[lamford]

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The only thing that could be said in favour of our auction on this hand from Tuesday's heat of the EBU Sims pairs was that it gave nothing away. Neither did the otherwise excellent booklet of the event which did not mention any supported charity; I presume that there was none, which in some ways is a shame - it would be good to have, say, 20% of the entry fees go to a good cause; but that is a personal opinion.

Would you want to be in 6S, 6NT, 7S or 7NT on the above hand at matchpoints?
And how would you play each contract on a spade, heart, diamond and club lead respectively?

I was quite pleased with my 6S=, scoring 23%, but was reminded of my school report, "could do better".

[wank]

i'd like to be in 7s by north. do i get above average?

[lamford]

wank, on 2015-January-08, 19:16, said:

i'd like to be in 7s by north. do i get above average?

How are you going to play 7S on, say, a club lead? In practice you will play spades by South or NT by North, of course.

[the hog]

I would want to be in 7S, preferably by Nth, but will accept it by Sth.

[lamford]

the hog, on 2015-January-08, 20:36, said:

I would want to be in 7S, preferably by Nth, but will accept it by Sth.

I had the seven of clubs lead. How do you play?

[Fluffy]

I would go after hearts from the start without pulling any trump, and would play a spade to the ace to reenter dummy since spades 0-3 is more likelly than spades 2-1 and hearts 2-4 without ♠Q singleton.

[lamford]

Fluffy, on 2015-January-09, 01:48, said:

I would go after hearts from the start without pulling any trump, and would play a spade to the ace to reenter dummy since spades 0-3 is more likelly than spades 2-1 and hearts 2-4 without ♠Q singleton.

I followed that line and won the club lead in hand and led a heart at trick two. West ruffed(!) so I made six. I think I would have played the same line in seven, so would have gone down. West had Qx none Kxxx xxxxxxx.

[Jinksy]

lamford, on 2015-January-08, 19:07, said:

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Neither did the otherwise excellent booklet of the event which did not mention any supported charity; I presume that there was none, which in some ways is a shame - it would be good to have, say, 20% of the entry fees go to a good cause; but that is a personal opinion.

It bugs me when they do that. I'd rather just pay them the profits they want, and give 20% to my own choice of good causes.

Quote

Would you want to be in 6S, 6NT, 7S or 7NT on the above hand at matchpoints?
And how would you play each contract on a spade, heart, diamond and club lead respectively?

I was quite pleased with my 6S=, scoring 23%, but was reminded of my school report, "could do better".

7♠ looks dodgy to me. With only 4 entries, what can you do if hearts split 4-2 and the K doesn't drop?

I'll opt for 6N, on the grounds that my bidding is better than my card play.

[rmnka447]

7 ♠ is where you'd like to be. Since North is going to bid at least 6 ♠ anyway, he might use RKCB. South is likely to 8+ ♠ or good ♠ (likely headed by KQ) if only holding 7. If South holds the ♠ K, then continue asking for side kings and bid 7 when one is found.

After a ♣ lead, win in hand. The general plan is to try to ruff out the ♥ K and try the ♦ finesse if it fails. So ♥
to the ♥ A, heart ruffed with the ♠ 9, ♠ to the ♠ A. If ♠ Q falls on this trick, you can ruff a ♥ with an intermediate, draw trump and eventually set up the ♥s. This trick also let's you identify and handle a 3-0 break with East. If trump are 2-1 with the ♠ Q doubleton, I draw the ♠ Q with the ♠ K. Then transport back to dummy with ♣ A and ruff a third ♥ hoping the ♥ K is tripleton.

If the ♥ K doesn't show, run all the remaining trump and take the ♦ finesse if necessary at trick 12. However, anytime West holds both red Ks, a squeeze occurs at trick 11 and you're unlikely to go wrong at trick 12.

[whereagles]

I want to be in 7 of course.

Will try to setup hearts regardless of lead. Take DA if d lead.

[the hog]

lamford, on 2015-January-09, 08:14, said:

I followed that line and won the club lead in hand and led a heart at trick two. West ruffed(!) so I made six. I think I would have played the same line in seven, so would have gone down. West had Qx none Kxxx xxxxxxx.

I would also have tried this line and gone down.