[FelicityR]

I was pleased with my play on this hand. The defence helped a bit. Doubling was silly (in my opinion) even though with correct defence we should go down (I believe). Rubber bridge. Game to E/W.

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West led the ♣3, East playing the ♣K, then continued with ♦A, me playing the ♦7 and West the ♦3 (discouraging). However, East (after another long hesitation) then continued with ♦4... Now make the contract. And, as always, thank you for your replies.

[Cyberyeti]

How do the trumps split ? Aids counting the hand

[FelicityR]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-August-04, 04:20, said:

How do the trumps split ? Aids counting the hand

West has one small trump, East two small ones

[Cyberyeti]

One more set of questions, what would 2♠ instead of 1 have meant in this auction ? and did 1♠ show 5 ?

[FelicityR]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-August-04, 07:20, said:

One more set of questions, what would 2♠ instead of 1 have meant in this auction ? and did 1♠ show 5 ?

1♠, I assume, showed 4+. 2♠ instead, I assume again, would have showed a strong hand. (We are playing rubber bridge, so specific partnership agreements are a little bit hazy here.)

[Cyberyeti]

FelicityR, on 2019-August-04, 09:32, said:

1♠, I assume, showed 4+. 2♠ instead, I assume again, would have showed a strong hand. (We are playing rubber bridge, so specific partnership agreements are a little bit hazy here.)

I'm trying to get a handle on the shapes, and if he only has 4 spades, he's presumably 4144 and would have doubled rather than bidding a spade, and if E had only one spade, he'd have switched to it, so it looks like W's 51(43) with the spade ace and probably Q to justify the double. Best chance barring a defensive error is that he's 5134 and I can get a spade away on the 4th diamond.

I can try for a defensive error or E holding ♠ Q10 if nothing else works at the end

[stian59]

Hi
If east has Q 10 of spades no problem but when east has Q x he must unbloc the Q under the s K, otherwise he will be forced to ruff and sluff

[heart76]

Play low now and finesse the 9. Has E hoped to give W a ruff or get one when W has the K and has played the wrong card? Anyway, discard a spade on the 4th diamond after playing hearts and ruffing the last club. Then play towards the spade K.
Btw, the X from W is out of the picture with his values and trumps and should probably be removed although I'm not a rule expert especially at rubber.

[FelicityR]

Here is the whole hand. West got nicely "duffed-up" as my regular male bridge partner sometimes says, not once, not twice, but thrice after I made the doubled contract. I concluded that the only reason East played ♦A followed by a small one was that he was looking for a ruff, and the two hesitations in the bidding suggested he had a long suit in ♣s.

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You win the ♦4 in dummy with the ♦Q, draw trumps, eliminate the ♣ suit and then lead towards the ♠K. West cannot put the ♠A on as he is then on lead and endplayed in 3 suits! Let's say he then puts the ♠9 and you win with the ♠K in dummy. Continue trumps and you reach the following end position.

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On leading the last trump from dummy West is squeezed, either needing to release a ♦ or a ♠. He releases a ♠ and then the final coup-de-grace thrown with the ♠A to lead a ♦ into my hand. I was really chuffed that I had managed to play this hand so well, BUT please advise me if you think this was an unrealistic line of play.

[Cyberyeti]

The strip squeeze is nice, but it would be embarrassing for you to exit with the spade and find W had a club and a diamond left and you lost the last 3 tricks with the diamonds 3-3 all the time.

And yes they could have defeated you trivially with a spade switch at trick 2.