[thepossum]

Hi all

I don't know if this is a good example of planning play, something that often seems neglected and assumed by me and also many forum discussions, but is clearly an important beginner thing that I still fall down on. I tend to have a few basic strategies and then be somewhat reactive when unusual occurrences take place - without always taking the safest line (eg bad breaks)

Any thoughts about this one please. Suffice to say I went down 1 trick at Matchpoints. WOuld you have ended up in a different contract. How would you bid. How would you plan play etc. I didnt like NT but it probably makes on many plays But assuming you ended in 4H.......

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You get a small heart from East

The way I played was to win the heart in hand (W played J), then lead to KC, then knock out Ace diamonds (E), lose a spade to the Ace (E), then you get another Spade lead to the King I was here with lead in North. Any thoughts?

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Thanks P

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EDITED below to help Cyber. Tring to flip diagrams. Did it work

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EDIT. Sorry, I'm totally confused myself now flipping the text

You get a small heart from West

The way I played was to win the heart in hand (E played J), then lead to KC, then knock out Ace diamonds (W), lose a spade to the Ace (W), then you get another Spade lead to the King I was here with lead in South. Any thoughts?

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[FelicityR]

The only small inference I can pick up here, and I am finding this tricky too is that ♦ are more likely to split 4-3 than ♣s or ♠s. I can't imagine West leading a singleton trump, but it's a fair possibility that West had ♥Q653 to start with, and given the bidding felt a trump lead was safe. But surely that is playing against the odds with a 3-2 split in ♥s over twice as likely as a 4-1.

If I choose to play against the odds, ruffing a ♣ with the ♥K, discarding a ♣ on a high ♦ and ruffing a ♦ then playing trumps should suffice (assuming a 4-3 ♦ break).

I assume you played a ♥ to the ♥K, discovering the bad break, tried discarding your losers on the ♦s but West refused to overruff you when you came back to hand with a high trump ruff, and you were left with two trump losers. That's unlucky but it's the way I would have played the hand too.

Edited to reflect the 'flip'

[Cyberyeti]

I'm very confused, N is declarer (he bid hearts first), you talk about winning in dummy, then talk about the ♥K still being in dummy when W played the J

It is a convention here to rotate the hands so S is always declarer btw

How about winning ♥K immediately and playing a top diamond, this somewhat snookers E, what does he do next ?

[thepossum]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-September-15, 05:42, said:

I'm very confused, N is declarer (he bid hearts first), you talk about winning in dummy, then talk about the ♥K still being in dummy when W played the J

It is a convention here to rotate the hands so S is always declarer btw

How about winning ♥K immediately and playing a top diamond, this somewhat snookers E, what does he do next ?

Hi Cyber

Sorry about misleading. Its one of those where the hands are flipped when the robot declares so the human plays North. I will fix them up and make sure its the right way round always in future

Sorry to Felicity too. I shouldn't have flipped things because her compass points are now flipped. I will put it back

I left the original post and copied a version of it with NS slipped so declarer is South

Apologies for any confusion. Its late and I'm going to sleep now

[thepossum]

Thx Felicity

I will look again at your and Cybers comments in the morning. I made a mistake trying to flip diagrams but have left the original and the flipped NS. Totally confused the thread.

Good night

[sassan]

This is a very difficult question and probably the correct answer is beyond my level. But I give it a go because it looks interesting to me.

First the bidding: It's understandable that N wants to be in game: 24+ combined HCP and looking at a 5 loser hand. However there is a strong hint against bidding 4♥: two shallow suits headed by A, while bidding suggests a misfit deal and strong hint that dummy cannot cover those shallow suits. Is it correct to bid 4♥? I am not completely sure, probably 3♥ (which is indeed a false preference)would have been the end of the auction for me in a conservative day.

The play is really not a big issue for me. There are a few things I might think of:

* if the initial trump lead was a singleton? 4-1 break is against the odds and 3-2 break twice more likely.
* What was the hasty cashing the ♠A by E and exiting with a low ♠? Didn't E have a safer exit? This is probably the most important clue.
Both E/W do have clear view of diamonds, because declarer showed out in the first round.
If E had another ♥ wouldn't he continue the initial plan of playing trumps? (and he was looking at a singleton ♥K in dummy).
This ♠ play contains a small hint that E initial lead was a singleton.
Why E didn't try to exit in ♣? probably because he was afraid of leading into a tenace. so it's safe to put E with ♣K and afraid of leading into tenace. So he assumed pard's points must be in spades.

And what declarer should do?
If everything splits nicely:
W - E or W - E
3...4 ... 3...4
3...2 ... 3...2
4...3 ... 3...4
3...4 ... 4...3
we want to lead to ♥K and run the diamonds.

If we believe East's odd play of ♠A is a sign of 4-1 heart break (W started with ♥QJxx) we should play for a nice 3-4 split of diamonds. If I had to play the hand I would have played for the following layout:
W - E
3...4
4...1
3...4
3...4
Once again the play of the hand is not much different. lead to ♥K and run the diamonds.

If W started with doubleton diamonds we are always down. He will ruff third round of diamonds and good diamonds in dummy will be stranded forever.
W - E
3...4
4...1
2...5
4...3

In the end, I assume leading toward ♥K is the correct play, though contract is not guaranteed.

[thepossum]

Dear Sassan

Many thanks for your detailed reply

Regards P