, I wish I'd just bid 6N and concealed the spades.

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Bidding is approximate, if jallerton sees this, maybe he can supply the real auction

Partner leads the 2♠ (lowest from Hxx(x) or singleton) and dummy decks with:

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You win the A♠ declarer playing the J, then what ?

[manudude03]

On the first one, win the ace and confidently play a heart to the king. If it wins, we have 12 tricks, and if not, hope West doesn't return a heart in which case we play for a show-up squeeze against East.

On the second, I'm struggling to come up with hands consistent with the auction where it matters what we do. All I can really think of is declarer has QJxxx v x AKJxxxx in which case we need to return a spade (preferably a low one to leave declarer a problem if there wasn't a trump promotion).

[simpa961]

1st Hand:

You have 11 running tricks spade finesse or finding the right Hearts card will give the 12 trick however, another way is to play a strip squeeze on LHO over the Heart Ace and Spade queen for the 12 trick.The club lead influence the strip squeeze line as passive leads are normally made when holding much values you dont want to lead from or holding nothing ( that's based on aggressive leads is preferred against slams). I would probably cash the Spade Ace, 5 clubs and 4 diamonds from opponents discards you might be able to find the spade queen either by finesse or strip squeeze. If you take this line your last 3 cards will be K♥ and KJ♠ depending on clubs and diamond distribution and opponents discards you might find the right decision 1- end play LHO 2- Finesse Spade 3- cash spade king to drop the queen (note that some players might discard spades to hold the stiff queen as a counter move to the strip squeeze). Also, note that this line will reveal RHO if he hold all the missing key cards as he will be automatically squeezed and it will be much easier to make if that's the case. This line still loses on some layouts I don't think there is 100% play here.

2nd Hand:

After bidding twice vul against non I don't think your p has Qxxx in Spades or he might have raised to 3♠ also, all kinds of switches doesn't seem promising so I'll return high spade hoping P is able to ruff over dummy.

[alok c]

manudude03, on 2015-May-26, 04:29, said:

On the first one, win the ace and confidently play a heart to the king. If it wins, we have 12 tricks, and if not, hope West doesn't return a heart in which case we play for a show-up squeeze against East.

On the second, I'm struggling to come up with hands consistent with the auction where it matters what we do. All I can really think of is declarer has QJxxx v x AKJxxxx in which case we need to return a spade (preferably a low one to leave declarer a problem if there wasn't a trump promotion).

On the second hand scenerio west is to ruff 2 spades but can't if north holds atleast club jx.

[Aardv]

6♣: I suppose that if our play makes a difference, declarer has seven good clubs to go with dummy's AAK, and will take a spade ruff in dummy, which gets him up to eleven tricks. If he's got three spades he'll take two spade ruffs, so give him two, presumably QJ doubleton since partner hasn't raised. The danger is that he's 2227 and can ruff the diamonds good. In that case we need to take out an entry to dummy. A heart might work, but a top spade is safer.

Alternatively, if partner's lead is a singleton, declarer is something like 5116. We could try a trump, but unless partner's trumps are at least 98x, or declarer has a heart void, he'll have a double squeeze after ♠ruff, ♦AK, ♦ruff ♠ruff etc.

I'll play ♠K at trick two. (But I don't believe this auction)

[Cyberyeti]

Aardv, on 2015-May-26, 11:10, said:

6♣: I suppose that if our play makes a difference, declarer has seven good clubs to go with dummy's AAK, and will take a spade ruff in dummy, which gets him up to eleven tricks. If he's got three spades he'll take two spade ruffs, so give him two, presumably QJ doubleton since partner hasn't raised. The danger is that he's 2227 and can ruff the diamonds good. In that case we need to take out an entry to dummy. A heart might work, but a top spade is safer.

Alternatively, if partner's lead is a singleton, declarer is something like 5116. We could try a trump, but unless partner's trumps are at least 98x, or declarer has a heart void, he'll have a double squeeze after ♠ruff, ♦AK, ♦ruff ♠ruff etc.

I'll play ♠K at trick two. (But I don't believe this auction)

That's a great piece of analysis, I returned K♥ hoping for QJ, xx, 10xx, AKQxxx or declarer's actual hand without Q♥, second spade beats it, declarer has QJ, Qx, xx, AKJxxxx. I think the auction is vaguely close, but maybe it was P rather than X.

[gszes]

manudude03, on 2015-May-26, 04:29, said:

On the first one, win the ace and confidently play a heart to the king. If it wins, we have 12 tricks, and if not, hope West doesn't return a heart in which case we play for a show-up squeeze against East.

This would be my choice of play and not just for the reasons you gave. Even if lho has the ace (sans Q) they may duck the king in order to keep us from rectifying the count for a squeeze or keeping you guessing with heart KQT

[benlessard]

Quote

and not just for the reasons you gave

Quote

they may duck the king

is a subset of

Quote

If it wins

[glen]

on the first, I like ♣ A, ♦ A, ♦ 5 to the T, ♥ to the King

[benlessard]

With my pet system and my experimental 6Keyc scheme the 1st one is interesting.

1C (15+)---2NT (exactly 2245 9+)

3C-4C (keyc in clubs -- 2 keycards + ♦K+ odd number of ♣KQ of trumps & denies ♥K

??

4D ask ♠K
4H ask ♦Q
4S ask ♥ Q
4NT ask for Qs/extras

its an interesting problem.

Ive wrongside NT but ive rightside clubs. So I think i can ask for Qs/extras rather than asking for the Qh and enplay myself.

Tough hand.

[gszes]

benlessard, on 2015-May-26, 22:54, said:

is a subset of

ahh the old quote out of context are you perchance into politics? the original statement if it wins and if not hope lho does not return a heart seems to make a strong case for lho holding the a and not the Q (else maybe cash a heart vs return a heart). I was just filling in the information void since ducking the K in order to keep us from rectifying the count for a squeeze is quite a common defensive tactic. This fact greatly increases the odds that lho (sans heart Q) will duck the K due to the fog of war and there is more to leading toward the K than merely hoping lho will not return a heart to their p queen when they win the ace:) It is also a reason playing toward the K is vastly superior that leading to the J since a positive signal from rho is much more likely to get a heart return when lho wins the Q (they will not duck).

Since this is the expert site I agree that my expansion of the thought can easily be considered gilding the lily.

[jallerton]

Cyberyeti, on 2015-May-26, 03:59, said:

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Bidding is approximate, if jallerton sees this, maybe he can supply the real auction

Partner leads the 2♠ (lowest from Hxx(x) or singleton) and dummy decks with:

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You win the A♠ declarer playing the J, then what ?

Aardv, on 2015-May-26, 11:10, said:

I'll play ♠K at trick two. (But I don't believe this auction)

Cyberyeti, on 2015-May-26, 13:17, said:

That's a great piece of analysis, I returned K♥ hoping for QJ, xx, 10xx, AKQxxx or declarer's actual hand without Q♥, second spade beats it, declarer has QJ, Qx, xx, AKJxxxx. I think the auction is vaguely close, but maybe it was P rather than X.

Aardv is right about the bidding as well as the correct defence. Cyberyeti's quoted auction is only "vaguely close" in the sense that he got the first round of the auction correct. The actual auction was:

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[Cyberyeti]

This doesn't tally with my recollection of the auction at all, there were only 2 things I thought I knew about the later stages of the auction, and neither occur in what's stated.

[gnasher]

The second spade is playing for partner to have passed 2♣ with 10xxx xxx xxxx Qx. That doesn't seem likely to me - isn't that a normal 2♠ bid, even at adverse?
Hence I agree with Cyberyeti's heart switch, which works when declarer has J10x xx xx AKQxxx and partner Qxx Qxx 10xxx xxx. ♥K is necessary because declarer might have J10x Q xxx AKQxxx

[Cyberyeti]

gnasher, on 2015-June-13, 03:09, said:

The second spade is playing for partner to have passed 2♣ with 10xxx xxx xxxx Qx. That doesn't seem likely to me - isn't that a normal 2♠ bid, even at adverse?
Hence I agree with Cyberyeti's heart switch, which works when declarer has J10x xx xx AKQxxx and partner Qxx Qxx 10xxx xxx. ♥K is necessary because declarer might have J10x Q xxx AKQxxx

What irritated me about the hand was not so much that I didn't find the second spade, but that I didn't come up with the layout where it could be necessary while thinking about what to do at trick 2.

[FrancesHinden]

gnasher, on 2015-June-13, 03:09, said:

The second spade is playing for partner to have passed 2♣ with 10xxx xxx xxxx Qx. That doesn't seem likely to me - isn't that a normal 2♠ bid, even at adverse?
Hence I agree with Cyberyeti's heart switch, which works when declarer has J10x xx xx AKQxxx and partner Qxx Qxx 10xxx xxx. ♥K is necessary because declarer might have J10x Q xxx AKQxxx

Not in my opinion (I had the hand at another table and passed). What is the advantage of bidding 2S on a hand with no offence and no defence?

[lamford]

I have stopped contributing to any threads that contain more than one deal, after I found that a discussion with another poster was at cross-purposes. An exception was the excellent thread from PhilKing which contained around 30 different hands on the same theme.

[gnasher]

FrancesHinden, on 2015-June-13, 04:14, said:

What is the advantage of bidding 2S on a hand with no offence and no defence?

Having four spades means that partner has more offence and less defence than he would otherwise expect. He might want to know about that.

But more important is the obstructive effect. 2♠ prevents LHO bidding 2♦ and 2♠, and means that he no longer has available either a jump to 3♥ or a 3♠ splinter. For example, with x Axxx AKxxx 10xx LHO no longer has a convenient descriptive bid below 3NT.

[jallerton]

Cyberyeti, on 2015-June-12, 18:04, said:

This doesn't tally with my recollection of the auction at all, there were only 2 things I thought I knew about the later stages of the auction, and neither occur in what's stated.

First you said you couldn't remember the auction and asked me what it was. Then when I tell you the auction you don't believe me! Why did I bother?

lamford, on 2015-June-13, 08:32, said:

I have stopped contributing to any threads that contain more than one deal, after I found that a discussion with another poster was at cross-purposes. An exception was the excellent thread from PhilKing which contained around 30 different hands on the same theme.

Well you seem to have contributed to this thread!

[jallerton]

gnasher, on 2015-June-13, 10:08, said:

Having four spades means that partner has more offence and less defence than he would otherwise expect. He might want to know about that.

But more important is the obstructive effect. 2♠ prevents LHO bidding 2♦ and 2♠, and means that he no longer has available either a jump to 3♥ or a 3♠ splinter. For example, with x Axxx AKxxx 10xx LHO no longer has a convenient descriptive bid below 3NT.

If LHO has that hand she can still bid 3♠ over your 2♠, but more important is the fact that by raising you'll encourage partner to bid on far too much. If he competes to 3♠ I'd expect -200, the "kiss of death" on a partscore board. If partner's hand is strong enough to make 3♠, then you'll still end up with a minus score as then he'll just bid game.