[Halo]

Meanwhile,

Although playing for the throw in is more fun, is it not more or less the same as playing the queen and running it (singleton King = singleton ten, and Kx = xx).

And if doubler is 5224, unlikely of course, messing with spades is a potential downside.

And for Frances, I'm not sure that the absoluteness of your statement is supportable, given my case above. Whenever you really are in the wrong contract at Pairs there are issues to deal with.l

[xcurt]

gnasher, on Jun 8 2008, 03:42 PM, said:

If we had any relevant spots Justin would have given them to us.  You can assume that all the "x"s are twos.  And, surely, in a forum called "Advanced and Expert-Class Bridge", we can assume that they're good players unless it says otherwise.

I know Justin is very good about this, but the only relevant heart holding where all the x's are indeed small is we have AQJ965432 and they have KT87. Also Justin mentioned that we cannot go light in 3H, suggesting that we at least have the 7 in one of the hands.

Also, given the form of scoring I was guessing Justin played this in a club matchpoint game in NYC. It's been a long time since I played in a club matchpoint game in NYC, but the fields can be of very mixed standard. Of course in such a field you have to beat the living dogsnot out of the weak pairs if you hope to win, hence my earlier thinking about playing for a defensive error -- 2 spade ducks and then the throw-in.

[nige1]

Jlall, on Jun 7 2008, 12:57 PM, said:

Scoring: MP

1♥ _X (XX) _P
(_P) 2D 3♥ AP
You made a conservative decision to pass 3H so there you are. LHO leads LHO leads the D6 (4th best). Plan your play (if you finesse D at trick 1 it works).

---

LHO's shape is likely to be 3253 (although he may be 3154 or 3163) so agree with Inquiry: Cash ♦s and eliminate ♠ (risking an unlikely ruff) before tackling ♥, guessing to play ♥A and another.

[kenrexford]

There seems to be a lot of conflicting nuances here.

LHO doubled and then bid 2♦ after the pass around. That's strange. I can understand not bidding 1♠ for the obvious reason (three spades), but 2♦ rather than 1NT is somewhat odd as well. Sound like 3154.

That, however, gives Advancer 4342 pattern. His pass sounds like 4♠/5♦ when I see dummy. That's really weird.

I lean, because of this, to RHO having 3343 pattern, an unusual holding but allowed. That gives RHO 4153 pattern and a plan to ELC a 2♣ escape.

This seems possible and consistent with the auction also.

Not sure what this additional possibility means...