[rbforster]

How do you play the heart game by South? A normal auction would be strong NT stayman sequence, i.e. P-1N-2C-2H-3H-4H. Our methods were different but reached the same place with North opening a two-suited preempt, later showing 4=5 in hearts and clubs with a good hand in context.

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Spade lead seems most likely. How do you continue?

[ArtK78]

Win spade, lead a heart towards the Q. If the ♥K is on my left, I should be able to handle almost anything that happens after that. I expect to play A and another club, losing a heart, a club and possibly one for handling, especially if hearts are 4-1.

If the ♥Q loses, but the defense does not force dummy by returning a spade, I will play the ♥A. If both opps follow, I will then play A and another club.

If the ♥Q loses and dummy has been forced with a spade return, I cannot afford to play the ♥A. So I will run the ♣Q.

Depending on exactly what happens, this hand can become trivially easy, very complicated or totally hopeless. You will have to let me know where I stand after playing a ♥ towards the Q and the subsequent play outlined above before I can decide where to go from there.

[Hanoi5]

I wonder if there's a point where experts 'know' what to do in this kind of hands. I could try ruffing a spade and club finesse to see what they return if it loses. Heart to the queen inmediately, heart ace and heart to the queen also seem interesting. Maybe I'm just overwhelmed by the many possibilities.

[aguahombre]

Hanoi5, on 2011-September-21, 08:22, said:

I wonder if there's a point where experts 'know' what to do in this kind of hands. I could try ruffing a spade and club finesse to see what they return if it loses.

That is what I would do, too. So it must be inferior.

BTW, on the NT auction, rather than the gadget, I would at least know whether righty had weak opening bid values or not, which might alter the play decisions.

This post has been edited by aguahombre: 2011-September-21, 08:40

[rbforster]

Hanoi5, on 2011-September-21, 08:22, said:

I'm just overwhelmed by the many possibilities.

Yeah, I'm with you, which is why I posted it. It's not immediately obvious which hand you're trying to set up for example - diamond spots might be good enough that you could try to ruff South's spade losers and ignore the club suit. Setting up clubs is tempting too, although there's lots of handling concerns and the poor trump suit makes everything very uncertain at the start.