[Hanoi5]

!

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You receive the ♥A lead and an 8 from North. South continues with the ♥Q, North ♥2. A small heart to North's King is the beginning of the third trick. Take it from there.

This post has been edited by inquiry: 2012-April-25, 07:42
Reason for edit: modified so west was dealer to match the hands

[Antrax]

I think you switched the hands in the diagram.

[inquiry]

I corrected the problem antrax reported to make the bidding make more sense --- well at least to make the bidding consistent with the hand diagram and the first three tricks (south leads). The 3♣ bid doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, with five hcp opposite 18-19, so we have to assume this was vulnerable at imps and you were pushing to get to game. Turns out game has a reasonable chance (if you can pick up spades without a loser, you obviously have 10 tricks).

I am going to assume 3♣ was "natural" since no alert (rather than start of wolff signoff or some kind of checkback), this makes south's unusual opening lead (heart Ace from AQx -- and may have the jack and another small heart as well) more usual as this is the "unbid" suit.

You need to figure out some reason to play north or south for the spade queen. One influence would be you can pick up ♠Q9xx in north but not south -- suggesting to start with spade to the ace and hook on the way back. If we can place the heart jack in one hand or the other, it might influence our play. With KJxxx north would have probably overtaken the heart queen with the king in case it was a doubleton AQ. So north either doesn't have the heart jack or hearts are 4-4. So I can't see any evidence to play either opponent to being longer in hearts than the other. So I see no reason to play spades rather than in the normal manner.

You might find other reasons for the ♥AQ opening lead (it is obviously not a doubleton) but I can't think of any other meaning that would talk me out of the normal spade play.

[ArtK78]

inquiry, on 2012-April-25, 08:12, said:

I corrected the problem antrax reported to make the bidding make more sense --- well at least to make the bidding consistent with the hand diagram and the first three tricks (south leads). The 3♣ bid doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, with five hcp opposite 18-19, so we have to assume this was vulnerable at imps and you were pushing to get to game. Turns out game has a reasonable chance (if you can pick up spades without a loser, you obviously have 10 tricks).

I am going to assume 3♣ was "natural" since no alert (rather than start of wolff signoff or some kind of checkback), this makes south's unusual opening lead (heart Ace from AQx -- and may have the jack and another small heart as well) more usual as this is the "unbid" suit.

You need to figure out some reason to play north or south for the spade queen. One influence would be you can pick up ♠Q9xx in north but not south -- suggesting to start with spade to the ace and hook on the way back. If we can place the heart jack in one hand or the other, it might influence our play. With KJxxx north would have probably overtaken the heart queen with the king in case it was a doubleton AQ. So north either doesn't have the heart jack or hearts are 4-4. So I can't see any evidence to play either opponent to being longer in hearts than the other. So I see no reason to play spades rather than in the normal manner.

You might find other reasons for the ♥AQ opening lead (it is obviously not a doubleton) but I can't think of any other meaning that would talk me out of the normal spade play.

Can't argue with anything that Ben said. Hearts were led because they were the unbid suit. The lack of an overcall by North may indicate that South is leading from AQJxx, so that gives more room in the North hand for the Q of spades. I would play North for spade length, so play him for the Q.

[Antrax]

That's about as far as I got, too. The auction doesn't seem to call for a trump lead, so I don't think you can make the inference S has the queen. Because clubs were bid naturally a lead from Hxx(x) in clubs isn't attractive, so the "weird" lead from a AQ doesn't tell us enough about spades. I think.
Watching this thread to see what I missed.

[Phil]

Antrax, on 2012-April-25, 09:50, said:

That's about as far as I got, too. The auction doesn't seem to call for a trump lead, so I don't think you can make the inference S has the queen. Because clubs were bid naturally a lead from Hxx(x) in clubs isn't attractive, so the "weird" lead from a AQ doesn't tell us enough about spades. I think.
Watching this thread to see what I missed.

Furthermore, there's a very good chance dummy will have the ♥K, so a heart lead doesn't cost, even though its a holding one normally doesn't lead from. Therefore, the inference is soft at best.

On a different auction where declarer shows more points, there would be a strong inference that LHO has the ♠Q, and you might consider finessing the 'wrong' way.

[Hanoi5]

3♣ was checkback.

What is the normal manner to play the trumps? Small (8) to the Ace and the finesse back because you can do it twice?

Thx to Inquiry for changing the auction.

[rhm]

Hanoi5, on 2012-April-26, 04:37, said:

3♣ was checkback.

What is the normal manner to play the trumps? Small (8) to the Ace and the finesse back because you can do it twice?

Thx to Inquiry for changing the auction.

It makes a difference whether 3♣ was known to be artificial or not. If it was alerted there is reason to play South for the trump queen, but it depends how good a Bridge player you judge South to be.
In my experience few players past the beginner stage and below expert level like to lead from a broken sequence headed by the ace against a major suit game.
A very good player might find this lead, reasoning, when dummy is strong, that it is unlikely that the ♥K will crop up in declarer's hand after this auction.
He might be less inclined to risk such a lead if he held the queen of trumps.

So against an average player I would be inclined to finesse against South.
Against a strong player, there are tactical as well as technical reasons to play North for the queen.

Rainer Herrmann

[Hanoi5]

rhm, on 2012-April-26, 05:25, said:

A very good player might find this lead, reasoning, when dummy is strong, that it is unlikely that the ♥K will crop up in declarer's hand after this auction.
He might be less inclined to risk such a lead if he held the queen of trumps.

South is a VERY strong player. Trumps were 4-1 and he held 4 (even though he also held AQJxx!). I thought the lead would also be meant to make me ruff a heart (as it did) and shorten my trumps (besides the fact that the King was likely to be in dummy). But I didn't think of this at the table.

Can you extend on the reasons why it wouldn't be such a good lead when holding the Queen?

Is the 4-1 break 'suspectable' after this lead? Would you then play for 9xxx-Q, which is what they were (I just realized the contract is too hard to make if trumps are Qxxx-9)?

[rhm]

Hanoi5, on 2012-April-26, 05:39, said:

South is a VERY strong player. Trumps were 4-1 and he held 4 (even though he also held AQJxx!). I thought the lead would also be meant to make me ruff a heart (as it did) and shorten my trumps (besides the fact that the King was likely to be in dummy). But I didn't think of this at the table.

Can you extend on the reasons why it wouldn't be such a good lead when holding the Queen?

Is the 4-1 break 'suspectable' after this lead? Would you then play for 9xxx-Q, which is what they were (I just realized the contract is too hard to make if trumps are Qxxx-9)?

It is a question of the tempo.
South is known to have nothing in diamonds. From South perspective, the danger is that declarer may discard heart losers on the diamonds after trumps have been drawn.
This makes a heart lead more attractive for a thinking player.
If South has the ♠Q, he has hopes that he may a second chance to switch to hearts, when he gets his trump trick and the risky heart is lead is not as attractive as without the trump queen.
Also the more points South got the less the chance that partner has the ♥K.
Of course forcing declarer may be another motive, but I consider that secondary.
If you play North for the queen, there is only one way of playing the trumps and this picks up 9xxx-Q

Rainer Herrmann