[mgoetze]

---

From our agreements: "Leads during the play are usually attitude (high = weak)"

[the hog]

North did not have a double of course. I see this a lot when players think they are getting stolen by a weak NT.

Both Sth and Nth got far too busy in the defence as well. Passive defence will shoot this by 1 trick. The first mistake was playing the SK. The 8 is better.

All sensible defensive plays should lead to 3S 1H 2D and a C. What does declarer play at trick 2? A C leads to an easy 1 off. Best may be a H. Win the K. Play a C to set up the C trick, then it depends what declarer does. A strong W may well immediately return a S to the J and K to cut communications. Now Sth has to be up to the task and return a D, ducked all round. So you swap your third S trick for a third D. The defence is not "rocket science."

[cherdano]

the hog, on 2015-January-03, 20:01, said:

The first mistake was playing the SK. The 8 is better.

Why?

[kgr]

Apologies if this is a stupid question:
Is it standard/best to lead the 6 or the T from ♠AT96?

[MrAce]

I won't get into the bidding, which look pretty reasonable to me btw.

About defense; I would have led ♠T. We can argue whether S should shift to diamonds or continue spades. I would go with spades but maybe I am biased. And if he does shift to diamonds (which N knows S has at most 3 diamonds and played ♦4) N should not cash ♦A for obvious reasons. ♦ 4 is either from 43 or KT4 or from a singleton. Cashing ♦ A can not be right.

[cherdano]

MrAce, on 2015-January-04, 14:37, said:

About defense; I would have led ♠T. We can argue whether S should shift to diamonds or continue spades. I would go with spades but maybe I am biased. And if he does shift to diamonds (which N knows S has at most 3 diamonds and played ♦4) N should not cash ♦A for obvious reasons. ♦ 4 is either from 43 or KT4 or from a singleton. Cashing ♦ A can not be right.

If you think North might lead the T from AT96, then he is likely to have AQx6. In that case, a spade return accomplishes nothing. (Not that this is necessarily a bad thing.)

I think KT4 is an impossible holding for the diamond switch, it costs a trick with so many holdings. Is there a plausible holding for South where it is right for North to play ♦Q rather than the 8?

[mgoetze]

MrAce, on 2015-January-04, 14:37, said:

♦ 4 is either from 43 or KT4 or from a singleton.

It wasn't completely obvious to me what the return from T43 would be. It's possible that it should have been obvious to me, but it wasn't.

I also hope some good player will talk about ♠T vs. ♠6, both in general and in particular when the auction has marked partner with a low HCP total like here.

[cherdano]

So what is wrong with putting in the 8 if South has T43?

[mgoetze]

cherdano, on 2015-January-04, 16:11, said:

So what is wrong with putting in the 8 if South has T43?

Nothing.

[cherdano]

I guess my larger point is that after I was unfocussed enough in a team match that I dropped tricks on about every third board, I am not sure I would make posts about play problems, including an ATB on defense, before I have had sufficient time (more than fits into NFL commercial breaks) to actually think about the hands myself.

[mgoetze]

cherdano, on 2015-January-04, 16:39, said:

I guess my larger point is that after I was unfocussed enough in a team match that I dropped tricks on about every third board, I am not sure I would make posts about play problems, including an ATB on defense, before I have had sufficient time (more than fits into NFL commercial breaks) to actually think about the hands myself.

Hm, there are a lot of commercial breaks in an NFL game, but more importantly I don't see how posting a couple of hands on the forum precludes me from thinking about them more later.

I would like to apologize if you are unhappy with the way I presented this hand. I certainly did not do so hoping anyone would absolve me of blame on the defense. I admit that I did hope for some discussion of the diamond return, but not because I wanted to shift the blame, rather because it is the sort of problem where I would be a bit unsure what I should be thinking about if I had faced it myself. And mainly I wanted to know how many disagreed with the bidding, without detracting too much from what I think you will agree is the more important aspect of this hand, the defense.

[cherdano]

The point is that posting a good play/defense problem needs thought before posting. You need to think what the right point in the hand is to stop play and pose it as a problem. You need to think whether you actually have an interesting decision at this point, or whether for now it depends mostly on what the opponents are doing. Posting a play problem before thinking about it is a bit of a disservice to BBF - it takes time to think about it for other posters, and if the problem doesn't turn out to be interesting that time is rather wasted.

[nige1]

mgoetze, on 2015-January-03, 19:18, said:

From our agreements: "Leads during the play are usually attitude (high = weak)"

---

Thank you, mgoetze, for an interesting deal. IMO

• When you hold the top HCP for an opening 1N, most pairs recommend a penalty double. FWIW, I agree.
• South knows his side have a minimum of half the deck so he should pass the double and redouble. If NS are doing well, then there is some argument for taking out into 2♣ because betting against 1NXX is a big position but (again FWIW) I would pass. On the actual deal, 2♣ would have got its just deserts.
• North might have led a conventional ♠T. (Double-dummy, virtue is rewarded with 2 undertricks). He might have played ♦8 on the ♦4 return (giving South credit for trying to make good use of his few entries). Winning ♦Q was OK, however. As the cards lie, at double-dummy, cashing ♦A was the fatal mistake.
• For South, ♠K seems a reasonable view; ♠8 is a possible alternative, however, hoping to retain the entry, for a time when he knows better what to lead. He might have continued ♠s but a red-suit switch seems reasonable to save North from end-plays.
• Both North and South took reasonable views throughout. Hence, IMO, the bad result was 90% bad-luck.

[cherdano]

Ok, a second poster is suggesting the play of the ♠8 at trick one. This looks pretty silly when LHO has QT or Q9 or T9 or T7 or 97, all consistent with the lead. Even when LHO has AT or A9 it creates problems as we are blocking the suit for us.

Where is the big gain that makes up for these losses?

[the hog]

cherdano, on 2015-January-04, 19:32, said:

Ok, a second poster is suggesting the play of the ♠8 at trick one. This looks pretty silly when LHO has QT or Q9 or T9 or T7 or 97, all consistent with the lead. Even when LHO has AT or A9 it creates problems as we are blocking the suit for us.

Where is the big gain that makes up for these losses?

You retain an entry for the CK and also for the option of playing through declarer so helping to avoid Nth being endplayed. I must admit that I did think that you played 4th highest, which certainly means the play of the 8 is more logical. However would pd really have led his lowest S as an attitude lead if LHO held QT or Q9?

[cherdano]

the hog, on 2015-January-04, 20:22, said:

I must admit that I did think that you played 4th highest, which certainly means the play of the 8 is more logical. However would pd really have led his lowest S as an attitude lead if LHO held QT or Q9?

Yes, while not explicitly discussed I am 100% mgoetze would lead low from any Axxx or Qxxx holding not including an interior sequence.

[nige1]

cherdano, on 2015-January-04, 19:32, said:

Ok, a second poster is suggesting the play of the ♠8 at trick one. This looks pretty silly when LHO has QT or Q9 or T9 or T7 or 97, all consistent with the lead. Even when LHO has AT or A9 it creates problems as we are blocking the suit for us. Where is the big gain that makes up for these losses?

Cherdano has convinced me