BBO Discussion Forums: 3/7 JEC boards 16 and 27 - BBO Discussion Forums

10 lost on this. A heart lead defeats this which I was never going to do. I went for a trump lead after rejecting the A♦lead.




I want to curl up and die on this one. We get to the par contract and I fail to see that I must play partner for a heart void to defeat it. Cost us 20 imps

Wackojack, on 2015-March-08, 03:38, said:

Why wouldn't you lead a heart on the first one? They didn't bid 3N for a reason. And I'd never lead from J875 in trumps.

IMO, NS bid well to avoid 3N, although 5♣ might be safer than 4♠. GIB says that you need to find the ♥ lead to defeat 4♠. It's often unfair to criticise a particular lead because leads are so much a matter of judgement. Nevertheless, perhaps Cherdano's question is appropriate, here: "Why did neither opponent try notrumps?"IMO It might be safer to take out insurance in 7♣ but your decision to defend was right in theory. What did the double of 4♠ mean?? It's easy to be wise after the event but after Phil's 3♥ splinter and his play of ♦T on the ♦A lead, a ♥ switch is plausible.

Bridge is a kibitzers' game

On the 6♥ hand I had a series of interesting bidding decisions. 1. Pass vs 1♣ vs a preempt. 2. Splinter vs something like 4♦. 3. Pulling the double seemed clear.

Kudos to them for finding the 6♥ bid over 6♦.

nige1, on 2015-March-08, 09:59, said:

I was just thinking - I need a new signature! Thanks!

cherdano, on 2015-March-08, 06:14, said:

I am the first to admit that I am not good at opening leads. However this was my reasoning: Dummy's distribution is very likely 3154 with a better than a min opener. Declarer's distribution is not so easy to guess. 4324? 5314? OK North didnt bid 3N for a reason. Could it have been because declarer had 3 losing hearts? Maybe that is not a good enough reason to lead away from SJxxx. In any case although DD a heart lead defeats the contract I think that declarer would have to be psychic to finesse the 9 spades to make the contract.

I echo cherdano on board 16. You have a pretty good picture of your opponents' hands from the bidding - LHO is very likely 3=1=5=4 with a goodish hand, and RHO probably has about an 8 count with 4 clubs and 4+ spades. RHO surely does not have a double heart stopper unless he is 5=3=1=4, and if he does then his spades are weak since he is limited by his decision to only raise 2!c to 3!c. The opponents have a 4-4 !c fit, so declarer is going to have to pull some trumps if he wants to make use of that suit. And you have the !dA so declarer is going to have to let you in early if he wants to use that suit.

Leading a !h looks like a good way to attack dummy's trumps, which rate to be a chunky 3-bagger. From your point of view, this could give value to your !s87. I think I would lead the !hK to try to pin a stiff honor in dummy (although that honor might be the Ace ) but in any case I think a heart lead stands out. !dA rates to just help declarer establish dummy's suit, !c seems to be futile and might guess partner's !cQ, and !s seems like it is devaluing the !s87.

On board 27, I almost fell off my chair when you didn't play a !h at trick 2. The !d10 sure looked like a suit preference signal to me, and partner had already shown !d support and short hearts. So the trump shift was futile, since if partner has the stiff !hQ you have a !h trick coming whatever you do and if he has a smaller singleton, what hope do you have? Finally, you know partner has a spade, since otherwise he would have splintered in spades unless he was void in both majors (and then you wouldn't be defending). I realize playing 28 boards against good players is very tiring, but this one seemed like a clear error on your part.

Wackojack, on 2015-March-09, 06:58, said:

Sorry if my reply came over as a snark; here is a fuller explanation for why I would 100% lead a heart.
First of all a heart is pretty safe on this auction - if it wasn't, opponents would probably have bid 3N. In fact, it's clearly the safest suit to lead. Second, our best chance of beating this is if they are in a 4-3 fit - if they are in a 5-3 fit, opener's gamble of looking for a 5-3 spade fit paid off, and they probably have extras. A 4-3 fit is also quite likely.
Third, there is no reason to be afraid of two heart ruffs in dummy - if dummy has HHx, it obviously sets up two tricks for us; but also if he is Hxx it creates a lot of problems for him: blocking the trump suit, possibly setting minor suit ruffs if he uses them for communication, possibly setting up a 4th round heart loser if he can't time setting up side suits/pulling trumps the right way.

Moreover, if you don't attack hearts, the heart losers may also go away. In fact, look again at the actual deal: declarer doesn't have to be a genius to make the contract on a non-heart lead - he just sets up diamonds, pulls two rounds of trumps (assuming you knock out the ace of hearts), and starts running diamonds.

Phil, on 2015-March-08, 14:00, said:

Sort of off-topic but in those rare cases when you have two short suits with a loser in one and not in the other, you should splinter in the one where you have the loser. Whatever you do isn't going to describe your hand but you want partner to have the A to cover the loser and don't much care about the "fragment" without one. You might even get the chance to cue-bid the fragment later.

Wackojack, on 2015-March-09, 06:58, said:

Declarer can't make 4♠ on a ♥ lead even if he finesses the ♠9. That only gives him nine tricks and no way get a tenth as long as the defense leads more ♥ whenever it gets in the ♦.