[lamford]

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European Transnational Mixed Teams. Lead 6♠.

This was the auction in our room. In the other room, North opened a club and Dennis Bilde played Six Spades after 1C-1S-2S-4NT. At both tables, West led a trump and East discarded a diamond on the second trump. How would you play the clubs?

[nige1]

lamford, on 2017-June-11, 23:43, said:

European Transnational Mixed Teams. Lead 6♠.
This was the auction in our room.
In the other room, North opened a club and Dennis Bilde played Six Spades after 1C-1S-2S-4NT.
At both tables, West led a trump and East discarded a diamond on the second trump.
How would you play the clubs?

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On second thoughts, I guess:
♣A then ♣ towards ♣Q.
You will know whether you have 4 ♣ tricks, before defenders force you to decide whether to finesse ♥s.

This post has been edited by nige1: 2017-June-12, 05:34

[gszes]

with 3 trumps and a possible missing key card there is no good reason for lho to avoid leading a short club. Using this "logic" I will draw the last trump and lead the club Q with the intent of trying the double finesse if the Q loses to the K the first round of the suit. If the Q is covered (and no J/9 falls from rho) I will return to hand and lead another club toward ----------- stay turned as we go to our commercial break for the new show "Your guess is probably better than mine".

Spoiler

I will probably play the 8 since i can still survive a 41 club split with lho by returning to hand via dia ruff and leading toward the T one last time (thus avoiding the heart finesse)

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr i cannot get this spoiler to work and thus never reviewed my post. However I still stand by the main conclusion that with 2 trumps (ty mr ace for your very quick reply) and a possible missing key card I feel lho is far less likely to be short in clubs.

[MrAce]

gszes, on 2017-June-12, 05:31, said:

with 3 trumps and a possible missing key card there is no good reason for lho to avoid leading a short club. Using this "logic" I will draw the last trump and lead the club Q with the intent of trying the double finesse if the Q loses to the K the first round of the suit. If the Q is covered (and no J/9 falls from rho) I will return to hand and lead another club toward ----------- stay turned as we go to our commercial break for the new show "Your guess is probably better than mine".

spoiler / I will probably play the 8 since i can still survive a 41 club split with lho by returning to hand via dia ruff and leading toward the T one last time (thus avoiding the heart finesse) /

LHO has only 2 trumps. We have 6-4 spade fit and RHO discarded ♦ on 2nd round of spades.

Edited version of Nige1's reply is much better imo.

[lamford]

MrAce, on 2017-June-12, 05:36, said:

LHO has only 2 trumps. We have 6-4 spade fit and RHO discarded ♦ on 2nd round of spades.

Edited version of Nige1's reply is much better imo.

Bilde did play ace and another club and was home when East had Jx. Espen Erichsen and I played a club to the queen and then a club to the ten and went off. Bilde's line fails to KJxx with West, but picks up singleton king. The 3-2 breaks cancel out (Kxx opposite Jx is the same as KJx opposite xx). It is true that you will know whether you need the heart finesse if you play ace and another, but not know if you lead low to the queen but two things mitigate against Bilde's line:
a) a singleton club on lead might have been led
b) you only save half of the x opposite KJxx layouts, while losing to all of the KJxx opposite x layouts

I therefore think, and the cognoscenti here in Montecatini agree, that low to the queen is about 3% better.

[MrAce]

lamford, on 2017-June-12, 16:20, said:

Bilde did play ace and another club and was home when East had Jx. Espen Erichsen and I played a club to the queen and then a club to the ten and went off. Bilde's line fails to KJxx with West, but picks up singleton king. The 3-2 breaks cancel out (Kxx opposite Jx is the same as KJx opposite xx). It is true that you will know whether you need the heart finesse if you play ace and another, but not know if you lead low to the queen but two things mitigate against Bilde's line:
a) a singleton club on lead might have been led
b) you only save half of the x opposite KJxx layouts, while losing to all of the KJxx opposite x layouts

I therefore think, and the cognoscenti here in Montecatini agree, that low to the queen is about 3% better.

I trust you, by saying Nige1's edited version better I meant it is better than his first reply. I have to admit I would probably play like Nige1 at the table, I did not check it myself but I believe you that our line can be underdog.