[karlson]

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Maybe you don't like the bidding, but it's not ridiculous. Anyway, you're in 4♥.

Lead is the ♠8. You duck in dummy and righty wins the J, cashes the ♠A, lefty following, and plays a third spade (let's say a middlish spot).

What's your plan, and does it change whether I tell you the opponents are weak or strong?

(no particular surprise: if you pitch on this trick, lefty will ruff with a low ♥ and play a club).

[rduran1216]

 karlson, on 2010-December-11, 17:48, said:

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Maybe you don't like the bidding, but it's not ridiculous. Anyway, you're in 4♥.

Lead is the ♠8. You duck in dummy and righty wins the J, cashes the ♠A, lefty following, and plays a third spade (let's say a middlish spot).

What's your plan, and does it change whether I tell you the opponents are weak or strong?

(no particular surprise: if you pitch on this trick, lefty will ruff with a low ♥ and play a club).

if these are good players, I consider doing something else, but I dump a diamond, win the club return in hand and run the J of hearts, then small to the nine, K of hearts diamond to the A A of hearts club to AK d ruff and clubs

if these are bad players, I definitely dump a dimaond and continue as mentioned b4

[gnasher]

 rduran1216, on 2010-December-11, 18:27, said:

I dump a diamond, win the club return in hand and run the J of hearts, then small to the nine, K of hearts diamond to the A A of hearts club to AK d ruff and clubs

Compared with cashing ♥A, a first-round heart finesse gains against hearts 5=0 but loses to xxxx=Q. Given the 2=6 spade break, those are a priori equally likely. However, with a heart void RHO might have chosen a different opening bid, so I think it's better to cash ♥A first.

[rduran1216]

 gnasher, on 2010-December-11, 18:53, said:

Compared with cashing ♥A, a first-round heart finesse gains against hearts 5=0 but loses to xxxx=Q. Given the 2=6 spade break, those are a priori equally likely. However, with a heart void RHO might have chosen a different opening bid, so I think it's better to cash ♥A first.

Cashing the A keeps me from picking up Qxxx to my left, which is very likely. LHO has Q hearts more often than RHO.

[mtvesuvius]

 rduran1216, on 2010-December-11, 19:10, said:

Cashing the A keeps me from picking up Qxxx to my left, which is very likely. LHO has Q hearts more often than RHO.

They already ruffed once.

I'd cash the Ace and hook as well (after pitching a diamond)

[rduran1216]

 mtvesuvius, on 2010-December-11, 19:27, said:

They already ruffed once.

I'd cash the Ace and hook as well (after pitching a diamond)

sorry im an idiot, i agree with you two, i forgot the ruff

[karlson]

I played the same way as the consensus. Hearts were 5-0 so that was -1.

I was hoping to get a discussion about what hands righty would defend like this with. I think that it's a bit weird, and weakly suggests that the ♦K might well be onside (of course he could also think we're 5-5). I think it would also be more common without the ♥Q than with, so maybe taking the first round finesse in hearts has some merit.

[rduran1216]

 karlson, on 2010-December-12, 16:20, said:

I played the same way as the consensus. Hearts were 5-0 so that was -1.

I was hoping to get a discussion about what hands righty would defend like this with. I think that it's a bit weird, and weakly suggests that the ♦K might well be onside (of course he could also think we're 5-5). I think it would also be more common without the ♥Q than with, so maybe taking the first round finesse in hearts has some merit.

Ha i rescind my previous post and stick to my intuition haha, or daftness.

[rhm]

 gnasher, on 2010-December-11, 18:53, said:

Compared with cashing ♥A, a first-round heart finesse gains against hearts 5=0 but loses to xxxx=Q. Given the 2=6 spade break, those are a priori equally likely. However, with a heart void RHO might have chosen a different opening bid, so I think it's better to cash ♥A first.

No it is not, because cashing the ♥A first also looses if RHO happens to hold ♥Qxxx. Given the conditions this adds another 1.47% to running the ♥J.
Of course I can not compute whether some might refrain from opening 2♠ with ♠AQJxxx ♥Qxxx and 3 low cards in the minors. I would still open 2♠.

Rainer Herrmann