[jonottawa]

A non-scientific auction with silent opps gets you to 3N at IMPs

Lead ♠3

Dummy: ♠Q84 ♥- ♦QJ732 ♣AQ853

Declarer: ♠AJ7 ♥AK872 ♦T6 ♣J92

At my table I played low from dummy and won the 9 with my J. Is that normal?

What should I play to trick 2?

[MrAce]

jonottawa, on 2011-September-11, 21:20, said:

A non-scientific auction with silent opps gets you to 3N at IMPs

Lead ♠3

Dummy: ♠Q84 ♥- ♦QJ732 ♣AQ853

Declarer: ♠AJ7 ♥AK872 ♦T6 ♣J92

At my table I played low from dummy and won the 9 with my J. Is that normal?

What should I play to trick 2?

I would play small too at first trick. U need to make 5♣ tricks to make 3 NT because if RHO holds hand and plays a ♠ even if 4-3 split they score 2♠+2♦+1♣ before u make 9 tricks. I would play ♣J and finesse, if it gets covered, win the Ace and i wld play ♦ to T, if smart RHO plays his honor and leads 2nd ♠ no harm in finessing, if that loses and they clear ♠s, then cash AK♥ and play ♣9 to finesse. Even if 4-1 ♣ when LHO hold 4 of them u can make 5 ♣ tricks as long as RHO's stiff is 7 or 6.

[han]

I'd play the spade queen. If it holds I'll play a diamond to the 10. I pay off if LHO led from 109xx though so perhaps I'm biased by reading the results.

[MrAce]

han, on 2011-September-12, 14:50, said:

I'd play the spade queen. If it holds I'll play a diamond to the 10. I pay off if LHO led from 109xx though so perhaps I'm biased by reading the results.

You pay off much more than that i think. Unless of course opponents are known to follow the rule "2nd hand plays low"

- When u play Q of ♠ and then play a ♦, RHO can jump his honor and play ♠, and defeat when everything was split perfect for you.

- When RHO has both AK♦, he can take first ♦ and play ♠, which u have to duck, and LHO now can clear ♠ suit and your last entry to hand, which makes it very messy, but he can also shift to ♥ and they play another ♥ when hold with 2nd ♦. Which forces you to make 2 fast ♣ tricks.

- If LHO has AK ♦, or split ♦ honors and RHO failed to jump his honor, LHO will win and play a ♥. Even if you are lucky to find 3-3 ♦, u have 3♦+2♥+2♠ tricks and still need 2 fast ♣ tricks since ♥ suit is now wide open. (Also LHO can simply play ♠K and kill your communication with hand but unlikely defense)

Those were mainly the hands where ♦ suit was split friendly for you, there are other scenarios where it doesn't split 3-3 and only a very few of them works for you, if any. No need to mention, in most of those hands where you make 3NT, it would not matter whether you took first trick with ♠ Q or J in hand. You need ♣ finesse to work eventually in most of the hands, the hands that can make this 3 NT with ♣ K offside are not that many imo.

[Fluffy]

I'd do the same as han, perhaps against opponents I play once a year I would not.

[MrAce]

Fluffy, on 2011-September-13, 01:16, said:

I'd do the same as han, perhaps against opponents I play once a year I would not.

You have a legit way of making 9 tricks when u play low to first ♠ because u make 3 ♠ tricks if the lead is from

- T963
- T953
- T9632
- T6532
- 96532

Chances of making 5♣ tricks is about % 23 + one of these leads makes it somewhere arround % 27 or 28. Making 3♦ tricks is % 39 but unfortunately it brings to 8 tricks only and need 2 fast ♣ tricks, i think thats like % 20. I maybe wrong about these numbers, just calculated roughly, it maybe off.

[jonottawa]

Thanks for the analysis. I followed MrAce's line and this time it was unsuccessful.

Movie