[Phil]

The good guys prevailed this year. I'll post a few of the interesting hands (separate threads of course):

Long match:

♠Ax ♥T8742 ♦AQ3 ♣853. R/W

1♣ - (1♠) - 2♥ - (2♠);
3♥ - (4♠) - ?

Pass, double or bid?

Spoiler

If you pass as I did, partner doubles.

Either way, what is your opening lead?

[dkham]

Ace of trumps, then probably another trump.

[dkham]

Also I would have doubled.

[MrAce]

DBL

Lead a ♥

[quiddity]

I would pass. It seems to me that 2♥ was wide-ranging and so we need double here to show extra values and assert ownership of the hand.
The opponents probably have some heart honors and also possibly some shortness so a heart lead could easily set up a discard or two. I'll try a club.

[akhare]

X; lead A♠ and look at dummy to decide what to do next.

[kfay]

Pass? Partner opened and I've got pretty nice defense, IMO. In long matches I can't just let them go on thinking they can bid and not get whacked. I'd lead a club, maybe partner can get a diamond ruff.

[FrancesHinden]

Pass seems clear. The lead is harder, a trump is normal but I'm a bit worried about something like singleton SK in partner's hand. Maybe a low trump is right.

[rmnka447]

Pass, so partner can decide what to do. With a distributional hand, partner might decide to push on. Seems like the cards in this hand woud be useful if partner does.

Any rounded suit bid is a pure guess and, with red pockets, might be costly.

If we let the opponents play in ♠s, I'm leading ♠ A and probably another spade depending on what dummy looks like. Partner had an opener and this hand has 2 1/2 QTs including good cards in the unbid suit. So it looks like the opponent's tricks will come from ruffs rather than a running suit.

[Statto]

 rmnka447, on 2012-May-14, 17:04, said:

Pass, so partner can decide what to do.

Partner can still decide what to do after we X, they are not forced to pass. I double to suggest defending as I have 2 bullets and the lousiest ♥ suit imaginable. This feels like a forcing pass situation, but I'm not sure. I'm torn between ♠A or ♣5 lead.

[Phil]

I passed. Partner x'd. I led the ♠A and pickled partner's Q97, but it was still -1.

We weren't close to making 4♥ if anyone's curious.

[MrAce]

 Phil, on 2012-May-15, 18:52, said:

I passed. Partner x'd. I led the ♠A and pickled partner's Q97, but it was still -1.

We weren't close to making 4♥ if anyone's curious.

Thats exactly why i didn't lead ♠ A. similar fear of what Frances predicted. Each and every time i made this trump Ace lead in defense to see the dummy, it either costed a HUGE tempo in defense or made everything easy for declarer. So i gave up on this forum style trump Ace leads. Seriously, imo as a declarer opponents starting with the ace of your trumps as an opening lead is a huge advantage most of the time for various reasons.

About the bidding, it is close but i would not have started with 2♥ with this suit. I can bid 2/1 after an overcall with much less than this but with a good suit. Partner supports it agressiveley if he doesnt have stopper in their suit, with Kx or Qx. I would probably start with DBL instead of 2♥

[dwar0123]

I think you have to lead the A♠, sure it might cost a trick, but very unlikely it will allow it to make.

Not leading spades however, when you have all 3 of the other suits covered(in so far as partner bidding clubs count as having clubs covered) can really cost you. This isn't going to make without a pretty substantial cross ruff.

[han]

Why are some of you passing and letting partner decide? Don't we have excellent defense and terrible offense? I don't understand it. Frances, are you playing pass-double inversion or something that you won't double? Phil, why pass?

[cherdano]

 han, on 2012-May-16, 06:50, said:

Why are some of you passing and letting partner decide? Don't we have excellent defense and terrible offense? I don't understand it. Frances, are you playing pass-double inversion or something that you won't double? Phil, why pass?

The passers are probably treating pass as non-forcing.

[han]

Ah, that explains why they don't want to collect a nice penalty.

[jmc]

I wouldn't treat this as a forcing pass if my 2/1 here can be just a 10 count. I think generally to be a forcing pass we need to voluntarily bid game when red. What is the general consensus as to when to play a forcing pass? Would you consider this a forcing pass if you bid it with some random "good" player. Does partner's minimum for an opener factor in to whether its a forcing pass?

 cherdano, on 2012-May-16, 07:39, said:

The passers are probably treating pass as non-forcing.

[ggwhiz]

If the opps are to be believed, worst case scenario is that their secret weapon is diamonds and I think pard has only 2 trumps anyway.

I'm leading a club hoping that or a ♥ later gets to pard for a ♦ lead in time to collect whatever we can and maybe give him a ruff.

[FrancesHinden]

 han, on 2012-May-16, 08:20, said:

Ah, that explains why they don't want to collect a nice penalty.

I don't play pass as forcing here, and I don't double because it wouldn't surprise me that much if it were making. Perhaps I'm biased by what my regular partner thinks an opening bid looks like, but if 4S ends the auction with no-one doubling I'd expect it to be somewhere between one off and making, and I'd expect it to be a serious mistake to bid on.

[han]

OK, if your partner opens very light then I understand.