[jillybean]

Scoring: IMP

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West North East South

 -     Pass  Pass  1NT
 Pass  2♥    Pass  2♠
 Pass  3♠    Pass  3NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

H3 H5 HJ H2
H7 HT HK H9
H4 S2 HQ HA
CK C9 C3 C2
CQ D5 C4 C5
CJ D8 C7 C6
[/FONT]

I hope my play is ok so far, how do you continue from here & why?

[Apollo81]

Lead the ♦Q. If it doesn't hold, the contract is cold (diamonds come in for 4 tricks). If it holds, lead a heart, putting RHO on lead.

[Walddk]

I would like to know their lead style. Do the lead 4th, 3rd/5th or attitude?

Roland

[Apollo81]

Walddk, on Apr 11 2007, 04:41 PM, said:

I would like to know their lead style. Do the lead 4th, 3rd/5th or attitude?

Roland

If they lead 3rd/5th then either RHO returned low from ♥Qx at trick 2 or LHO led from ♥Kxx at trick 1 holding longer diamonds.

but yeah, asking is a good idea

[inquiry]

With the opponents throwing 2♦ and with no rentry to my hand if I play the ♦Ace, I would also trott out the ♦Queen.

BTW, at imps vul, I think 3♠ by your partner (or by you if you were north) is an underbid. With 10 hcp and a five card suit, north has to force to game. I think most people play 3♠ there as inviational and passable. In addition, typically 3♠ here shows a six card suit, but I would be more perturbed by the forcing values than by the lack of a sixth spade.

[FrancesHinden]

Without actually answering the question, a couple of miscellaneous points:
i) Assuming 1NT showed 15-17, North is worth a game force. Transferring to spades and re-raising them usually shows a 6-card suit (and is often played as invitational). The practical call on the North cards is to transfer to spades then bid 3NT.

ii) If the opponents are playing 4th highest leads, there is a lot to be said for winning the second heart. It appears from the lead that they are 4-4, and you don't really want to see the J or 10 of spades coming from LHO after you have ducked two hearts.

iii) I don't agree with cashing the clubs, sorry!

[jillybean]

I was South here, a pickup partner so not sure what 3♠ was.

I cashed the ♣'s first because I thought I may only have 1 sure entry to the table and the ♣A, what is the better play?

[FrancesHinden]

Assuming that i) the opponents are sane and ii) we duck two rounds of hearts (which I am in two minds about) and iii) they play 4th highest leads, then it appears that hearts are 4-4 and RHO has QJ97. The biggest risk is that LHO led a heart from Kxx looking at long spades, but RHO definitely has at laest 4 hearts.

We have 4 club tricks (with some entry problems), 1 heart, 1 diamond and 1 spade. We need to generate two more tricks whilst only losing the lead once at most. We would like to take two diamond finesses, but don't really have the entries to do so. The sensible alternatives are:

- take the spade finesse after cashing 3 clubs. If that wins we are cold, we play a diamond to the jack which sets up the 9th trick. If the spade finesse loses we need singleton or doubleton king of diamonds onside (about 9%). This line is about 60%, but it doesn't go off if LHO led from a 3-card heart suit and the spade finesse is right.

- Play the ace and queen of diamonds from hand without touching clubs. If RHO wins and hearts really are 4-4, then RHO can cash a heart but has no entry to his partner's hand, so cannot attack spades. He will exit in a minor, and we can find out if diamonds are 3-3 before unblocking clubs and taking the spade finesse as a last resort. If LHO wins and _doesn't_ play the 4th heart, he can play a spade at once, and we have to choose whether to play for the spade finesse or diamonds 3-3 (if they are 3-3 we don't need 4 club tricks). If RHO has the DK this line is (diamonds 3-3 or spade finesse), which is about 70%; if LHO has the DK you are probably just back on the spade finesse, which is 50%, given an overall percentage of about 60%, plus the chance that LHO plays the 4th heart rather than a spade through, plus the chance that oppo give accurate count signals on the 2 rounds of diamonds and you trust them, minus the chance that RHO has the DK and 5 hearts.

So overall I think I prefer to play diamonds at once. But it's pretty close and depends on a few imponderables (not least the chance of hearts 3-5) and I wouldn't object to unblock clubs, spade finesse.

The point I was making about "I wouldn't play clubs" is that you are making a decision at the wrong time: you shouldn't cash the clubs before deciding which of these possible lines to take. If you play on diamonds you will need a club as an entry to hand; if you take the spade finesse you are right to cash them first.

[kenberg]

This struck me as a difficult hand with some weird features, for example the 3S bid. If I were S I would be playing 4S, a contract with some interesting play problems of its own. Of course if I were N I would not bid 3S. And there are other features. I rarely look up hands even after responding but on this one I looked up the hand instead of responding. I encourage jb to post the four hands. It would be interesting to get some after the fact views. I'm not really sure what to make of it.

I hope you all will excuse this unusual response,
Ken

[jillybean]

Scoring: IMP

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West North East South

 -     Pass  Pass  1NT
 Pass  2♥    Pass  2♠
 Pass  3♠    Pass  3NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

Lead ♥3

[FrancesHinden]

I see ducking two rounds of hearts and playing on diamonds at once worked well...

But what drugs were EW on with the play in the heart suit?

[kenberg]

FrancesHinden, on Apr 12 2007, 09:39 AM, said:

I see ducking two rounds of hearts and playing on diamonds at once worked well...

But what drugs were EW on with the play in the heart suit?

Exactly. Although asking about their lead style (simple things like 4th best?) is theoretically a good idea, you often get the cyber equivalent of a blank stare. My own thought, before looking, was that maybe W had long spades that the auction steered him away from and so he tried a heart from Kxx. The return of the 7 of hearts by E was consistent with an initial holding of QJ876. This seemed unlikely though. I think I would have taken the second heart and promptly led the Q of diamonds. Not a success.

Playing online has its own features. I'll be playing in a decent f2f unit game tonight. I pretty much know who has a weird idea of what standard is, and I have a director to help out in egregious cases. On line it's more caveat emptor , or anyway one of those Latin things.

I suppose E would take the diamond Q with the K as the play has gone, making 4, but if he ducks all will go well: Spade to ace, losing, when no heart comes back it's clear enough that W has them and so would have taken the king of diamonds if he had it. Unless they are very subtle players. But I doubt that is the explanation for the play so far. Could be.

[Apollo81]

Well we've all been "masterfully" deceived in the heart suit.