[sakuragi]

opening lead C10

how do you continue? general plan?

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[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I will give it a try.

You have 2 sure loosers, at least 1S and you are likely to loose 2H.
You dont need trumps to ruff loosers, i.e. you should draw trumps and
see if you need to play hearts for 1 loosers or at most 2.
Given the quality of trumps and of the heart suit, you cant really deal with
a bad trump break.

I would win the club lead with the Ace to keep as many entries to dummy
alive as much possible, cross to the Ace of trumps and lead a 2nd round towards
my Queen.

Assuming South showes a honor on the 2nd round of trumps you have achieved
the first part of the plan, playing the heart suit for at most 2-loosers
the best play is the double finnesse, i.e. letting the 8 of hearts run,
but it could be that is the way to play for the max. number of tricks,
so depending how many hearts you can afford to loose, the handling of the
heart suit may change.
The King of clubs, and the 10 of trumps should give you the req. entries.

With kind regards
Marlowe

PS: keep in mind, dummy play is the weakest part of my Bridge

[jillybean]

P_Marlowe, on 2025-April-14, 01:12, said:

PS: keep in mind, dummy play is the weakest part of my Bridge

You shouldn't be playing any cards if you are dummy

[sakuragi]

its real life bridge. here is the full hand
marlowe line would likely work out

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[sakuragi]

what i did:

1. same thought: I would win the club lead with the Ace to keep as many entries to dummy
alive as much possible

2. i would like to play H from dummy whenever i land there. there are more options to play S but not much for H

3. on trick 2 i play small S from hand. lho low. I insert the S10 hoping to finesse Sj. Lost to Sj.

4. rho then play HA and another H. I win with HK.

5. trick 5 I play small S from hand hoping to see Sk falling. it didnt happen

6. down 1 I go.


Comments welcome

[sakuragi]

just for more easily collect opinions here comes polling

[mike777]

Lets try counting tricks for starters.
3 diamonds.
Hopefully 2 clubs and a ruff a club.
3 other spade tricks if we can pick up the suit.
one heart hopefully
that is ten.

If we count losers we can afford one spade and two hearts or two spades and one heart.

Next question how do we play the card
combination of
ATXX across from QXXX for 3 tricks?

[pescetom]

jillybean, on 2025-April-14, 06:12, said:

You shouldn't be playing any cards if you are dummy

You tell that to some of my opponents

[johnu]

You probably are going to lose 2 (or 3) heart tricks about 3/4 of the time. Your goal is to lose 1 spade trick. The best play for 1 spade loser is low to the ace, then low towards the queen. You can verify this on Suitplay which is a small downloadable program. With so many hearts, you also have to worry about a heart ruff if there are small trumps out so your spade play of finessing the 10 has additional ways to lose.

[P_Marlowe]

I was not sure, if the current trump holding is a case, when the double finesse is better than A, followed by Q.
But the double finesse is only better, if you had the 9 and also the 8 of trumps, if I can believe my google search.
And playing small to the 10 is basically the double finesse.
As far as I know he diff between double finesse and A, followed by Q is not huge.

But as stated above, drawing trumps quickly to reduce the danger of heart ruffs is also relevant, and was a reason
for my choosen line.

[mike777]

Not sure drawing trumps quickly is best.
Drawing slowly may be needed for transportation. We need to worry about
Setting up a h trick without a heart ruff and unblocking diamonds and drawing trump using the correct card combination.

I guess if hearts behave we may not be so concerned with unblocking D and extra transportation..

A lot to this one.

I would start AC, AS, spade towards QS.

[johnu]

P_Marlowe, on 2025-April-15, 02:12, said:

And playing small to the 10 is basically the double finesse.

Not really. After playing to the 10 and losing to the jack, you have to drop the king for 3 tricks as there is no 2nd finesse without the 9.

[gszes]

I went with Marlowe line but the bidding caught my eye. IMHO the 2n bid in a standard sequence should show an invitational hand with 4 spades. West has super max and 4 spades and should be bidding 4s. The sequence shown may easily have other meanings but, if so, annotate them since we are reading to learn.

[mike777]

 gszes, on 2025-April-15, 18:07, said:

I went with Marlowe line but the bidding caught my eye. IMHO the 2n bid in a standard sequence should show an invitational hand with 4 spades. West has super max and 4 spades and should be bidding 4s. The sequence shown may easily have other meanings but, if so, annotate them since we are reading to learn.

Many play 2C does not promise a 4 card major, very common at least in USA.
Why?
1Nt=2Nt is often some sort of transfer.

[smerriman]

mike777, on 2025-April-15, 19:35, said:

Many play 2C does not promise a 4 card major, very common at least in USA.
Why?
1Nt=2Nt is often some sort of transfer.

But when playing non-promissory 2♣ and you have 4 spades, you bid 2♠, not 2N. 2N either denies 4 spades or promises it, so either way 3♠ is unusual.

[mike777]

 smerriman, on 2025-April-15, 19:42, said:

But when playing non-promissory 2♣ and you have 4 spades, you bid 2♠, not 2N. 2N either denies 4 spades or promises it, so either way 3♠ is unusual.

I agree

But then even in 2025 opening 1NT with 4522 is still unusual.