[phoenixmj]

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Assume that east is on lead and leads a diamond against a 3NT contract and neither east nor west has bid. What is the best way to play the diamonds?

specifically, do you play the 8 or the 10.

OK - sorry about not adding more specifics. A low diamond was led and as you point out, we have 9 certain tricks given the diamond lead. It was matchpoints.

As for the bidding - neither east nor west bid so not sure that there were any clues there. It is really intended as a general question as to how to play this combination.

In the actual bidding, the hand was played by south and the lead came from west - but I was left curious as to how the play would have gone from the other side and curious as to the best chance playing the diamonds.

thanks

[smerriman]

The full auction + which diamond East led are both pretty important things to know here.

[johnu]

smerriman, on 2020-November-25, 17:23, said:

The full auction + which diamond East led are both pretty important things to know here.

On the plus side, you do know the final contract

I will note that I would play small from both hands on the lead of ♦A

[PeterAlan]

And presumably matchpoints since you have at least 9 top tricks (1+2+1+5) after the ♦ lead.

[mikeh]

How can one answer this question without knowing which diamond was led, how the auction went, and their carding methods?

To reduce it to the absurd, I play the 10 if he led the 9.

[smerriman]

phoenixmj, on 2020-November-25, 16:32, said:

OK - sorry about not adding more specifics. A low diamond was led and as you point out, we have 9 certain tricks given the diamond lead. It was matchpoints.

As for the bidding - neither east nor west bid so not sure that there were any clues there. It is really intended as a general question as to how to play this combination.

The exact diamond and full auction are still vital. The opponents have 17 cards in the majors and haven't led one against 3NT; did they have a chance to overcall? Is one/both a passed hand? Do they lead 4th best and led the 2 of diamonds, showing a 4 card suit to an honor? And so on.

You can't play this suit in isolation unless you remove the biggest clue that the suit was broken by the opponents.

Edit - if the opponents didn't lead the suit and you were playing it in isolation, the MP best line (according to SuitPlay) is be low to the 8, then if it loses to the 9, low to the king.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

the romase total bryse connect your instead bryse
boardback.If your connected board call treeve laterise connected 79PO
jokey.Connect 63A6 is not jokey never instead.
Thanks for your help.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[gszes]

the problem here is why not go for THREE diamond tricks. There is no articular reason why the opening lead is not from length. That means there is every reasonable chance that RHO has something like J2 92 A2 (i am using the 2 because you did not mention which spot was led) AND that they will insert the J or 9 or A at trick 1. Using any of dummy's intermediate can easily COST a trick rather than provide any gain. Even if RHO has say 96 it is way far from clear that inserting the 6 is a magic bullet vs the 9. I am very optimistic that we can score 3 dia tricks after a dia lead. If things go well, we might also get a chance to lead toward the spade Q for yet another overtrick. The more information you supply the more likely yu are to get a comprehensive reply:)))))))) STAY WELL

[mikeh]

To the OP:

You refusal to provide the auction suggests that you are blind or deaf to a great deal of the information of which skilled players are aware.

I suspect that you know to draw inferences from what players ‘do’ but you have not yet realized that there is at least as much information available from what they did not do.

Negative inferences abound in bridge, read any good book on reading the opponent’s cards and you’ll learn this quite quickly. Both your defence (since these inferences apply to all players) and your declarer play will improve.

Wonder how the best players sometimes play as if they can see through the back of the cards? And I’m not talking about cheats, lol.

Thus here, knowing the auction would tell us what information the opening leader had. Then, knowing the exact spot, and their lead methods, will provide insight into why he chose a diamond rather than, say, an unbid major. I’m not pretending that such details invariably lead to the correct inferences, but card reading is not usually an exact science at trick one (although you’d be surprised at how close one can come on some occasions)

[smerriman]

mikeh, on 2020-November-30, 00:14, said:

To the OP:

You refusal to provide the auction suggests that you are blind or deaf to a great deal of the information of which skilled players are aware.

I think you missed his update where he stated that the auction that actually occurred resulted in the opposite player on lead. Thus an auction to the actual situation does not exist, making the entire question unsolvable - but not that he was blind and deaf.

[mikeh]

smerriman, on 2020-November-30, 02:12, said:

I think you missed his update where he stated that the auction that actually occurred resulted in the opposite player on lead. Thus an auction to the actual situation does not exist, making the entire question unsolvable - but not that he was blind and deaf.

Thanks. I did miss that.

[Fluffy]

This looks like a classic free finesse position, you attempt to do something good with 8 of diamonds for free, and if it fails you can always try to play low to the 10 later.