[rhm]

Some good players strongly prefer IMP play

I have no such preferences.
Matchpoints has its own intricacies.

This hand caught my interest:

Playing in a pairs game (mediocre field) you reach the following 4♠ contract:

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East leads the ♦J covered and taken by West.
West switches to the ♣6

What is your problem?
Plan the play

Rainer Herrmann

[The_Badger]

Just having a quick look at the hand, there's a potential problem lurking if West is 4-4-4-1 shape, I believe. So I'm inclined to lead the ♠9 at trick 3 (after capturing the 2nd trick with the ♣A) to cover this eventuality.

[Cyberyeti]

The_Badger, on 2017-August-23, 09:02, said:

Just having a quick look at the hand, there's a potential problem lurking if West is 4-4-4-1 shape, I believe. So I'm inclined to lead the ♠9 at trick 3 (after capturing the 2nd trick with the ♣A) to cover this eventuality.

You really think east is 0517, silent and leading a stiff diamond ?

[The_Badger]

Cyberyeti, on 2017-August-23, 09:22, said:

You really think east is 0517, silent and leading a stiff diamond ?

Yes I do. Rainer mentions it is a mediocre field. Lead partner's ♦ suit with ♠void ♥Jxxxx ♦J ♣Qxxxxxx. No bid available after 1♠ overcall, vulnerable.

[Cyberyeti]

The_Badger, on 2017-August-23, 10:04, said:

Yes I do. Rainer mentions it is a mediocre field. Lead partner's ♦ suit with ♠void ♥Jxxxx ♦J ♣Qxxxxxx. No bid available after 1♠ overcall, vulnerable.

You also think he doesn't have a heart honour ? I think his partner either tries to give him a ruff or plays one of ♥AK if he has both.

[nige1]

rhm, on 2017-August-23, 06:50, said:

Some good players strongly prefer IMP play
I have no such preferences.
Matchpoints has its own intricacies.
This hand caught my interest:
Playing in a pairs game (mediocre field) you reach the following 4♠ contract:
East leads the ♦J covered and taken by West.
West switches to the ♣6
What is your problem?
Plan the play

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As an ordinary player, I prefer MPs to imps.

• At imps, one swingy board can decide a match or an event; whereas
• At MPs, each board has roughly equal weight.

Hence, MPs seems a superior test of skill. It's understandable, however, why professionals prefer imps scoring and teams events.

• Teams competitions employ more pros than pairs competitions. Also
• It's harder for 1 pro partner to support a sponsor, than 3-5 pro team-mates.

I look forward to Rainer revealing the subtle point of his play-problem.
At the table, I would play ♣A, ♠A, ♣K, ♠A, ruff a ♣ and hope for the best.
(If LHO ruffs the 2nd ♣, then he's ruffing a loser).

[rmnka447]

The problem was pretty obvious -- potential ruffs coupled with a bad trump break.

If trump break 2-2, you're always making 6.

If trump break 3-1, you can always make 5 by playing 2 rounds of trump, then playing to ruff the 3rd ♣ in dummy.

If trump break 4-0, then you must limit your losers to no more than 2 trump losers.

Win ♣ A, play a ♠ to the ♠ K. If trump are 3-1 or 2-2 play as above.

If trumps 4-0 with West, lead remaining ♣ from the board towards the ♣ K5. If West trumps you can discard the losing 5 avoiding a ♣ loser. If West follows, you can win the ♣ K and ruff the ♣ 5 on the board.

If trumps 4-0 with East, you can play ♣ from the board and put up the ♣ K. If it holds, you try to ruff 3rd ♣on the board. If the ♣ K is ruffed by East, you still have 2 trump on the board. So even if East returns trump, you can win in hand and lead the 3rd ♣ to trump on the board unless overruffed by East.

[gszes]

IMHO i think the point is quit worrying about very low % probabilities at MP especially when they will not set the contract anyway. MP is a game of overtricks and one rarely wins an event by being pessimistic (even though that is a very good IMP trait).

trick 2 win club A and lead a spade toward the K and reevaluate. If trumps break 40 (no matter which opp has the 4 trumps it is safe to lead a club from dummy toward the A (if lho ruffs they are ruffing with a natural trump winner and rho cant ruff due to distribution). If both follow it is safe to lead another spade to the ace. If trumps break 22 no worries ruff a club and eventually give up a diamond. If trumps break 31 you make 5 no matter what happens when u lead the other top club next intending to ruff the 3rd club.

[johnu]

I would win ♣A, cross to the ♠K.

If spades are 4-0, I would play a low heart from dummy. If west has the AK but not AKJ, they will play a high honor which you will ruff. If they don't play a high honor, you are in too tough a game. Diamond to dummy, then a club.

If West ruffs, you can eventually play ♣K and pitch a diamond, eventually ruffing your 4th diamond in dummy. If west pitches, win ♣K and ruff a club. If west overruffs, he can't play the remaining heart honor or a diamond to dummy's tenace so will return a trump. You can win the trump and then endplay west in trumps to return a heart or a diamond.

West has to overruff the 3rd round of clubs because presumably west pitched a heart on the 2nd round, and if they pitch another heart, declarer can ruff out the remaining heart honor.

If spades are not 4-0, I would still play a low heart from dummy. Almost certainly West will play a high honor if not holding AKJ. Ruff the heart, ♠A, then ♣K and club ruff. You then have enough entries to ruff out AK third in hearts if west started with 3=3=4=3 or 2=3=4=4.

If west overruffs from 3=4=4=2, they will be endplayed if they didn't start with ♥AKJx. If West doesn't overruff from 3=4=4=2, they have to pitch a heart and you can still ruff out hearts.

Edit:
Could East have 4 trumps? So something like 4=5=1=3 (and west opened a canape 0=4=4=5). Ruff a heart, ♣K, ruff a club, ruff a heart, diamond to dummy. If East ruffs, play low and you will lose 2 trumps and ♦A. If east pitches, ruff a heart, and play a diamond to dummy. Whether east ruffs or pitches, you can take 10 tricks.

[alok c]

The_Badger, on 2017-August-23, 10:04, said:

Yes I do. Rainer mentions it is a mediocre field. Lead partner's ♦ suit with ♠void ♥Jxxxx ♦J ♣Qxxxxxx. No bid available after 1♠ overcall, vulnerable.

The field may be mediocre but I don't think anybody will miss bidding with 0-5-1-7 when 5♣ is at least a very good sacrifice & lead a stiff without ruffing prospect in hand.

[rhm]

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As I hinted this is all about matchpoints. At IMPs this would be a boring contract.
You are in a good contract, which is very likely to succeed.
Spades are unlikely to be 4-0. East would not pass with a void in spades and at least 5 hearts at favorable vulnerability and if West is void of spades he would have opened 1♦ with an unlikely 0♠=4♥=4♦=5♣ and then passed 2♦ white against red.
However, you will have plenty of company in 4♠. The field should have little difficulty to reach game as well in spite of only a combined 22 HCP.

West is unlikely to have only 3 cards in diamonds. In this case West would have to be 4♠=4♥=3♦=2♣ with less than 15 points.
This would mean East passed at favorable vulnerability your one spade overcall with at least 4 HCP, and 0♠=5♥=2♦=6♣.
Hard to believe.

So West has 4 diamonds.

West can not possibly know that you (North) are void of hearts.
So from his perspective,a diamond ruff at trick 2, heart back to West (West almost certainly has the ♥A, because East would not pass 1♠ with 5 hearts including the ace) and another diamond is an attractive defensive option for West.
Why did West not give his partner a diamond ruff?
Apparently West deemed it unlikely that you (North) will have four diamonds. If the lead was from a doubleton, a diamond return would give away a trick.

Can West be short in clubs?
Hardly. As other pointed out this would give East 0=5=1=7 or a 1=5=1=6 distribution.
So West has at least 3 clubs. neither would his club switch be attractive from the queen.
West is either 2♠=4♥=4♦=3♣ or 1♠=4♥=4♦=4♣.

It looks like East potential HCP can consist only of black queens to account for his silence in the bidding and accordingly West has both top hearts to account for his opening bid.
West knows that North potential heart losers can not run away, so from his perspective there was little point laying down a top heart. Good play by West.

So what is your problem?
At many tables West will return a diamond for East to ruff.
No problem if spades are 2-2.
But if East has 3 spades, East is ruffing a diamond loser with a natural trump trick and North will have 11 easy tricks on this defense while you are in danger of losing 2 diamonds and a spade.

So what can you do do to get back to 11 tricks in 4♠?
This was the layout:

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You have a trump squeeze against West:

T1: ♦A
T2: ♣A
T3: ♠K
T4: ♣K
T5: ♣ruff
T6: ♠A
T7: ♠

At trick 8 East will have to return a heart or club, which you ruff to reach the following position with North on lead:

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North now plays a trump discarding the ♦8 from South and West has no discard.
Would you have foreseen the trump squeeze for the vital overtrick and a good matchpoint score?

Rainer Herrmann