[CSGibson]

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Feel free to comment on the bidding and play to this point, especially the play if you would have done something different (against relatively unknown opponents - you know that LHO is goodish, but don't know righty at all). What do you do from here (and from here, I mean where the play stops)? Opponents play upside-down count and attitude, top of nothing leads.

[Zelandakh]

Cross in hearts. If hearts break then ruff out the last ♣, ♦A, ruff a ♦ and claim. If not then I guess we need a spade to stand up.

[rhm]

The biggest risk seems to be that West has 3♠=4♥=4♦=2♣.
Play a spade now to the table. If this gets ruffed, tough luck.
Overtaking a heart now wins if West has 2♠=3♥=6♦=2♣ but is less likely.
Also East might have overcalled 1♠ with ♠Kxxxx,♥xx,♦xx,♣KQxx.

The bidding and play so far is okay. The contract stands no chance if East goes in at trick 2. Leading the 9 from 98x and from 9x is dangerous.
I consider 3♥ a slight underbid by my standards (the North hand is worth more than its HCP suggest).
I prefer the slight overbid of 4♦, but the result of this would be the same here.

Rainer Herrmann

[PhilKing]

rhm, on 2012-December-18, 03:46, said:

Also East might have overcalled 1♠ with ♠Kxxxx,♥xx,♦xx,♣KQxx.

Yes. And his spades would be KT865 plus his diamond "x" can be an honour.

Spade now.


Oh, and I may have gone off at trick one depending on who was West. Not finessing makes us hugely exploitable.

[CSGibson]

rhm, on 2012-December-18, 03:46, said:

I consider 3♥ a slight underbid by my standards (the North hand is worth more than its HCP suggest).

Rainer Herrmann

This is in context of a weak NT, where 2♥ would have shown extras - 3♥ is almost forcing.

[JLOGIC]

Keycard is just a massive bid then and IMO a bad one. Partner having no club or spade control is not good for northe hand.

Definitely play a spade here. If you were west and you had 9x of clubs and 9x of spades which would you lead? I think a spade would be obvious, it's the unbidden suit. Therefore I will not play west for 9x 9x in the blacks

[iviehoff]

JLOGIC, on 2012-December-18, 10:55, said:

Definitely play a spade here. If you were west and you had 9x of clubs and 9x of spades which would you lead? I think a spade would be obvious, it's the unbidden suit. Therefore I will not play west for 9x 9x in the blacks

I don't understand what advantage you gain by playing a spade now in comparison to Zelandakh's line.

[gnasher]

I think we went wrong at trick 3. Spade to the ace, club ruff, heart to dummy, club ruff, heart to dummy, draw trumps, cash club, spade.

[kayin801]

iviehoff, on 2012-December-18, 11:17, said:

I don't understand what advantage you gain by playing a spade now in comparison to Zelandakh's line.

It picks up 4-1 trumps while not letting LHO pitch another spade on our 2nd club ruff.

Otherwise agree with Justin, N did fine with their bidding 3♥ but I would bid 4♥ over 4♦, ESPECIALLY if we're cueing 1st and 2nd round controls. It's not as if 4♥ bars partner. Also would be nice to know if there were some sort of serious/frivolous going on here. Even without that N is overboard.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

gnasher, on 2012-December-18, 11:42, said:

I think we went wrong at trick 3. Spade to the ace, club ruff, heart to dummy, club ruff, heart to dummy, draw trumps, cash club, spade.

I think you got it ... even with a 4-1 ♥-split as long as West has 2 cds ♣.

If one counts winners after winning the first 2 ♣ tricks ( w/A & 8 ) :

2s ( after giving up a ♠ ) , 4h ( in dummy ), 1d , 2 ♣-ruffs ( ruffing high in hand ), 3c = 12

[CSGibson]

kayin801, on 2012-December-18, 11:48, said:

It picks up 4-1 trumps while not letting LHO pitch another spade on our 2nd club ruff.

Otherwise agree with Justin, N did fine with their bidding 3♥ but I would bid 4♥ over 4♦, ESPECIALLY if we're cueing 1st and 2nd round controls. It's not as if 4♥ bars partner. Also would be nice to know if there were some sort of serious/frivolous going on here. Even without that N is overboard.

3N would have been a non-serious slam try. Agreements are to cue controls, except that we don't cue shortness in partner's primary suit.

[kayin801]

Well now I think S showed a better hand than he had then with 4♦ (extra A over game accept, but xx in partner's first bid suit) and N wasn't crazy to try for slam after a serious bid, though he should still be wary about what partner has to bypass both black suit control bids.

[gnasher]

gnasher, on 2012-December-18, 11:42, said:

I think we went wrong at trick 3. Spade to the ace, club ruff, heart to dummy, club ruff, heart to dummy, draw trumps, cash club, spade.

On second thoughts, a better sequence is heart to dummy, club ruff, spade to the ace, etc. That's risk-free, because LHO wouldn't lead a doubleton cub when holding a singleton spade. It helps if trumps happen to be 5-0, in which case we will need the spade finesse, amongst other things.

[han]

Andy, it must have been matchpoints.

[CSGibson]

han, on 2012-December-20, 10:34, said:

Andy, it must have been matchpoints.

Nope, I just screwed up the play - I went in thinking I needed the spade finesse after the club lead, and didn't regroup after the 8 of clubs held. Incidentally, LHO was 2=3=6=2, and chose to lead a club because his partner had two opportunities to double for a spade lead and failed to do so either time.

[han]

Not the first time my read was off. This one would have been easier had I been at the table.

[microcap]

On the bidding front, you can also define a 3♦ bid here as a splimit, showing just this hand which may be just shy of a 4!D bid but still gets the splinter in. It doesn't come up that often but Rex and I have found it useful...