[Kaitlyn S]

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I've got to stop reading these ^&@*! bridge books!

This was problem 1 in a declarer play book. I went down although I thought my line was reasonable. Down in problem ONE - the humiliation! I'd like to see how bad my play was.

Playing IMPs, West leads the ten of spades. Plan your play.

[Cyberyeti]

Key is to know how many club tricks you have.

run the ♠, ♣K and A (club finesse if necessary at this point, but 3rd round of clubs unless E had small stiff), heart K and heart finesse.

If you had 4 club tricks, guess whether you want to play for hearts 3-3 or take the diamond finesse or play some sort of strip when this loses (if the diamond finesse is working, you may not need to take it).

I'd probably fly A♦, try the hearts, if they're 4-2 I'll lead a diamond up, if E has K♦ I'll be OK anyway.

[WellSpyder]

Hi Kaitlyn. You don't say whether this is imps or matchpoints, which could easily make a difference.

[Kaitlyn S]

WellSpyder, on 2017-June-05, 10:30, said:

Hi Kaitlyn. You don't say whether this is imps or matchpoints, which could easily make a difference.

Sorry. It's IMPs. Corrected in the OP.

[Winstonm]

My plan is to run the spade to the Q, test the clubs with K then small to A. If the clubs break, I'll take the heart finesse. If it loses and a diamond comes back, I'll win and try the hearts for 3-3 before leading toward the diamond Q.

This is all providing that the spade 10 in not conventional.

[Kaitlyn S]

Winstonm, on 2017-June-05, 11:24, said:

My plan is to run the spade to the Q, test the clubs with K then small to A. If the clubs break, I'll take the heart finesse. If it loses and a diamond comes back, I'll win and try the hearts for 3-3 before leading toward the diamond Q.

This is all providing that the spade 10 in not conventional.

I am assuming the 10 is not conventional because in a later problem the opponents led the jack from KJTxx.

[miamijd]

Kaitlyn S, on 2017-June-05, 09:53, said:

---

I've got to stop reading these ^&@*! bridge books!

This was problem 1 in a declarer play book. I went down although I thought my line was reasonable. Down in problem ONE - the humiliation! I'd like to see how bad my play was.

Playing IMPs, West leads the ten of spades. Plan your play.

Not so easy. Winston's suggestion looks reasonable. What did the book recommend?

[GrahamJson]

My instinct is to run the spade to the queen then take an immediate heart finesse. If that loses and a diamond comes through I'd go up with the ace and cash clubs and hearts. Depending on breaks there might be a throw in or squeeze, or you might have to lead up to the DQ.

No doubt there is a better line but, if so, there wouldn't be enough time for me to find it at the table.

Maybe testing clubs first is best but I'd be reluctant to do that in case I needed the entries later in the play although I admit it does appear that there are enough entries around.

[GrahamJson]

Looking again I suspect the answer is to cash AK of hearts hoping that the queen drops. If it doesn't then take the diamond finesse. This assumes that the clubs come in for four tricks. If they don't I guess you need both red suit finesses to work.

[RD350LC]

Kaitlyn S, on 2017-June-05, 09:53, said:

---

I've got to stop reading these ^&@*! bridge books!

This was problem 1 in a declarer play book. I went down although I thought my line was reasonable. Down in problem ONE - the humiliation! I'd like to see how bad my play was.

Playing IMPs, West leads the ten of spades. Plan your play.

I would let the spade run to the queen. Then I would take the heart finesse-as west is the danger hand, and you don't mind letting east on lead, as he cannot hurt you with a spade lead.
If the heart finesse wins, then you can play for a 3/2 club split, and get 1 spade, 3 hearts, 1 diamond and 4 clubs. If the heart finesse loses, and a spade comes back, you would get 2 spades, 2 hearts, 1 diamond, and 4 clubs. If another suit comes back, then best chance is for the diamond finesse, winning 1 spade, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds, and 4 clubs. However, you can still play for 3/3 hearts (42% chance), and if that fails, go for the diamond finesse.
Just my thoughts.

[m1cha]

Kaitlyn S, on 2017-June-05, 09:53, said:

I've got to stop reading these ^&@*! bridge books!
This was problem 1 in a declarer play book. I went down although I thought my line was reasonable. Down in problem ONE - the humiliation! I'd like to see how bad my play was.
Playing IMPs, West leads the ten of spades. Plan your play.

I share some of your feelings about bridge books. At the table I ask myself what the probabilities are. Reading a book (or a bridge puzzle), I ask myself what the author is trying to teach me. Sometimes these two questions have little to do with each other.

Anyway, ♠10 is from a sequence or from a doubleton if West is weak. I have to let it run to the Q because if I duck they'll continue and throw ♠ at me as soon as I lose the first finesse. They may do this anyway when West gets a trick and ♠A is behind the king, so it looks like this is how they want to bring the contract down and the problem is about the dangerous opponent; in which case the ♦ finess will not work and must not be tried, and the contract should be made with
1 trick in ♠,
3 tricks in ♥,
1 trick in ♦, and
4 tricks in ♣
where the ♣ should be played with the K first so that we can finesse for the J in ♣ trick 3 if necessary, and
we got to play for combined chances in ♥ of a finesse and a 3:3 split. Which means that the ♥ finesse will not work and East will return a ♦ in order to put us to a test.

On the other hand, once the ♥ finesse fails, the chances of a 3:3 split are low while the chances of either the ♦ finesse or the ♠ expass making are 75 % so that I should probably go for the ♦ finess now, if that's what East plays, or rather even duck depending on what they discarded on ♣.

It all depends on what kind of bridge books you read.

[sfi]

Try clubs first. If they are coming in for four tricks, my plan is to play the HK and HA. If the HQ doesn't drop I'll fall back on the diamond finesse. If all that fails, they might give me a spade trick while I still have a club entry to dummy.

If clubs only give me three tricks, I'll try the heart hook and see how I'm going.

[Kaitlyn S]

m1cha, on 2017-June-05, 18:24, said:

.It all depends on what kind of bridge books you read.

I read submissions for a particular award given to bridge authors so it could be anything.

You all win. I made a bad assumption. I presumed that West led his own suit, so that there is no danger hand (I fly SK the the next time spades are led and either East started with AJx, or West had the ace, or they are 4-4.) Given that, I decided to maximize the chances for three heart tricks - cash CK, CA so I know I only need one extra trick, then HA, HK, H to HJ, picking up three heart tricks if hearts are 3-3, West has the HQ, East has a short HQ.

Much to my dismay, West had S-1098 and H-Qxx and I found a way to go down in a contract that almost all of the readers of his book will make.

I thought long and hard before making the losing choice - I realized that I was probably wrong if West wasn't leading his own suit. I considered that E-W have the H-109 so West could have just as easily lead a short heart suit. I finally decided that West rated to have a better lead than the short spade suit when North had shown at least one four-card major.

Perhaps I should get it right for the wrong reason; would an author expect a reader of a not that hard bridge problem book to be able to figure out that spades probably aren't that dangerous and make the best play for three heart tricks? Still I'd probably go down at the table.

Just curious - how badly do y'all think I played this hand? Is a short suit lead likely enough that I should give up my best play for three heart tricks to cater to it?

[Stefan_O]

Hi Kaitlyn,

Were you assuming west lead from 5-card spade suit? Quite unlikely a-priori, that East should have exactly AJx.
Also, it makes it less likely that East (the shorter spade-hand) also has only doubleton hearts (Qx).

Or if West lead from S-Ace-something, we are already home, with no need to drop the H-Qx.

So, yes, I think the heart-finesse OR hearts 3-3 OR (finally) diam-King on-side is a considerably better line.

[MrAce]

Kaitlyn S, on 2017-June-05, 18:43, said:

Just curious - how badly do y'all think I played this hand? Is a short suit lead likely enough that I should give up my best play for three heart tricks to cater to it?

Flying the ♠K is pretty bad. After all opening leader, even if he led his own suit, could easily be leading from AT98(x) (unless they use coded leads aka kantar leads) If he led for his pd from T9x or T8x etc, flying the K is still bad.

EDIT: Disregard my comment, I thought you flied the ♠K on first lead.

[Stefan_O]

WellSpyder, on 2017-June-05, 10:30, said:

Hi Kaitlyn. You don't say whether this is imps or matchpoints, which could easily make a difference.

By default, ALL bridge-problems and books are IMPS or total-points, unless otherwise stated

Very few focus on the much more complex and hard-to-analyse MP-play.

[m1cha]

Your analysis is more complete than mine, don't worry.

Kaitlyn S, on 2017-June-05, 18:43, said:

Is a short suit lead likely enough that I should give up my best play for three heart tricks to cater to it?

♠10, with the 9 and 8 out, looks like it's from a sequence. In that case the probability that East has 5 cards is negligible, so this hand is very special. Then again with ♠10x doubleton leading to what seems to be partner's long suit can sometimes be a good idea.

[sfi]

Stefan_O, on 2017-June-05, 19:51, said:

So, yes, I think the heart-finesse OR hearts 3-3 OR (finally) diam-King on-side is a considerably better line.

You don't get to try both 3-3 hearts and the diamond finesse because East is very likely to switch to a diamond.

That being said, the heart finesse is better than my earlier suggestion of dropping the queen. That line works whenever either red-suit finesse wins.

[msjennifer]

Not knowing any thing about the spade situation,I would have finessed hearts.That way the SK remains safe.If a diamond comes back I shall win the Ace and see if hearts break .If they do not then hope that W holds rhe SA.(or east the DK).

[Kaitlyn S]

sfi, on 2017-June-05, 20:46, said:

You don't get to try both 3-3 hearts and the diamond finesse because East is very likely to switch to a diamond.

That being said, the heart finesse is better than my earlier suggestion of dropping the queen. That line works whenever either red-suit finesse wins.

you can try 3-3 hearts by going up with DA, then later leading toward DQ if hearts aren't 3-3; they have to cede the ninth trick if they lead a spade from East and I don't think they can get five tricks unless everything is wrong