[Cyberyeti]

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W finds a nasty trump lead, how do you give yourself the best chance of making this contract ? E plays the ♠7 on the first trick.

Edit: hybrid pairs/teams scoring so opps will not want to concede an unnecessary overtrick

[dboxley]

Cyberyeti, on 2014-June-10, 02:18, said:

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W finds a nasty trump lead, how do you give yourself the best chance of making this contract ? E plays the ♠7 on the first trick.

Edit: hybrid pairs/teams scoring so opps will not want to concede an unnecessary overtrick

Lead your small ♣ at trick two to see if W will fly. If not, play the J. Hopefully either the trumps split or E had a stiff (W would hardly lead a singleton trump). If everything goes right you will get 6 spades, 1 diamond ruff in dummy, 2 hearts and a club for a below avg board but not a bottom. It's also possible you could get a heart/club squeeze against W (or a double squeeze if they misdefend, just play it out and see what develops).

Did W have a wire? Why didn't he lead a diamond? Maybe Axx or AJx, but still...

[Cyberyeti]

dboxley, on 2014-June-10, 06:16, said:

Did W have a wire? Why didn't he lead a diamond? Maybe Axx or AJx, but still...

I was west and I can confirm no wire, I just sensed a diamond shortage and not too many trumps on the deck. Both declarers did the same thing (they found the lead at the other table too) which I think is very sub optimal.

[eagles123]

Can I ask what a Wire is in bridge speak?

my only idea here is that if we can try and work out what E has before playing on clubs we might have a better chance. I.e. if he's got AKQxxx diamonds and QJx hearts say then he's possibly unlikely to have the A clubs whereas, if he only has KJxxxx diamonds then he's quite likely to have the A clubs. I don't know really

[helene_t]

eagles123, on 2014-June-10, 06:53, said:

Can I ask what a Wire is in bridge speak?

Aleged UI: "I can only explain that lead if he had a wire".

[eagles123]

Thanks

[billw55]

I will try:

Win trump lead, duck ♦, win trump return, ♥A, ♥K pitching ♦, ♥ ruff, ♦ ruff, ♥ pitching last ♦. As eagles says, maybe I will learn something useful about the high card distribution.

I assume there is something better, but I must be missing it.

[Cyberyeti]

billw55, on 2014-June-10, 07:09, said:

I will try:

Win trump lead, duck ♦, win trump return, ♥A, ♥K pitching ♦, ♥ ruff, ♦ ruff, ♥ pitching last ♦. As eagles says, maybe I will learn something useful about the high card distribution.

I assume there is something better, but I must be missing it.

This is what both declarers did, and went down when W won this, played another trump and ♣AQ were offside.

There are 2 lines better than this that I can see.

Spoiler

One is very simple, you cross in hearts and duck the diamond from dummy making it much less likely that W with Jxx or 10xx wins it (E might find this at pure teams, but would need balls of steel to do it at the hybrid scoring system, and might fly the A from AQJxxx or similar) and E may well not have a trump to lead.

The other is to recognise the power of the 6♣. Lead the 9♣ and run it if W plays low, if W covers, run the 7, the 6 plays if he covers that with the 8. Basically this requires W to have the ♣108 or Q (if the 9 loses to the 10, you play small to the J next)

[akwoo]

Lines involving a club lead are not so good if East starts with 3 spades. I know one is not supposed to lead a singleton trump, but are you playing at a high enough level that West knows this?

[Cyberyeti]

akwoo, on 2014-June-10, 11:19, said:

Lines involving a club lead are not so good if East starts with 3 spades. I know one is not supposed to lead a singleton trump, but are you playing at a high enough level that West knows this?

Yes, this event was the national final for the winners of the teams championships of each English county, the standard was a little variable, there were some very good players there, some weaker ones, but no beginners. I was on lead at one table, note that E played the highest missing spade at trick 1, so 3 spades seem unlikely.