[pescetom]

MP

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It's the last board of the evening and you are tired, but also doing well despite a beginner as partner and a good score would probably seal first on line.
Taking your chances and responsibilities in 3NT looks right, but when you see the dummy you are cursing yourself for not passing 3♦ or making partner declarer.
The lead is ♥2, probably fourth below honour. How do you read the situation and plan to play?

[thepossum]

Came back for the second time to see if anyone has commented yet
I'm winning with the Queen of hearts and leading a Spade. That's as far as I got. Planning in Bridge moi

[pescetom]

thepossum, on 2023-June-10, 00:56, said:

Came back for the second time to see if anyone has commented yet
I'm winning with the Queen of hearts and leading a Spade. That's as far as I got. Planning in Bridge moi

I would be more enthusiastic about leading a (the) Spade early if we had been smart enough to make East the declarer.
But if you do it probably goes 2 - T - K - 4.

[jillybean]

No idea but my auction would have been different.
1D 1S 2C

[pescetom]

jillybean, on 2023-June-10, 10:52, said:

No idea but my auction would have been different.
1D 1S 2C

Some at my club chose 1D too, on the basis that it would be easier to show both suits.
To each his own, but I think the medicine is worse than the disease.
Yes it's ugly to rebid 2C without six cards or even great honours, but if that is your agreement partner can figure out that you may well be 5-4 with a red suit.
You don't mislead him that you have 5 diamonds and four clubs rather than vice versa.
You can also play (with a non-beginner) that 1C 1M; 2C 2D is an artificial game force with 5cM.

[Gilithin]

1♣ - 1♠ -- 1NT would be another possible start to the auction. Not that it matters. I suppose the obvious lines here would be to play for 3 diamond or 3 club tricks. The latter looks a bit easier to manage so I would probably start with ♥A, ♣Q without much conviction. I would assume we are looking for something much more exotic for the hand to find its way on to the forums though. Maybe this is one of those book hands where we have to cash all the hearts on the basis that the defence is subsequently endplayed. It does have a lot of the elements for that hand type so it's not completely out of the question but no way I am going to try and work that out at this time - maybe in the morning if Mike hasn't posted the solution by then...

[mikeh]

I don’t know whether I’m being flattered or am the subject of well-deserved sarcasm��

In any event, I definitely don’t know ‘the solution’. In fact I strongly expect to go down absent (a) incredible luck (J10 tight in clubs? Stiff diamond King?) or (b) an almost equally improbable lie or © what I think is my best chance, misdefence!



Anyway, my line is to start by winning the heart in dummy and playing a club to the queen.

If it loses, win the heart return in hand and lead a club to the king and exit a club. I get 3 club tricks with 3-3 or Jx/10x either hand or AJ/ A10 in north

If the queen holds, play another club, covering whatever north plays.

Assuming I have three club tricks (without which I think I have zero chance), win the presumed third heart in dummy and run the clubs, reducing to KQx void Qx void opposite x void Axxx void

Now a spade towards the KQx. I’m basically playing for south to be down to AJx void Kx or Ax void Kxx void (can be KJx in diamonds) or to have the heart Jack along with the diamond K and the spade Ace, and to have failed to unblock.

Alternatively north to hold the spade Ace and the top heart and Kx diamonds, but he can avoid the endplay pretty easily, as can south.

So I expect to fail. Oh well, gone down before and will again.

Non-expert defenders will sometimes misread the situation, so that gives me a tiny bit of hope.

I don’t play diamonds early so I can’t make via 3 diamonds, assuming the suit is friendly, without two clubs or egregious error,and I can’t get my second club without first losing two tricks there, a long heart,a diamond and tge spade ace.

Edit. One low percentage variation is that if the 10 or Jack appears from south on the first club, I duck coming back (assuming the queen held), getting me two club tricks for the loss of one and now I’ll switch to diamonds, hoping for 3-2 with the king onside. This will look silly if north found a smooth duck from Axxx, since playing the king would generate 4 club tricks, but the odds are in favour of AJ or A10 rather than J10, if south has a doubleton, plus few players would, in real life, find that duck (although it should be automatic for an expert defender)

[Cyberyeti]

jillybean, on 2023-June-10, 10:52, said:

No idea but my auction would have been different.
1D 1S 2C

Mine would be different too:

1♣-1♠
2♣-2♦(art inv+)
2N(not supermax 5♣/4♦ not 3♠, not 4♥)

and now pass, 3♦NF and 3N are all in the frame, if W signs off in 3♦ E might bid 3N anyway

[Gilithin]

mikeh, on 2023-June-10, 19:42, said:

I don’t know whether I’m being flattered or am the subject of well-deserved sarcasm��

Neither - it is simply a fact that you are the best player regularly posting here. In any case, I am super-happy to have the same line (at least the first half) even if it turns out not to be succeeding. As with Paul's recent hand, I find it better to judge improvement in declarer play by how often I come close to the best players posting rather than what works on the actual hand. In this regard, BBF has always been a fantastic resource offering unrivalled insight into the way a few top players think.

[apollo1201]

Gilithin, on 2023-June-11, 03:40, said:

Neither - it is simply a fact that you are the best player regularly posting here. In any case, I am super-happy to have the same line (at least the first half) even if it turns out not to be succeeding. As with Paul's recent hand, I find it better to judge improvement in declarer play by how often I come close to the best players posting rather than what works on the actual hand. In this regard, BBF has always been a fantastic resource offering unrivalled insight into the way a few top players think.

+1 (for all you said)

[pescetom]

thepossum, on 2023-June-10, 00:56, said:

I'm winning with the Queen of hearts and leading a Spade. That's as far as I got. Planning in Bridge moi

pescetom, on 2023-June-10, 09:09, said:

if you do it probably goes 2 - T - K - 4.

So have you got farther yet?
This is your 15 minutes of fame

[pescetom]

@thepossum, your time is up

mikeh has most angles covered and is awesomely close. So at least I take a little credit for playing a small club towards the Q, which held, and then another club covering the T with K. One down all the same.

Here is the actual layout.

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Of course it is a bit of a freak, otherwise 3NT would be unlikely to be possible without collaboration of the defence.
The intriguing thing is that I think it can only be made following thepossum's line.

[Gilithin]

pescetom, on 2023-June-11, 11:08, said:

The intriguing thing is that I think it can only be made following thepossum's line.

It seems that it also makes if declarer wins the first trick in hand intending to play on diamonds, then switches to a spade followed by the ♣Q when the bad split is revealed.

[mikeh]

pescetom, on 2023-June-11, 11:08, said:

@thepossum, your time is up

mikeh has most angles covered and is awesomely close. So at least I take a little credit for playing a small club towards the Q, which held, and then another club covering the T with K. One down all the same.

Here is the actual layout.

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Of course it is a bit of a freak, otherwise 3NT would be unlikely to be possible without collaboration of the defence.
The intriguing thing is that I think it can only be made following thepossum's line.

Sorry, but my analysis was crap. I had had a couple of pints, following a club game,but that’s no excuse for truly shoddy analysis


I utterly failed to think about the position at trick four…heart won in dummy, club to the queen, club to the king, losing, and back a heart, won in hand

I have a serious lack of entries, which I completely overlooked. It’s not the first time that I got so wrapped up in multiple possible forks in the play that I forgot an important detail about the actual hand. Sorry.


Ironically I’d be forced into a diamond to the ace, felling the king

As far as I can see, the hand fails against best defence thereafter but it’s actually a fascinating hand, with ample opportunity for both defenders, but especially north, to screw up

Bear in mind that after a diamond to the ace and driving out the last club stop, NS can never play any suit but spades! Let us on dummy and we have nine tricks.

I’ll leave the details for interested readers, but it gets messy. Hint…north has to be careful.

[thepossum]

Hello

I forgot about this thread and saw my handle - feeling a bit embarassed - no skill involved at all

I had not thought ahead though to the next trick - will read the thread

I didn't actually believe you and just put it into a DD solver. I have no idea of my reasoning - maybe it seemed sensible at the time

- maybe along the lines of it being safe, wanting to leave errors up to the defence - spades seemed safe, maybe even establish a long spade. No idea at all
Since the thread has progressed I can't honestly say what my next play would have been. Whether to unblock the hearts or play one of the other suits. My thought processes are no longer untainted by seeing the hands and discussion

[sfi]

Gilithin, on 2023-June-11, 03:40, said:

Neither - it is simply a fact that you are the best player regularly posting here. In any case, I am super-happy to have the same line (at least the first half) even if it turns out not to be succeeding. As with Paul's recent hand, I find it better to judge improvement in declarer play by how often I come close to the best players posting rather than what works on the actual hand. In this regard, BBF has always been a fantastic resource offering unrivalled insight into the way a few top players think.

Remember the good old days? Back when someone would submit a play hand, people would offer various lines of play and then eventually Rainer would come along and post the right line. He was a good cheat code to have on the forums.

[pescetom]

sfi, on 2023-June-12, 20:15, said:

Remember the good old days? Back when someone would submit a play hand, people would offer various lines of play and then eventually Rainer would come along and post the right line. He was a good cheat code to have on the forums.

Unfortunately this hand was only played in my club and so I have no way of knowing who at national level would bring it home (of course it could be on defensive error anyway).
In our club most were playing comfortably in 3♦ and my only consolation was that the other in 3NT went down 2 against my 1.
I thought it was useful to I/A in terms of calibrating game decisions and remembering to count entries available and needed, even if the play is expert stuff.

[Wackojack]

25 points between us and yet game has very poor prospects. I suspect most will be in 3N. So what chance of making?

With my 4 tricks n the majors, it looks like I need to find 5 tricks in the minors. At best I have 3 diamond tricks and even making 2 club tricks looks problematic because the opportunity may get 5 tricks first 1S, 1H, 1D and 2C.

My instinct would be to play on Ds first likely going 1 or even 2 off. So win H with K in hand and play 4D up to Ace and the King drops. This changes things.

I castile make 3 diamond tricks, but losing the lead to do so means that if I next play on clubs I have to lose 2 club tricks and in the process I lose 1s 1h 1d 2c = 5 tricks and down 1.
So next I could try for a miracle in clubs. 2c to Q which holds. Back with 3c and lo... the 10 comes up.
Now Kc and I have time to set up 3 club tricks and 1spade. Add my 2d and 3 tricks makes 9.

I think it unlikely that I could successfully reason this way at the table. I would probably go down. However, maybe an expert declarer could reason this way and make.

Excuse the rudimentary nomenclature. I am on a beach holiday with just an unfamiliar smart phone.