[dbsboy]

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Holding this monster 5-6 hand, you opened 1♣. You are playing with a pickup partner. What is your bid?

I bid 5♥ since we did not have a lot of agreements. My partner bid 6♣, and all passed.




♠K was led, and dummy's hand was:

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How would you play the contract?

[twoshy]

I like your bid of 5♥.

I would take ♠A, ♦A to throw ♠, ruff ♠, ♣A and ♣Q, throw ♥ on ♦K, ruff to hand, claim 12 or 13 if ♣ were 32, else try to cash ♥AKQ and exit a ♥ with ♣KT left for last two tricks.

[ahydra]

What's wrong with 2D by North?

Anyway, what twoshy said.

ahydra

[gnasher]

South's bidding is fine. North's is a bit agricultural.

My basic plan is: throw a spade on a diamond; cash two top hearts, ruff the third heart low. If the third heart is overruffed, we're OK unless that was from a singleton trump, or they promote a trump on the way back.

If LHO ruffs the third heart in front of dummy with a middle trump, overruff and play a club to the ten. That works against any 4-1 trump break.

If someone ruffs the second heart, play to ruff one small heart, throw the other on a diamond, and not lose a trump. That will sometimes involve a trump guess.

[gszes]

spade A
heart to A
club to Q
dia A pitch spade
dia K pitch heart
heart toward hand and here is where play diverges

if rho follows play K and (if it holds) try to ruff
low heart if opps win this trick they have only 2
trump left and with any luck we win return draw trumps
and claim

if rho ruffs 2nd heart we follow small again opps
have only 2 trumps hopefully we win return pull
trumps and claim

if rho follows play K and if lho ruffs we now have
to hope lho started with only 2 trumps win return
and try to ruff low heart if that works win return
draw trumps and claim

if rho discards on 2nd heart we win then lead low
heart and ruff if/when rho ruffs opps have only 2
trumps left and with any luck we win the return
pull trumps and claim.

[dbsboy]

Thanks for all the responses.

I chose gszes's line, cashing 2 top ♦, ♣Q and ♥A and K first. However, ♥K was ruffed by LHO, and unfortunately LHO got 3 trumps so I went down. My partner asked how I went down when trumps were actually 3-2. I wonder if I should cash ♣Q first.

[gnasher]

Three lines have been suggested:
(1) Twoshy's trump reduction
(2) Lead top hearts from hand before touching trumps
(3) Heart to hand, club to dummy, heart towards hand

(3) gains over (2) when RHO has a singleton heart and (♣x or ♣xx or ♣Jxxx), or RHO has a doubleton heart and a singleton club.
(2) gains over (3) when LHO has a singleton heart and any 3- or 4-card club holding

I haven't checked this with Pavlicek's calculator, but (2) seems rather better than (3).

Twoshy's line is quite hard to compare with the other two, but it feels worse because it goes down whenever somebody has four clubs and two hearts.

[phil_20686]

gnasher, on 2012-February-26, 10:47, said:

Three lines have been suggested:
(1) Twoshy's trump reduction
(2) Lead top hearts from hand before touching trumps
(3) Heart to hand, club to dummy, heart towards hand

(3) gains over (2) when RHO has a singleton heart and (♣x or ♣xx or ♣Jxxx), or RHO has a doubleton heart and a singleton club.
(2) gains over (3) when LHO has a singleton heart and any 3- or 4-card club holding

I haven't checked this with Pavlicek's calculator, but (2) seems rather better than (3).

Twoshy's line is quite hard to compare with the other two, but it feels worse because it goes down whenever somebody has four clubs and two hearts.

I would just play ace of spades, Kd pitch spade, Q clubs, two top hearts and ruff a heart small. If this stands up then we are home, if over ruffed we are also home. Make as long as clubs no worse than 4-1 and hearts no worse than 4-2.

[gnasher]

phil_20686, on 2012-February-27, 11:37, said:

I would just play ace of spades, Kd pitch spade, Q clubs, two top hearts and ruff a heart small. If this stands up then we are home, if over ruffed we are also home. Make as long as clubs no worse than 4-1 and hearts no worse than 4-2.

That's the same as gszes's line (what I called line 3), except that you go down when RHO has a singleton heart and three trumps.