[manudude03]

---

Been a while since I posted here. MPs scoring, all vul. Click Next to follow the play so far. Note the 1NT bid shows 15-16. How do you play it from here?

[sfi]

If we believe everything thus far, RHO has:

x
Axx
KQxx
AKxxx

How about a spade to the ace, ruff a club and finesse the diamond. Now RHO is endplayed into letting me get rid of my minor suit loser. If RHO's singleton spade was the ten or Jack, I can now finesse for an overtrick. If their singleton was the seven, I should have finessed in spades earlier. If spades were 3-2 all along I might go down in a cold contract.

[Cyberyeti]

sfi, on 2020-October-08, 16:28, said:

If we believe everything thus far, RHO has:

x
Axx
KQxx
AKxxx

How about a spade to the ace, ruff a club and finesse the diamond. Now RHO is endplayed into letting me get rid of my minor suit loser. If RHO's singleton spade was the ten or Jack, I can now finesse for an overtrick. If their singleton was the seven, I should have finessed in spades earlier. If spades were 3-2 all along I might go down in a cold contract.

Except dummy actually played his last trump to the 3rd round of hearts so he just exits a club. If spades were 3-2 W might not have bid 1♠

[helene_t]

Hmmm ... W is supposed to have 6-7 points. Assuming he has ♣Q, that leaves either ♦Q or ♠J. Assuming the spades break 1-4, the prior odds of ♠J with West is 4/1, while ♦Q is equally likely to be with either as East has 1345 including ♦K.

Another consideration is that if E had 16 points and a 1345 shape, he might have preferred a reverse to the off-shape 1NT rebid, so maybe he's more likely to have ♠J. Also, maybe he's a bit more likely to make an off-shape 1NT rebid with an honour singleton? That wouldn't be my expectation with English club players but maybe it's different in NI.

I think I will cash a spade to see what E has. If he has the J or T I can ruff the club, draw the last trump and play ♠9.

BTW if we want to run a spade, why not ♠8? Don't we prefer W not to cover with JTxx?

[sfi]

Cyberyeti, on 2020-October-08, 16:47, said:

Except dummy actually played his last trump to the 3rd round of hearts so he just exits a club.

Good point - the trick is only half finished. I'll still play a spade to the ace and hope to catch a stiff honour on my right.

[mikeh]

Are we not puzzled by the fact that the opps have missed a very good club contract.

East is presumably 1345 and west 4225.

Since east has a stiff, we need not worry about pairs opening a strong 1N. Thus the field will usually get to clubs at some level. 5C seems cold no matter whether west has a diamond honour.

Also, west has a clear 3C call over our 2H.

Thus we are in the nice position of rating to have a good result, since -1 rates to be above average, and +110 we rate to score a near top.

I lead a spade to dummy, looking at east’s card. If it’s the Jack or the 10, I ruff the club and lead the spade 9, which also allows me to win this or the next spade in hand and lead a diamond to the Jack, making 140 if LHO has the diamond Queen and 110 otherwise.

If rho plays the 7 on the 1st spade, ruff the club, lead the spade 8 (no reason not to, and LHO doesn’t strike me as very strong, given his pass of 2H). Assuming a cover, I play ace and a low diamond. I expect eventually to take another spade hook for 8 tricks


If east plays the 3 or 2 of spades on the first round, I ruff the club. Note that east should play low on this, but many easts will fly with the Ace. In any event, I now play two more spades, forcing pitches from east, who should pitch club reducing to KQxx x in the minors.

If he’s kept the club Ace, which he should not, I play a diamond to the Jack, and pitch a spade on the club Ace, forcing him to lead into dummy’s diamond tenace.

If he has properly unblocked in clubs, I lead the diamond 7, covering if west covers, ducking otherwise.

I ruff the club return and play a diamond towards dummy, covering west’s card if need be.

There are a few more permutations but I’ve typed enough.

[nige1]

Manudude03 'Been a while since I posted here. MPs scoring, all vul. Click Next to follow the play so far. Note the 1NT bid shows 15-16. How do you play it from here?'
+++++++++++++++++++++

You might try leading a ♠6 to ♠Q, hoping RHO has singleton ♠ J or T or 7. If you're lucky, you can then use your 2 ♥ entries to set up a 4th ♠ trick.
Your 8 tricks would be: 4 X ♠, 3 X ♥ and 1 X ♦
Otherwise you might find a favourable ♦ layout
e.g. LHO might have ♦98 doubleton or ♦ might be 3-3.

---

[manudude03]

The full layout on this was below, you basically had to take an immediate deep spade finesse which works as long as it's not a stiff honour.

---

[Douglas43]

Thanks for posting this, interesting hand. It seems that everyone agrees that small to the Ace is better when RHO holds singleton J or 10 and running the 9 is better against singleton 2 or 3. And when RHO has the 7 they both work

MikeH points out extra chances in playing high if East keeps KQ9x, x but I think that East can counter this by coming down to D-KQ9 C- Ax. East wins the Diamond finesse and even though we duck the first club East just continues with another, which we must ruff with our last trump.

So for me, it's a draw between the two plays in spades

[nige1]

Douglas43, on 2020-October-23, 06:35, said:

Thanks for posting this, interesting hand. It seems that everyone agrees that small to the Ace is better when RHO holds singleton J or 10 and running the 9 is better against singleton 2 or 3. And when RHO has the 7 they both work

MikeH points out extra chances in playing high if East keeps KQ9x, x but I think that East can counter this by coming down to D-KQ9 C- Ax. East wins the Diamond finesse and even though we duck the first club East just continues with another, which we must ruff with our last trump.

So for me, it's a draw between the two plays in spades

If you start with a ♠A and RHO follows with the deuce or trey, then you have a second string to your bow. You can continue with the ♦J. Defenders might make a mistake. But you have legitimate extra chances when RHO was dealt hands like
♠ 2 ♥ A 8 4 ♦ K Q 4 3 ♣ A K T 6 2 or
♠ 2 ♥ A 8 4 ♦ K Q 9 ♣ A K T 6 3 2