[1eyedjack]

The hand of moderate interest between me and PhilG007 here.

Point a board, Dealer East, E/W vul

---

1N = 15-17

Play problem on this hand follows

[phoenix214]

Maybe im missing something, but I think this is clear 4H

[1eyedjack]

phoenix214, on 2016-May-04, 15:42, said:

Maybe im missing something, but I think this is clear 4H

LOL so why did you vote for "other"?

[hrothgar]

1eyedjack, on 2016-May-04, 15:33, said:

The hand of moderate interest between me and PhilG007 here.

Point a board, Dealer East, E/W vul

---

1N = 15-17

Play problem on this hand follows

Two bullets.
10 of Diamonds
No points wasted in the short suit.
Supporting honors

I'm bidding 4

[Vampyr]

Can you tell us more about the sex?

[ahydra]

I'll try 4H.

ahydra

[Fluffy]

I have a friend who says AJ10 = 6 HCP, he probably got it from a book. It makes this very clear.

[kuhchung]

Just to pile on, if you pass with 8 and invite only with 9, all 16 point hands are an accept!

I also just accept with 16 always anyway unless it's truly terrible.

[1eyedjack]

kuhchung, on 2016-May-04, 17:22, said:

I also just accept with 16 always anyway unless it's truly terrible.

Yes I am coming to the view that especially with robots this is the long term winning way. I confess that I expected the peak of the bell curve to be centred on borderline raise.

Anyway, that was all really a sanity check. We both bid 4H, which floats. West leads ♣9 and dummy hits:

Point a board
1N = 15-17
2C = normal stayman
Lead C9

---

Let's eliminate some variables: It doesn't seem right to pile in with the ♣A at trick 1. In fact it doesn't matter which other Club you play, East wins with the ♣Q and returns ♣7, on which ....
West discards ♠4. A revealing start. So, whatever your plan was before playing to trick 1 has probably gone out of the window.

Any thoughts at this stage? Starting with, your target number of tricks?

[gszes]

Too much to do and not enough entries to dummy to fully evaluate the south hand. I like to +1 with AJT also but that and the heart suit may require 3+ entries to dummy and those will be hard to come by after a simple 3h bid. No strong reason to stretch for game (I would raise at IMPS).

[661_Pete]

Either the hearts are 5-0 or West is unwilling to unguard their Kx (more likely). I'd run the 10♥ for starters.

[billw55]

1eyedjack, on 2016-May-04, 18:29, said:

We both bid 4H

hmmm, interesting.

[Fluffy]

Experienced players against GiB will probably know what is going on, I certainly don't.

[1eyedjack]

661_Pete, on 2016-May-05, 06:12, said:

or West is unwilling to unguard their Kx (more likely)

Pretty close to the mark.

Normally, if I have natural trump tricks I do not try to lead for ruffs, so I expect that I would have led a Spade had I been sitting West, although to be fair to West he does not know the location of the AQ of Hearts, so he only knows that he has natural trump tricks after dummy hits, by which time of course he has already committed to the lead.

Anyway, we should perhaps suspect that something not very nice is expected in trumps after West declines to ruff, at which time I think that we should be resigned to going down and limit our losses. It is not that hard to secure one down once you give up trying to make. Both of us ended up two down, each therefore missing an opportunity to steal the board.

If you think that there is a good prospect of the other table settling in 3H then you have to play to make when in 4H. But this poll suggests that it is sensible to expect the contracts to be matched.

Point a board
1N = 15-17
2C = normal Stayman

---

[Phil]

Was the sex fight mps or imps?

[1eyedjack]

Phil, on 2016-May-05, 12:59, said:

Was the sex fight mps or imps?

2-player MP, so basically point-a-board.

[661_Pete]

Seeing all the hands, it's obvious that running 10♥ doesn't gain anything here. I'd still have done it though, it seemed the best chance of limiting the defence to one trump trick and still having enough entries to take the ♦ finesse twice and making 4♥...

Until someone shows us a better play...

[1eyedjack]

With the benefit of hindsight, and granted that I now know all of the hands, I think that the best shot is to win trick 2 in dummy and hook a diamond immediately. West exits with Spade or Diamond, but if the former use Spade Ace to hook another Diamond. Clear the Diamonds and cash another Spade. Then crossroads, but I think ruffing a Spade high in dummy is quite reasonable then Club Ace discarding Spade.

[PhilG007]

I well remember this hand and I still shudder at it. Even with a combined total of 25 points,it can't be made
as the cards lie. You must lose at least 2♥ tricks 2♣tricks and at least 1♦ It's also made all the more difficult due to the shortage of entries to dummy. As the opponents had been silent during the bidding,I took the ♣ lead to be from either Kxx or Qxx With this in mind, I ducked the lead and East won with the queen who then immediately fired back a second club which was ruffed by West. J♠ was returned which I took in dummy to avoid blocking the suit. I took the first ♥ finesse by leading the 10♥ which lost to the jack. The 10♠ came back which I was forced to take in hand. Now,no matter what I did I had to lose another 3 tricks to go -2. I don't think a human player would ever return a club at trick 2 What reason would there be to do so into dummy's strong ♣AJ10 tenace? If West had indeed led from 3 to an honor,returning clubs at trick 2 would simply squash West's club honor and set up 2 further club tricks for declarer. I can only put down my defeat on this deal to a lucky lead that came off 1 time in a hundred

[diana_eva]

PhilG007, on 2016-May-06, 16:13, said:

I well remember this hand and I still shudder at it. Even with a combined total of 25 points,it can't be made
as the cards lie. You must lose at least 2♥ tricks 2♣tricks and at least 1♦ It's also difficult
due to the shortage of entries to dummy. As the opponents had been silent during the bidding,I took the ♣ lead to be from
either Kxx or Qxx With this in mind, I ducked the lead and East won with the queen then immediately fired back a second club which was
ruffed by West. J♠ was returned which I took in dummy to avoid blocking the suit. I took the first ♥ finesse
by leading the 10♥ which lost to the jack. The 10♠ came back which I was forced to take in hand. Now,no matter what I did
I had to lose another 3 tricks to go -2. I don't think a human player would return a club at trick 2 What reason would there be to do so
into dummy's strong ♣ AJ10 tenace? I can only put down my defeat to a lucky lead that came off 1 time in a hundred

What happened on the other 7 boards?