[FrancesHinden]

You have an uncontested auction to the wrong contract of 3NT.

Scoring: IMP

---

(I'm not certainly exactly what the auction was)

West leads the king of spades, asking for East to unblock an honour if he has one, or failing that to give count. East plays the 10 of spades.

Plan the play.

I can see two obvious lines, but as I know the layout I know which works which always acts as a subconscious bias when deciding which is right

[gnasher]

Duck two rounds of spades and win the third; cash the top diamonds.

If spades appear to be 4-4, lead a heart to the king.

If spades appear to be 5=3 or 6=2, lead ♥Q (East ducking). Now decide who started with four clubs:
- If East started with four clubs, endplay him with the fourth round.
- If West started with four clubs and still has two spades, he no longer has any hearts. Cash three clubs and duck a heart to West
- If West has come down to 1=1=0=4, go down (unless you can force a particular player to win the second round of hearts - eg if West's hearts were originally J10 or J3).

[kenrexford]

Duck twice, then presumably win Ace. Presumably nothing interesting happens in spades.

I could try the club Ace now, in case I catch a random club Jack stiff. That would require me to ditch two hearts, though. I don't want to do this. But, this may be my only hope if LHO has four spades and the heart Ace to cash. If the stiff Jack of clubs drops, then I get two clubs, six diamonds, and a spade (if diamonds cooperate).

The alternative I see if for RHO to have the heart Ace. In that event, I will take four black cards, three top diamonds, and a heart for starters. I can this way ditch two diamonds, planning on leading the heart Queen and then, if that fails to be taken, playing off my remaining clubs to throw RHO in. I suppose I only need to save two heart pips on that line.

If I ditch one heart and one diamond on the two spades, I still cannot get to 9 tricks without touching hearts. The only way to try both lines if to win the second spade (ditching one heart) and then try the club Ace. Failing to drop, I cash three diamonds and play the heart Queen. No take? Cash the clubs and exit a club. That line assumes LHO has six spades and the heart Ace.

So, I'd think through the auction (whatever it was) and watch the precise carding and the mannerisms and the like before deciding.

[Sambolino]

take first spade, play akq of dia and heart to k. i don't want h switch at trick 2, whoever has the ace

[Trinidad]

FrancesHinden, on Jun 16 2008, 07:23 AM, said:

You have an uncontested auction to the wrong contract of 3NT.

Dealer: South Vul: Both Scoring: IMP

♠ 8 ♥ K742 ♦ 987654 ♣ 106 ♠ A742 ♥ Q6 ♦ AKQ ♣ AKQ5

(I'm not certainly exactly what the auction was)

West leads the king of spades, asking for East to unblock an honour if he has one, or failing that to give count.  East plays the 10 of spades.

Plan the play.

I can see two obvious lines, but as I know the layout I know which works which always acts as a subconscious bias when deciding which is right

A typical auction was:

W

Spoiler

....

N

Spoiler

....

E

Spoiler

....

S

Spoiler

.

-

Spoiler

.. ..

-

Spoiler

.. ..

-

Spoiler

...

2♣

Spoiler

3♠

Spoiler

..

Dbl

Spoiler

.

Pass

Spoiler

3NT
All Pass

Rik

[Sambolino]

then duck spade, akq dia, q of he, akqx of clubs

[gnasher]

Trinidad, on Jun 16 2008, 03:26 PM, said:

A typical auction was:

[snip]

That would make it easier to play than in Frances's problem, where the auction was uncontested.

[gnasher]

I hadn't considered the possibility of a heart switch at trick two, which rather wrecks my plan. Without any opposition bidding, against people who're good enough to switch to hearts when necessary, Sambolino's first plan of wining the spade and playing LHO for ♥A and only four spades seems better.

[Sambolino]

bad opps may switch from dispair not knowing where sJ is (here's obvious J is left but say J is right and 10 is left)

[FrancesHinden]

Sambolino, on Jun 16 2008, 04:09 PM, said:

bad opps may switch from dispair not knowing where sJ is (here's obvious J is left but say J is right and 10 is left)

These aren't bad opps.

Obviously this board was played at lots of different tables.

Perhaps you should give two answers:
1. If the auction was uncontested
2. If LHO bid spades over a 2C opening.

By the way, no-one has yet suggested the winning (at the table) line for the right reason.

[Sambolino]

exit card after 2 spades 3 diamonds hQ and 3 clubs may be h or c, depending on table feel. the line i posted first (c exit) was the one that i thought was a priori better

[pclayton]

Two options:

1. Win the 1st spade, hoping that RHO has exactly 10-9 doubleton. I'm not holding my breath.

2. Based on this new information (and maybe we should play like this anyway), I will win the 2nd spade, unblock diamonds and exit the ♥Q. I'm toast if West has it, so East will need to hold off. There are several possibilities based on the diamond distribution.

How do the diamonds fall?

[nige1]

FrancesHinden, on Jun 16 2008, 07:23 AM, said:

Scoring: IMP

You have an uncontested auction to the wrong contract of 3NT.
(I'm not certainly exactly what the auction was)
West leads the king of spades, asking for East to unblock an honour if he has one, or failing that to give count.  East plays the 10 of spades. Plan the play. I can see two obvious lines, but as I know the layout I know which works which always acts as a subconscious bias when deciding which is right

---

I don't know the hand but here's a guess:
IMO The ten doesn't count as an honour when partner leads the King. Hence I think RHO has a singleton or doubleton ♠.
You duck a ♠ and win ♦AKQ, ♠A, and ♥Q, hoping that

• RHO has ♠ - ♥Ax(x) ♦ - ♣Jxxx(x) when you can endplay him in ♣ or
  
• LHO has ♠QJ9 - ♥- ♦ - ♣Jxxx when you can endplay him in ♠

Without obvious clues from the play, the former seems best.

[mikeh]

1. no opposition bidding: it seems foolish to assume spades are 7-1, so we duck. The 10 presumably counts as an honour, and at this level, I'd ask and expect to be told. If so, then I can't even assume 6-2.. so I'd duck again, throwing a heart and a diamond from dummy.. I don't need the extra diamonds.

It would seem likely that I am down if LHO holds the heart Ace, and I assume (because of the wire on the board from knowing one of the auctions) that RHO fails on the 3rd spade.. if he fails a trick earlier, I win the second spade.

So I play rho for the heart Ace. I cash a top diamond... I assume they break.

If they do, I can get my 8th winner immediately.. finish the top diamonds and lead the heart Queen, which RHO has to duck.

At this juncture, I probably know quite a lot about the hand.. I'll know the pointed suit shapes for sure. But there is no particular reason for the opps to give me honest count in hearts... however, rho will have presumably pitched something on the spade I won, and maybe on a top diamond or two.

It seems to me that I have a couple of options here.

I have endplay threats in both round suits.. I am playing rho for the heart Ace, but what if he has the club J as well? What if, for example, he were 1=4=2=6? If he has kept his clubs, I am down on power if I throw him in with that suit.

I really need to know what he pitched on the 2nd (or 3rd) round of spades and whether and what he pitched on the top diamond(s).

The odds are that he doesn't have 6 clubs... and if the discarding tells me that either he didn't or he doesn't by the critical time, or if I simply can't tell, then I play 4 rounds of clubs at him.

If I suspect he has 6 clubs, and has kept them, he has to have come down to a stiff ♥A and I can duck a heart to him and then duck the enforced club return.

If he had 2 spades, then I need to judge whether he had and held 5 clubs... again, if he did, throwing him in with clubs will see him beat me via 2 spades, 2 clubs and the heart Ace... again, if he has that holding and kept all his clubs, he has to stiff his heart A and I can throw him in that way.

I suspect I will be trying the club throw-in, not the heart, but I can't tell without knowing who played what, and even then I may be guessing....a pure guess.. I play clubs at him.

2. opposition bidding: on reflection, I play the same way I am not catering to 7=1 spades by winning trick 1... altho if a vul opp bid 3♠, without the heart Ace, I probably should.

[kenrexford]

I'll add a little more.

I'll assume a reasonably plausible uncontested auction.

2♣-P-2♦(GF)-P-
2♥(Kokish)-P-2♠-P-
2NT-P-3♣(Puppet)-P-
3♦(one)-P-3♠(hearts)-P-
3NT-all pass.

If the auction was something like this, we know two things about the lead. First, with a pass, LHO is unlikely to have KQJ9xx with the heart Ace on the side and the stiff club Jack. Even ♠KQJ9xx ♥Axx ♦xxx ♣J looks too good. If LHO had overcalled 2♠, that layout is distinctly possible.

We also know that LHO may well know that he is leading into Declarer's four-card suit. He may, therefore, be making a very passive lead. KQJ without the 9 or 10 is not all that passive. If Declarer has the functional equivalent of AJ109, the lead costs a trick. So, it looks like KQJ9(x)(x).

Thus, with the spade overcall, I am inclined to duck one and then win the second, ditching a single heart. I'll try the club Ace just in case. That failing, I go about the diamond clearing and prays for the heart Ace to be well-placed.

Without the spade overcall, the heart Ace looks to be placed well, at least more often than catching a stiff club Jack. Plus, spades rate to be 5-3 enough to duck twice, ditching a diamond and a heart, before clearing the diamond honors and then leading out the heart Queen before next trying the top four clubs. The cashing of the heart Queen as a winner, as an aside, allows more diamond pitches than otherwise on the run of the clubs, because I now expect to win two heart tricks.

[mikeh]

Ok, Frances: no new ideas for the past 24 hours, so what happened?

[FrancesHinden]

My thoughts....

It's all very well planning to duck some number of rounds of spades, then play the Q of hearts (of necessity ducked by East) and then some type of strip squeeze.

The problem comes when, as was pointed out, LHO doesn't obligingly continue on playing spades with his entryless hand, but thinks it might be a nice idea to cut you off from dummy's diamonds and plays a heart.

At the table if you duck the spade, LHO will continue with a low spade to RHO's 109 doubleton (sorry about that) and you are off, because if you duck RHO switches to a heart and you end up needing LHO to have the CJ (which he doesn't), and if you win LHO has the HA and a load of spades to cash.

I know 109 doubleton spade is pretty implausible, but then spades 4-4 is less so.

LHO has

KQJxxx
AJ10x
x
xx

Quote

, with a pass, LHO is unlikely to have KQJ9xx with the heart Ace on the side

This hand passed at at least one table. Wouldn't have been my choice, but one can see the temptation to hope you end up defending 3NT.

At the table I was watching, there was a puppet stayman auction in which declarer showed 4 spades. Justin Hackett passed throughout and then confidently led a low spade against 3NT which beat it out of hand. 3NT went off at the other table on a top spade lead but I don't know the details.

[kenrexford]

FrancesHinden, on Jun 17 2008, 03:15 PM, said:

At the table I was watching, there was a puppet stayman auction in which declarer showed 4 spades. Justin Hackett passed throughout and then confidently led a low spade against 3NT which beat it out of hand. 3NT went off at the other table on a top spade lead but I don't know the details.

Similar to what I said, although I did not think of the lurk. If the auction featured a Puppet sequence, I as declarer will have shown LHO four spades, in which event the King lead cannot be from KQJxxx. LHO would lead small from that holding. Hence, playing for 109 doubleton won't work.

The fact that LHO did have KQJxxx at the other table but selected a top spade lead means that the auction was different or that the lead was bad.

Maybe it is right to play for a bad lead...

[nige1]

FrancesHinden, on Jun 17 2008, 03:15 PM, said:

The problem comes when, as was pointed out, LHO doesn't obligingly continue on playing spades with his entryless hand, but thinks it might be a nice idea to cut you off from dummy's diamonds and plays a heart.

When LHO has ♥A, you need ♠4-4 or a blockage but when RHO has ♥A and 1-2♠ (as some of us hoped) then a ♥ switch presents a problem only if he also has 6+♣ to the knave

[FrancesHinden]

nige1, on Jun 18 2008, 01:15 PM, said:

FrancesHinden, on Jun 17 2008, 03:15 PM, said:

The problem comes when, as was pointed out, LHO doesn't obligingly continue on playing spades with his entryless hand, but thinks it might be a nice idea to cut you off from dummy's diamonds and plays a heart.

When LHO has ♥A, you need ♠4-4 or a blockage but when RHO has ♥A and 1-2♠ (as some of us hoped) then a ♥ switch presents a problem only if he also has 6+♣ to the knave

Ummm, no, RHO doesn't have to duck the first heart, he can just play ace and another.