[lamford]

---

NS on this hand are leading the Cross-IMPs in the Premier League, so if you do better than the declarer you should be pleased. West led the jack of spades, denying the queen, and East played the ace of spades and switched to the jack of diamonds. Over to you. The opponents are also experts, of course.

[MrAce]

Tuff hand. I really want to duck this ♦ J and stop the bleeding but....there is much more to it and what comes to my mind first usually turns out to be wrong. I will give it a more thought in the morning.

[manudude03]

I assume the opponents don't play BROMAD or something similar. My gut says to play for West to have it. East has a single raise and is known to have ♠AQ and ♦J. There is an inference (though admittedly hardly concrete) that West doesn't have KQ of clubs, so if East has one of them then West must have the ♥Q. Besides, some East's might consider AQx Qxx JTxx xxx to be too good for 2S in that auction.

[gszes]

all my eggs in one basket this time. Playing lho for 3 diamonds
and the heart Q.

trick 2 cover with the Q and assuming the K covers win the A
trick 3 lead a spade u need to ruff a spade loser and cannot get that done
without some luck.
trick 4 we now have to hope the opps cannot get more than 1 dia
and have to switch.

If the opps return a spade I will ruff club ace ruff a club and
run the heart J

If the opps return a club I do not have sufficient entries to run
the heart J so I will play lho for 5233 and play to drop the heart
Q after ruffing a spade.

I have to quit overbidding like this I am running out of pepto bismol.

[nige1]

lamford, on 2014-September-28, 17:59, said:

NS on this hand are leading the Cross-IMPs in the Premier League, so if you do better than the declarer you should be pleased. West led the jack of spades, denying the queen, and East played the ace of spades and switched to the jack of diamonds. Over to you. The opponents are also experts, of course.

---

RHO probably has a ♣ honour so he seems to have enough HCP for his raise to 2♠. I like Mr_Aces idea of ducking ♦J. Win the ♦ continuation. Cash ♥KA, dropping ♥Q finesse ♦9, discard ♠ on ♦Q. ruff a ♠, playing LHO for
♠ K J T x x ♥ Q x ♦ K x ♣ K J x x

[benlessard]

I dont see why ducking the D.

If the D are Kx--JTxx they are going to get the ruff anyway. If the D are

KTxx--Jx im likely to have 2D losers anyway since I wont be able to ruff the D and the S.

So win on dummy and ill play a S.

if they return club ill even play D from dummy to be able to finesse against west.

[Lovera]

nige1, on 2014-September-29, 09:35, said:

RHO probably has a ♣ honour so he seems to have enough HCP for his raise to 2♠. I like Mr_Aces idea of ducking ♦J. Win the ♦ continuation. Cash ♥KA, dropping ♥Q finesse ♦9, discard ♠ on ♦Q. ruff a ♠, playing LHO for
♠ K J T x x ♥ Q x ♦ K x ♣ K J x x

♣ J is in South.

[PhilKing]

Why not duck in hand and win the diamond in dummy?

THe critical situation is when West has something like KJTxx Qx Kx Kxxx or similar.

A spade at trick three now kills their communications for the ruff. Things may get ugly if West has the wit to cover the heart nine at the crucial moment, but I don't expect that to happen. To recap:

trick 2 - diamond ace
3 - spade
4 - spade (say)
5 - diamond to the nine
6 - club
7 - club ruff
8 - heart nine ...

[nige1]

Lovera, on 2014-September-29, 16:31, said:

♣ J is in South.

Thank you Lovera. Then ♣ K x x x.
If RHO has ♦JT doubleton or ♦ are 3-3 then covering ♦J with the ♦Q is better, anyway -- and maybe that is the line that requires least luck elsewhere.

[MrAce]

PhilKing, on 2014-September-29, 17:32, said:

Why not duck in hand and win the diamond in dummy?

THe critical situation is when West has something like KJTxx Qx Kx Kxxx or similar.

A spade at trick three now kills their communications for the ruff. Things may get ugly if West has the wit to cover the heart nine at the crucial moment, but I don't expect that to happen. To recap:

trick 2 - diamond ace
3 - spade
4 - spade (say)
5 - diamond to the nine
6 - club
7 - club ruff
8 - heart nine ...

How is this different than ducking ♦ from both hand and dummy? But I am still not sure how are we supposed to spot the lady. Say W holds KJTxx xx Kxx KQx I can still make it, as well as you do but there still other layouts...

benlessard, on 2014-September-29, 10:53, said:

I dont see why ducking the D.If the D are Kx--JTxx they are going to get the ruff anyway.

Well...you are wrong as usual (as usual part is joke of course, but not "you are wrong" part)

[PhilKing]

MrAce, on 2014-September-29, 19:01, said:

How is this different than ducking ♦ from both hand and dummy? But I am still not sure how are we supposed to spot the lady. Say W holds KJTxx xx Kxx KQx I can still make it, as well as you do but there still other layouts...



Well...you are wrong as usual (as usual part is joke of course, but not "you are wrong" part)

They can play a second diamond before we have severed communications in spades.

I intend to play West for the queen because he has more points, but I may be wrong. At trick 6 I may get more information when (if) he plays a club. If by this time I am certain West has the queen and is good enough to cover, I will play ♥K and a ♥ to the ace, which requires him to be 5233 or 5224.

[MrAce]

PhilKing, on 2014-September-30, 02:26, said:

They can play a second diamond before we have severed communications in spades.

That is not a problem as long as W has the Q of hearts. For example in the example hand you gave, we don't need to work on spades at all. We take 2nd dia, seeing K dropped, now we play small ♥ to the K and another ♥ to A in dummy, dropping the Q. (note that if W has Qxx ♥ your line is going down as well as all other lines when W has KJTxx Qxx Kx Hxx) and now play 3rd diamond, finessing the T, discarding a spde from dummy on ♦ A and wolla. But as I said earlier I am not confident spotting the situation and I am not claiming this is how we should play.

[PhilKing]

MrAce, on 2014-September-30, 02:38, said:

That is not a problem as long as W has the Q of hearts. For example in the example hand you gave, we don't need to work on spades at all. We take 2nd dia, seeing K dropped, now we play small ♥ to the K and another ♥ to A in dummy, dropping the Q. (note that if W has Qxx ♥ your line is going down as well as all other lines when W has KJTxx Qxx Kx Hxx) and now play 3rd diamond, finessing the T, discarding a spde from dummy on ♦ A and wolla. But as I said earlier I am not confident spotting the situation and I am not claiming this is how we should play.

But in the ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE, my chances of slipping through the heart nine are not that bad.

[lamford]

PhilKing, on 2014-September-29, 17:32, said:

Why not duck in hand and win the diamond in dummy?

THe critical situation is when West has something like KJTxx Qx Kx Kxxx or similar.

A spade at trick three now kills their communications for the ruff. Things may get ugly if West has the wit to cover the heart nine at the crucial moment, but I don't expect that to happen. To recap:

trick 2 - diamond ace
3 - spade
4 - spade (say)
5 - diamond to the nine
6 - club
7 - club ruff
8 - heart nine ...

Against your layout you can avoid giving West, a former World Junior Champion, a chance to shine by playing the routine king and another heart. And, given that you cannot make it when West has KJTxx Qxx Kx Kxx, you should do that. And a club return instead of a third spade would have forced you to play for Qx of hearts with West anyway. I think you are right that you usually need West to be 5-2-2-4 or 5-2-2-4, but the other gain of not covering is when West is 5-3-1-4 with the singleton king of diamonds. I do not think it can be right to cover the jack of diamonds, which a strong player did, and, like you, I see no gain in ducking in dummy.

[lamford]

MrAce, on 2014-September-30, 02:38, said:

That is not a problem as long as W has the Q of hearts. For example in the example hand you gave, we don't need to work on spades at all. We take 2nd dia, seeing K dropped, now we play small ♥ to the K and another ♥ to A in dummy, dropping the Q. (note that if W has Qxx ♥ your line is going down as well as all other lines when W has KJTxx Qxx Kx Hxx) and now play 3rd diamond, finessing the T, discarding a spde from dummy on ♦ A and wolla. But as I said earlier I am not confident spotting the situation and I am not claiming this is how we should play.

I think you are right that ducking is fine when West has KJTxx Qx Kx KQxx with or without the club queen. When he has KJTxx Qx Kxx KQx, you will still make it as well. However when West has KJTxx Qx Kxx Kxx, you have to win the first diamond in dummy. They have misdefended now, but the trump return by East, the only defence, was tough to find.

[benlessard]

Quote

Well...you are wrong as usual Posted Image (as usual part is joke of course, but not "you are wrong" part)

I wasnt clear I had no intention of putting the Qd but I dont see how ducking with the AD can be right. By winning the first D i tought i could make it even if lho got Qxx of H but I was wrong there sicne they kick the ace of club entry (but they could get it wrong).

After you win with ace of D there is nothing that can go wrong, if the Qh is offside they still get the extra undertrick nothing you can do about it.