[Wackojack]

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Contract 6S this is imps

I noticed on the traveller that 13 out of 16 were playing in a spade contract and all those that got a heart lead made fewer than 12 tricks and several of those that got a diamond lead did not make 6♠. I am not sure if this post should be in the I/A section so this is a definite challenge to N/B's. How do you play this hand when west leads the 2♥?

[eagles123]

interesting one! I would win Ace of hearts, club to the king, spade finesse (if it wins, then ace of spades - as to get back to dummy to take a second finesse I'm massively risking a club ruff and they would become blocked anyway. Also if the finesse works it doesn't really tell us that much because with Kxx LHO would surely duck anyway?). If the miracle happens and it's Kx then get the last trump out.. then Ace of clubs and run the clubs in dummy chucking the Hearts... but obviously if spades are Kxx either side i'm screwed. the other option is to try and ruff a couple of hearts in dummy straight away but I don't think that's a particularly great line as we'll still have a heart loser and will be relying on stiff K spades?

Eagles

[1eyedjack]

It may be right to lead Q of trumps from hand at trick 2. If that wins then cross in Clubs to finesse Sp.
If LHO ducked with Kx then hats off to him, but you pick up Kxx onside and you give them a chance to err with Kx

[wanoff]

Win, play Q♠ and there is only a problem if they withhold the K.
Surely East will break tempo in which case you go to dummy and finesse.
When West has it, ruff a heart, return to A♣ and play trumps from the top.

Hopefully West will be unsure whether his partner has 4 or 6 hearts and will try to cash a diamond.

[Wackojack]

A pity that more N/B players weren't given the opportunity to have a go before the experienced players weighed in. As 1-eye said, hats off to West if he holds off playing the ♠K with Kx(x)when declarer plays the Q from his hand at trick 2. Thus provided clubs not 4-0, the contract makes when East has ♠K(xx) or West has a stiff♠K. If West has Kx or Kxx it is a test to see if he is good enough to hold off. Also east might just fail to hold off with Kxxx

At my table partner played in the straight forward contract of 6♣ making 13 tricks when east has ♠Kxx and so was not tested with this problem.

[monikrazy]

edit: deleted

[Fluffy]

40% of the field made only 11 tricks on this hand:

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And it was played on the club that is suposed to have the highest level of my country...

[eagles123]

what's the contract fluffy 6S or 6N?

[Fluffy]

4 spades for the most part, only 1 of the pairs in 6 spades went down.

[suleiman22]

Fluffy, on 2013-September-17, 05:57, said:

40% of the field made only 11 tricks on this hand:

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And it was played on the club that is suposed to have the highest level of my country...

Even as an elementary player, that seems like you have a cold 12 tricks. Was the opponent's distribution weird? Or am I missing something?

[1eyedjack]

suleiman22, on 2013-September-23, 15:20, said:

Even as an elementary player, that seems like you have a cold 12 tricks. Was the opponent's distribution weird? Or am I missing something?

I assume that by "cold" you exclude extreme breaks, such as a trick 1 or trick 2 ruff, or a 5-0 trump break. That said, declarer does have a choice of plays to make if going for a Diamond ruff: Do you guard against a 4-1 trump break by going for the Diamond ruff low? Or do you guard against an overruff in Diamonds by ruffing with the Spade King (but then lose to a 4-1 trump break)? Either way you can make it double dummy, but you cannot cater for both with one line of play, so you have to make a choice, and a novice may find that challenging. A novice also might not appreciate the dangers of cashing a single trump before going for a low diamond ruff if that is his chosen route.

[suleiman22]

1eyedjack, on 2013-September-24, 00:24, said:

I assume that by "cold" you exclude extreme breaks, such as a trick 1 or trick 2 ruff, or a 5-0 trump break. That said, declarer does have a choice of plays to make if going for a Diamond ruff: Do you guard against a 4-1 trump break by going for the Diamond ruff low? Or do you guard against an overruff in Diamonds by ruffing with the Spade King (but then lose to a 4-1 trump break)? Either way you can make it double dummy, but you cannot cater for both with one line of play, so you have to make a choice, and a novice may find that challenging. A novice also might not appreciate the dangers of cashing a single trump before going for a low diamond ruff if that is his chosen route.

With a 3-2 trump break about 68% likely, I would play as if opps held that. I would guard against an overruff in ♦ by using my king and bet on a 3-2 trump break. Thanks for the response!

[BillPatch]

suleiman22, on 2013-September-24, 05:28, said:

With a 3-2 trump break about 68% likely, I would play as if opps held that. I would guard against an overruff in ♦ by using my king and bet on a 3-2 trump break. Thanks for the response!

Wrong guess. The percentage play for the diamond ruff is to lead toward the Jx in dummy immediately. Unless W plays A, continue playing a high honor the next round of diamonds. The third round lead a low diamond for a ruff. If W fails to follow this round win by ruff or overruff. Otherwise, the percentage play is to ruff low, which wins when ♦ split 3-4 or 4-3(62 % a priori), and loses when diamonds split 5w-2e, 1/2 of 30.5%, loses 20%. Ruffing high loses when trumps split 4-1, 28%.

[Fluffy]

just for the record, everything was breaking fine, what a big part of the field did was draw trumps before tackiling diamonds