[billw55]

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IMPs, none vul, if that matters. Opening lead is the ♠J.

Thoughts? Plan?

[rmnka447]

As you count winners/losers and start to develop a plan of play, there's a good question to mentally ask yourself.

"Which hand is the master hand?" or "Which hand am I trying to set up?"

It's something my mentor impressed upon me eons ago to help me clarify my thinking about hands. It's also something I've passed along to newer players to help their planning process. Just thought I'd interject it here as a teaching moment to newer players looking at this hand.

[SteveMoe]

We count 5 top winners (3♠ and 2♣). Need to develop 4 more winners before they cash 5 tricks. A ♣ finesse might give us one more. If we can find the ♦J we can possibly add 3♦ tricks. (4 will be available with good breaks). That leaves the ♥ suit. The spots suggest ♥ are a possible weakness. Yes we could develop a trick by finessing the A and then the Q, but the risk of losing multiple tricks in the suit seems high.

Since we don't want LHO to lead a ♥ through dummy, we will lead a low♦ toward our Q10. Should we win the opening lead with the ♠Q? Ducking preserves an entry to dummy. There is only one sure entry as it is ♣A. Ducking also puts us in the wrong hand for leading ♦ (Leading low to the Kx gains when RHO holds the ♦A). If we find ♦ 4-2 the wrong way, we will only get 3 ♦ tricks and won't get the third without a dummy entry. We'll need one more from the round suits.

Win the ♠Q and lead small to the ♦K. If the ♦A wins, when next in your hand lead the ♦4 toward the ♦10. (If RHO wins the ♦A, pitch your blocking ♦K). If this finesse wins, cash the ♦Q. If it loses, you have the ♣AJ as the dummy entry for the remaining ♦ tricks. In fact, continue the avoidance play by finessing the ♣J.

If after all that we have only 8 tricks, we need to get one trick from ♥. Best to lead toward the ♥K from hand. If that loses, play RHO for the Q. If we find ourselves stuck in Dummy after the ♦ cash, consider leading the small ♥ toward the ♥J. Holding only the Q, RHO might not rise. Your J will force the Ace. If RHO plays the Q, a ♥ to the K promotes your J, if you can get to it by then.

[nige1]

billw55, on 2017-May-11, 06:45, said:

IMPs, none vul, if that matters. Opening lead is the ♠J.
Thoughts? Plan?

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I can't think how best to preserve communications to take advantage of all your chances. ♦s seem the most likely trick-source. Perhaps you should win the opening lead with ♠A. Then lead ♦K (and continue ♦s) hoping to drive out ♦A and ♦J. On a good day ♦J will be doubleton, making your task less hard. Not really a plan More of a kludge

[lamford]

nige1, on 2017-May-11, 17:48, said:

I can't think how best to preserve communications to take advantage of all your chances. ♦s seem the most likely trick-source. Perhaps you should win the opening lead with ♠A. Then lead ♦K (and continue ♦s) hoping to drive out ♦A and ♦J. On a good day ♦J will be doubleton, making your task less hard. Not really a plan More of a kludge

Better seems to be to win with the queen and play a diamond to the king, and then finesse the ten of diamonds later.

[nullve]

I hope to make 3♠+4♦+2♣ or 3♠+3♦+3♣, and by winning the lead in hand, as nige1 suggests, I make sure I can play 3 rounds of diamonds to establish the suit if necessary.

[Winstonm]

I win the spade in hand and lead the diamond K.

[billw55]

OK, I seem to have gotten all the replies I am going to.

This deal occurred in a local swiss. I was declarer. I went down, and I don't imagine that my play was very clever. But it was only a few days later that it occurred to me to duck trick one in both hands. Now it doesn't seem to matter which hand holds the long spades, or which entry the short hand holds. But this is with the benefit of double dummy hindsight. Is it a realistic play to find at the table? Or even a good play?

[MrAce]

billw55, on 2017-May-15, 13:37, said:

Is it a realistic play to find at the table? Or even a good play?

I do not think it is.

Look, you are in good shape if you keep your ♦ losers to one but let's assume you are losing 2 diamond tricks and if you duck an early spade trick that is way too many tricks for defense. It may be useful to hold on to 4th spade and play on diamonds. Even when u lose 2 diamonds there will be 5 diamonds and 3 rounds of spades played. Last 5 cards in north you hold Kx♥ and AJx ♣ and south holds 4th♠ Jx♥ and Kx♣. Someone will be discarding 2 times on 4th and 5th diamond and you will have a lot of reading. Then you decide whether to go for finesse or endplay. (this is assuming they keep on exiting with spades)

[Winstonm]

billw55, on 2017-May-15, 13:37, said:

OK, I seem to have gotten all the replies I am going to.

This deal occurred in a local swiss. I was declarer. I went down, and I don't imagine that my play was very clever. But it was only a few days later that it occurred to me to duck trick one in both hands. Now it doesn't seem to matter which hand holds the long spades, or which entry the short hand holds. But this is with the benefit of double dummy hindsight. Is it a realistic play to find at the table? Or even a good play?

I don't think it is a good play because it risks a heart shift, and your heart spots won't tolerate that.

[billw55]

MrAce, on 2017-May-15, 16:07, said:

I do not think it is.

Look, you are in good shape if you keep your ♦ losers to one but let's assume you are losing 2 diamond tricks and if you duck an early spade trick that is way too many tricks for defense.

OK, I see what you are saying. But in the play I lost two diamonds, and two spade tricks anyway. Whereas if I had ducked, I would gain a tempo when the opponent with a doubleton spade could not continue the suit.

Winstonm, on 2017-May-15, 19:36, said:

I don't think it is a good play because it risks a heart shift, and your heart spots won't tolerate that.

Yes, this is a risk. However, I bid hearts and Kx is in dummy, which might make it difficult for opponents to find this switch so early. Also with dummy down to the bare ♠Q, continuing the suit seems very appealing. And anyway, the heart position is one that I would prefer them to lead rather than myself, even if best of all is nobody leading it. Heck, if the suit breaks they might even set it up for me.

As the cards lay, I could have made it, but would have to lead up to the ♥K myself, which I was reluctant to do. Ducking trick one would fix this .. as the cards lay.

Not resulting is hard

[MrAce]

billw55, on 2017-May-16, 08:07, said:

OK, I see what you are saying. But in the play I lost two diamonds, and two spade tricks anyway. Whereas if I had ducked, I would gain a tempo when the opponent with a doubleton spade could not continue the suit.

I do not understand how would ducking the spade helps when you lose 2 diamonds (if you do not lose 2 diamonds not ducking the spade will work too)? Assume you ducked and they shifted to hearts allowing you to win with the K or J, now what? You already lost a spade trick + you will lose 2 diamond tricks + 2 heart tricks! Even if your club finesse is working and even if they can cash no more than 2 hearts you are in very bad shape.

And they do not need to switch to hearts very early. Assume they continued spades and saw your Q won. Now you test diamonds and when they win, the guy who can not continue spades can shift to hearts. You will go down when everything was fine, such as when club finesse is working and when they can not cash 2 quick heart tricks, you will go down just for ducking the first spade.