[Fluffy]

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partner leads ♣3 and declarer plays ♣5 under our ace wich means that partner doesn't have doubleton and someone must have 3 cards.

what do you play at trick 2?

[benlessard]

Declarer has at least 4S and 5H. With 4531 it give partner 5S and 3D so he wont X with that shape. So its highly likely partner is 5251 and declarer 4513. Declarer will be able to get rid of it slow club loser on the K of diamonds so I think giving partner his ruff is better than playing a low trumps. I expect to make both m aces a ruff and the K of S.

[MrAce]

What if pd has 4153 and declarer 5611 ?

If it was my own pd i wld definetely know he cant have 5251, he would bid 1♠ with this.

[nige1]

MrAce, on 2012-February-04, 21:42, said:

What if pd has 4153 and declarer 5611 ? If it was my own pd i wld definetely know he cant have 5251, he would bid 1♠ with this.

If partner was dealt top spades, he is likely to have led one, so benlessard's ♣ return seems the most realistic chance Tough if partner has ♠K and two red aces

[MrAce]

nige1, on 2012-February-04, 21:54, said:

If partner was dealt top spades, he is likely to have led one, so benlessard's ♣ return seems the most realistic chance Tough if partner has ♠K and two red aces

You dont need top ♠ honors and u dont need 2 red aces. If he has this hand (below), we have to play ♦ now.

AJTx
x
AQxxx
xxx

Not saying what Benlessard suggested is wrong, just saying that if it was my pd who doubled 1♥, i would know he can not have 5-5 due to our agreements and i wld play ♦. Now it can be both ways i guess, but ♣ lead from xxx may not be everyone's choice so he is probably correct.

[wank]

i rate mr ace's construction better

[whereagles]

No compass bug? wow I can actually reply to this then!

I think LHO has 5611 so now we need to cash our diamond ace. Later on we might come to a spade trick and perhaps a trump (if pard has singleton Q) or an overruff.

[Zelandakh]

whereagles, on 2012-February-05, 16:55, said:

No compass bug? wow I can actually reply to this then!

Funny you should say that; this is the arrangement I have trouble with. My eyes automatically put the green square in the middle making these 2 hands North and West for me! It would be nice if the bidding box adjusted to make this consistent rather than always in the empty corner at the top.

[whereagles]

OHHHHHH that's why some people don't complain. I'm used to make the auction the middle.

[phil_20686]

whereagles, on 2012-February-06, 04:19, said:

OHHHHHH that's why some people don't complain. I'm used to make the auction the middle.

Perhaps its because UK card tables are universally green. So we automatically assume the green is the table.

[Fluffy]

declarer had

AJ10xx
A9xxxx
x
x

only a diamond defeats the game. Finding this hand right would had gave us 500 euros

[nige1]

MrAce, on 2012-February-04, 22:07, said:

You dont need top ♠ honors and u dont need 2 red aces. If he has this hand (below), we have to play ♦ now.
AJTx x AQxxx xxx
Not saying what Benlessard suggested is wrong, just saying that if it was my pd who doubled 1♥, i would know he can not have 5-5 due to our agreements and i wld play ♦. Now it can be both ways i guess, but ♣ lead from xxx may not be everyone's choice so he is probably correct.

wank, on 2012-February-05, 16:48, said:

i rate mr ace's construction better

Fluffy, on 2012-February-06, 05:25, said:

declarer had AJ10xx A9xxxx x x only a diamond defeats the game. Finding this hand right would had gave us 500 euros

Fluffy was unlucky. Partner is likely to have at most one ♥. Unless that is the ♥Q or the ♥A, it is unclear how MrAce and wank hope to defeat 4♥.

[Fluffy]

this was MPs anyway, any non diamond play back would have been a disaster for me if partner's heart was a low stiff.

But the real problem is, I couldn't get the full distribution across, even through I hesitated very long. After thinking this deeply I have found a weakness in my play:

The problem is exactly the same that used to happen to me when I moved away from my country some 4-5 years ago with 1NT openers. Where I live NOBODY opens 1NT with 5 card majors, so hands with 5 card majors with opener would simply not enter my processing. Here I had the same problem, hands with 5 spades for declarer didn't enter my mind either and I could not find anything to work with.

[MrAce]

nige1, on 2012-February-06, 06:23, said:

Fluffy was unlucky. Partner is likely to have at most one ♥. Unless that is the ♥Q or the ♥A, it is unclear how MrAce and wank hope to defeat 4♥.

MrAce and Wank are not hoping to defeat, we are simply defeating by playing ♦ at trick2. I will not explain it the 3rd time, but i wonder how Nige1 is hoping to make his contract after we play ♦ ? Here is the hand i predicted for pd to have, but playing ♦ also works for the original hand Fluffy posted.

We take 1♣+1♦+ always 2♠ without pd holding a big ♥ honor or AK ♠

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[nige1]

Sorry Mr Ace is right I miscounted declarer's tricks

Unless LHO wins ♦A and returns ♠J, I suppose that declarer might struggle home by coming down to
♠ Kxxx opposite ♠ Qx ♦ KT
And leading a ♠ towards dummy?

[MrAce]

nige1, on 2012-February-06, 16:50, said:

Sorry Mr Ace is right I miscounted declarer's tricks

Unless LHO wins ♦A and returns ♠J, I suppose that declarer might struggle home by coming down to
♠ Kxxx opposite ♠ Qx ♦ KT
And leading a ♠ towards dummy?

It actually gets interesting Nige1, for example in the hand i constructed, if you take ♥9 from North and give it to declarer, then declarer makes regardless of what we play by a double dummy play. He can play a ♠ to Q (pd has to duck) and then play a small ♥ towards AQ9xxx intending to finesse our JTx ♥ so that he can ruff a ♠ with dummy's K and repeat the ♥ finesse. But thats a bit double dummy eventhough it is not hard for declarer to guess N has 1 ♥. But as i said if we believed declarer had 5-6 majors we just have to play ♦ and hope pd can produce 2 ♠ tricks.

[nige1]

Just for completeness
if North fails to exit with ♠J or ♠T, then this is the pretty strip-squeeze that results when West cashes his last ♥, discarding a ♣

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