[kasharic]

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Hi.
I have a quick query on this hand. West opens with 5♥ and dummy plays 7♥. What is East's best play here? From what I understand, the usual play would be to insert the 10♥, but would this be an occasion to not finesse dummy given the length in hearts? Clearly the best play is the King, but would this be an occasion where the percentage play (the 10) is unfortunate?

Thanks for any feedback (I'm still learning, so go gentle!).

[pescetom]

We'll be gentle with you, but not with your friend in South

[Cyberyeti]

What do you think partner's holding is to lead the 5 ? Assume he'd lead top of doubleton and wouldn't lead a singleton.

Looks like he has at least 3.

If he has 4, declarer has a singleton, K is clearly better or no worse than 10.

If he has 3 the holdings that might matter are Qxx/Axx in the first case doesn't matter (same with xxx if you lead small), in the second you need to play the K.

So 10 never gains.

[mcphee]

You made a good point about your choice. Here its a bit different as partner has at least 3H, therefore the K is best as you can not block the suit.

[kuhchung]

Also interesting is if dummy has Qx. When he plays small, it is STILL right to go up K. If declarer had Ax, he would've put up the Q. Declarer playing small with Qx opposite Jx is the only chance to get you to go wrong.

[rmnka447]

Looking ♥ 432 in the East hand, the ♥ 5 is the lowest outstanding ♥, it must be led from either three ♥ to an honor or a singleton ♥. If it's a singleton, then Declarer(South) must have ♥ AQ98 and what you play doesn't matter. If it's from three to an honor, declarer has only 2 ♥ and as others pointed out the correct play is the king.

When East wins the trick with the ♥ K, East should return the ♥ 4, your original 4th best. It may allow to use the Rule of 11 to figure out the situation, especially if Declarer ducked from A9 on the first trick.

[bravejason]

Off topic from the OP, but a pair of questions I'd like ask. First, Instead of 2NT should South have bid 5 clubs? Second, doesn't 2NT by responder invite game in no trump and ask North to either bid 3NT or 5 clubs? Maybe I'm misunderstanding something but I thought responders 2NT in a sequence like this was a strong bid.

[Stephen Tu]

 bravejason, on 2018-February-06, 11:44, said:

Off topic from the OP, but a pair of questions I'd like ask. First, Instead of 2NT should South have bid 5 clubs?

No. 5c is premature. There are a ton of hands where 3nt or 4s may be better contracts than 5c, where the opps have say 3 tricks off the top but you have the rest.

South should bid some cheap forcing bid to find out more about opener's hand. Typically this would be 2d, a new suit, forcing one round (new suit by unpassed hand is by default forcing 1rd after a non 1nt rebid, without specialized agreements). Some segment of players play this particular bid, 2d on this sequence, as GF (aka Bourke relay). 3c as a forcing bid could also work, but only a small minority of players play this as forcing (with prior agreement), most use it as invitational only so South would be way too strong for this.

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Second, doesn't 2NT by responder invite game in no trump and ask North to either bid 3NT or 5 clubs? Maybe I'm misunderstanding something but I thought responders 2NT in a sequence like this was a strong bid.

It's usually an *invitational* bid, forward going, but not FORCING. It asks North to bid game in NT if more than minimum. North is expected to bid 3nt, pass with a min, or retreat to 3c with a distributional min that thinks it's safer in 3c than 2nt. It would be extremely unusual for North to accept with 5c, because on this sequence both hands are limited, 11 tricks is a lot more than 9, and it's pretty hard to construct hands where there are 11 tricks in clubs but < 9 in NT. Those are typically very distributional hands with big fits, and 2nt isn't supposed to be that type of hand.

South on the posted hand is way too strong to bid 2nt with normal methods where 2nt is inv.