[andrei]

IMP's

---

1: A♦ - K♦ - 5♦ - 2♦
2: 3♥ ...

B/I: how would you play the hand?

A/E: the bidding isn't gonna be nominated for any award, what would you do differently?

[pooltuna]

Well off the top of my head...

Spoiler

A♥; KJ♠; AK♣, x♠; A ♠ pitching Q♣

[chasetb]

The first thing that came to my mind is to play it like pooltuna would (which most B/I would probably miss).

As for the bidding, it looks normal. 5NT would be best, saying "I have 3-card ♠ support, as well as a few ♣". After all, how often do we want to be in 5NT, especially when we know they have a 10+ card fit? However, I expect most B/I would pass me if I bid 5NT, so I would hope partner has 5+ ♠.

[ggwhiz]

Spoiler

A♥; K♠ to the A♠; ♦ ruff with the J: A♣" ♠ to the 8; Q then 10 ♠ pitching K and Q♣

How about the hotdog newspaper column line.

[ArtK78]

chasetb, on 2011-September-28, 11:57, said:

The first thing that came to my mind is to play it like pooltuna would (which most B/I would probably miss).

As for the bidding, it looks normal. 5NT would be best, saying "I have 3-card ♠ support, as well as a few ♣". After all, how often do we want to be in 5NT, especially when we know they have a 10+ card fit? However, I expect most B/I would pass me if I bid 5NT, so I would hope partner has 5+ ♠.

The play is fine.

Why would you bid over 5♠? Do you know that partner has the ♠A and that the six-level is safe? Partner could easily have this hand:

QT9xx
---
xx
Jxxxxx

This is not an automatic 5♠ (or 6♣) bid over 5♦. But 5♠ is cold and your 5NT bid turns a nice plus into a minus.

Even if partner does only have 4 spades, the 5 level could easily be high enough.

I also don't see that your proposed meaning for 5NT is clear.

[vuroth]

Nice ggwhiz. I missed that line.

Not really sure what pooltuna is trying to accomplish - isn't 3-3 split more likely than a useful 4-2?

[ggwhiz]

vuroth, on 2011-September-28, 14:46, said:

Not really sure what pooltuna is trying to accomplish - isn't 3-3 split more likely than a useful 4-2?

Just realized, this handles 3-3 or 2-4 splits as long as the 9♠ is in the pocket.

[Fluffy]

ggwhiz, on 2011-September-28, 15:20, said:

Just realized, this handles 3-3 or 2-4 splits as long as the 9♠ is in the pocket.

what?

Anyway, well done ggwhiz, I never saw a hand where we had to tap dummy in order to discard something from there on trumps, closest I was to this was simply to pull 1 extra round of trump to disard a club from AQJ10982, after pitching the 2 I was able to play to the ace and ask for a low one RHO not covering.

[andrei]

ggwhiz, on 2011-September-28, 15:20, said:

Just realized, this handles 3-3 or 2-4 splits as long as the 9♠ is in the pocket.

isn't playing spades from the top better than finessing the 9?

finesse wins 9xxx onside
from the top wins 9x and 9xx offside

[rogerclee]

I didn't think this was a B/I problem, but I will post my thinking on the hand. Assume spades break no worse than 4-2, since we will need that. First, pooltuna/chasetb/ArtK78's line is clearly wrong, the two lines worth considering are

1) Overtake a spade, ruff a diamond high, and hook the 8 (ggwhiz's)
2) Overtake a spade, ruff a diamond high, and bang down the other two high spades

1 wins on half the 3-3 splits and 2/3 of the 2-4 splits, and 1/3 of the 4-2 splits (9x in RHO's hand)
2 wins on all the 3-3 splits and 1/3 of the 4-2 splits (9x in either hand)

Which is more likely? This is not obvious. West should not have 4 spades, but could. West should have 6 diamonds, but might not. Would west shift to a singleton club if he had one? Maybe not, but it's human to do so, and RHO's bidding is insane unless he has a singleton club or five diamonds, so I am inclined to put him on club shortness. If LHO has 2 clubs and 5 diamonds, then he's 3352 or (42)52, and I wouldn't open a weak two in diamonds with either of these shapes, so put him on 6 diamonds. If all this holds, he's (32)62 and RHO is either 3541 or 4441. Would LHO play a high heart from a doubleton? I don't think there's any real inference.

If it was known that LHO was either 3262 or 2362, then line 2 would be 8:7 better than line 1.

If you think LHO can have a singleton club (I do), then line 2 is way better than line 1, since if LHO has a stiff club he is probably 3361.

The thing to take away from this is that it's important to not say "LHO preempted, so he probably has short spades" and let your thinking stop there. Figure out what the opponents' possible/likely shapes are before you jump to any conclusions.

[pooltuna]

rogerclee, on 2011-September-28, 19:31, said:

I didn't think this was a B/I problem, but I will post my thinking on the hand. Assume spades break no worse than 4-2, since we will need that. First, pooltuna/chasetb/ArtK78's line is clearly wrong, the two lines worth considering are

1) Overtake a spade, ruff a diamond high, and hook the 8 (ggwhiz's)
2) Overtake a spade, ruff a diamond high, and bang down the other two high spades

1 wins on half the 3-3 splits and 2/3 of the 2-4 splits, and 1/3 of the 4-2 splits (9x in RHO's hand)
2 wins on all the 3-3 splits and 1/3 of the 4-2 splits (9x in either hand)

Which is more likely? This is not obvious. West should not have 4 spades, but could. West should have 6 diamonds, but might not. Would west shift to a singleton club if he had one? Maybe not, but it's human to do so, and RHO's bidding is insane unless he has a singleton club or five diamonds, so I am inclined to put him on club shortness. If LHO has 2 clubs and 5 diamonds, then he's 3352 or (42)52, and I wouldn't open a weak two in diamonds with either of these shapes, so put him on 6 diamonds. If all this holds, he's (32)62 and RHO is either 3541 or 4441. Would LHO play a high heart from a doubleton? I don't think there's any real inference.

If it was known that LHO was either 3262 or 2362, then line 2 would be 8:7 better than line 1.

If you think LHO can have a singleton club (I do), then line 2 is way better than line 1, since if LHO has a stiff club he is probably 3361.

The thing to take away from this is that it's important to not say "LHO preempted, so he probably has short spades" and let your thinking stop there. Figure out what the opponents' possible/likely shapes are before you jump to any conclusions.

I assume you are doing all this work so you can pitch 2 blocking clubs from dummy. Based on that line of play the T of clubs becomes a relevant card and unless it is singleton you need 22 clubs. So possibly a combination of plans is best. Test for singleton T of clubs; not then presume 22 clubs?

[Phil]

pooltuna, on 2011-September-29, 09:02, said:

I assume you are doing all this work so you can pitch 2 blocking clubs from dummy. Based on that line of play the T of clubs becomes a relevant card and unless it is singleton you need 22 clubs. So possibly a combination of plans is best. Test for singleton T of clubs; not then presume 22 clubs?

Clubs cannot be 2-2. We have 7, dummy has 3.

[pooltuna]

Phil, on 2011-September-29, 09:07, said:

Clubs cannot be 2-2. We have 7, dummy has 3.

aha the penalty for not getting new glasses