Play 6NT
Alan Malloy
J
Q62
AKJT82
QT5
AQT75
K984
Q6
AK
South North
1D
1S 2D
2H 3H
4N 5D
6N pass
The auction may not be your cup of tea, but you have to play 6NT on the
C6 lead. Opponents are playing standard leads and carding, and East
contributes the 9. What's your plan from here?
--
Cheers,
Alan (San Jose, California, USA)
patri...@gmail.com
A couple thoughts:
(1) I may want extra entries to dummy, so when I start diamonds, it's
probably best to lead the Q from hand and overtake if West follows
suit. Even if diamonds are 5-0, I can finesse the 8 later to pick the
suit up.
(2) As long as I start hearts by leading low from one hand or another,
I can make the contract if the right person has A or AJ or AT of
hearts. Although I might get fooled and lose to AJT of hearts while
the spade finesse was on all along. I'm inclined to start the hearts
from dummy, just so I don't have to commit myself to the spade finesse
right away (if I play a heart to the Q and A, East can play a spade
back to put me to an early decision).
But in practice, I'm not sure how to do any better than taking nine
tricks in the minors, one trick in hearts, and then hoping the spade
finesse wins. I can probably run ten or eleven winners before I take
the spade finesse if I'm careful, so I might get a reasonable count on
the hands, but I'm not sure how much it'll help me.
Travis Crump
> Favorable at IMPs:
>
> J
> Q62
> AKJT82
> QT5
>
> AQT75
> K984
> Q6
> AK
>
> South North
> 1D
> 1S 2D
> 2H 3H
> 4N 5D
> 6N pass
>
> The auction may not be your cup of tea, but you have to play 6NT on the
> C6 lead. Opponents are playing standard leads and carding, and East
> contributes the 9. What's your plan from here?
>
Heart to the Q immediately. If it loses hook the spade coming back. If
it wins, run tricks and attempt to guess the 3-card ending assuming West
has the HA; if East has it he's too good for me but this may not even
help him.
Travis
OldPalooka
First, note that you can safely lead the DQ to the Ace if west
follows. If there was advantage to playing the first heart toward the
King that would be a nice touch. Well, if West holds a small
singleton heart and the SK you can make it double cat with that
start. But back in Kansas, Toto, it seems right to play a heart to
the Q, and if it holds you just might be able to read well enough to
play a second heart instead of taking the spade finesse late in the
hand. If East is just good enough to duck the heart ace and you
figure it out, you could win 30 or 40 IMPs on a single board.
-- Bill Shutts
Joachim Parsch
>
> Favorable at IMPs:
>
> J
> Q62
> AKJT82
> QT5
>
> AQT75
> K984
> Q6
> AK
>
> South North
> 1D
> 1S 2D
> 2H 3H
> 4N 5D
> 6N pass
>
> The auction may not be your cup of tea, but you have to play 6NT on the
> C6 lead. Opponents are playing standard leads and carding, and East
> contributes the 9. What's your plan from here?
Just to bring something different into perspective: try to fool West,
if the spade finesse loses. Win the Club Ace - maybe W thinks, that E
has KJ9? BTW, one should play the Ten of clubs from dummy, hoping
that East plays the Jack now, then this line may even be the best one.
Now play a diamond to the ace (a low one, giv eup on the 5-0 break
and keep them in the dark about the Queen). Let the Jack of spades
run. If it wins, play a heart to the king, no matter, if it's taken
or not, the entries for all your 12 tricks are there. If it loses,
West has to find the heart return, if he doesn't have the Ace, otherwise
you're home with 6 diamonds, 3 Clubs and 3 spades (ok, if he returns
a diamonds you'll need spades 43 because the Club queen is dead now).
Joachim
LowerLine
First heart to queen, then spade finesse. As far as I can see it will
get interesting only if East wins with the HA and does not switch to a
spade... Then you cash the HK and all your minor suit winners. On the
last winner there might be a spade/heart squeeze against either
opponent. Position in North S J; H 6; D8 and position in South S AQ; H
9. If East has the SK, he is squeezed when he has JT in hearts. If
West has the SK, he is squeezed if he has 4 hearts or exactly JT7.
Steven
OldPalooka
Even if you play the club 10 covered and Ace at trick one, it will not
fool many who actually play the game. First, who jumps to 6NT with Ax
in the unbid suit and broken spades before that diamond suit is spread
in the dummy? Second, and more telling, why will West not stop to
count tricks and conclude that with six diamonds, 3 hearts, and two
black aces on top, you would not be taking an early finesse in spades.
-- Bill Shutts
Ville Likitalo
> Favorable at IMPs:
> J
> Q62
> AKJT82
> QT5
> AQT75
> K984
> Q6
> AK
> The auction may not be your cup of tea, but you have to play 6NT on the
> C6 lead. Opponents are playing standard leads and carding, and East
> contributes the 9. What's your plan from here?
I'd consider winning with ace, playing a diamond queen overtaking
in dummy and then a heart to the king. Now:
a) East cannot win to shoot a spade through.
b) West cannot win and play a spade.
Suppose West takes the king over, I'll unblock clubs and cash
all winners to play an automatic simple squeeze against 4 hearts
and the king of spades in the same hand. The threat in hearts
is now in dummy and spades provide the longer threat and entry.
The best for defence is to duck the heart. Then I will have to
unblock clubs and cash all diamonds following the discards
closely. The aim is to throw West in with a heart, take a spade
finesse in the end, or raise an extra trick in hearts. I will
need one extra heart in hand and could well become squeezed in
the process...
Against straightforward heart to dummy and finesse I don't have
to succumb immediately when East wins and will have a squeeze
position intact if West wins. And finally I will be no worse off
than a possible additional undertrick when defenders duck the
heart.
If West shows out on diamonds the queen wins and I'll continue
with a heart to dummy and a (anti-percentage) finesse in spades,
if East shows out the finesse marked and a finesse becomes more
attractive.
--
"Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, it has
a dark side - and it binds the universe together."
David W.
I'd first want to know the skill level of my opponents. The lead is
kinda fishy. The 6? From what? Surely not from the jack against a
slam [i.e. J-8-7-6(-x-x)]. It is likely a top (or second best) of
nothing such as 8-6-4-2 (but probably not 6-4-2 as East may have then
played low from J-9-8-7-3). So I would play clubs to be 4-4.
Win the club, cross to a diamond and lead a heart to the king.
1. The King loses to the Ace and West returns a
a. heart. I would not play West for AJx, AJxx, ATx, or ATxx in hearts
as a heart return in any of those cases could be fatal. I would
instead play West to have Ax or Axx in hearts and would play to
squeeze East in the majors.
b. a diamond or a club. I would probably play to squeeze West in the
majors in the absence of overwhelming evidence to the contrary (such
as East showing up with nine or ten cards in the majors). I would run
winners and try to get a partial count then play for the King of
spades to be in the hand with the most empty spaces.
2. The King Wins. There are two options: Ax with East or or a simple
finesse in spades. (A squeeze without the count will really only
operate against West and would require that they duck their heart. It
is unlikely they would do that if also holding the spade king
especially since they can see that they will have to stiff the king to
defeat the contract, which is why I would want to know the skill level
of the opponents.) So if the heart king is ducked, I would still run
all my winners and take the spade finesse in the end unless all the
hearts lower than the ace are pitched.
Cheers,
David W.
Charles Brenner
Fair point, though one could ask how much different is it to jump to
6NT with the actual 18 count versus with the hypothetical 19 count
including better hearts but only A of clubs. By the way, why Ax? Maybe
the defender will visualize AQ10xx, AKx, Qx, Axx.
> Second, and more telling, why will West not stop to
> count tricks and conclude that with six diamonds, 3 hearts, and two
> black aces on top, you would not be taking an early finesse in spades.
In reality we have 6 diamonds, 3 clubs, and two sure major suit
tricks, which sounds pretty similar. I'm not saying the defender has a
blind guess, but there must be more to the reasoning than the mere
accounting of tricks that you mention.
Charles
OldPalooka
If responder holds AKxx of hearts (he did bid them but contra did not
pursue them) and only the A of clubs, the bidding and play do not add
up. I suppose he could hold only three hearts and the situation would
be similar, but 6NT instead of 6D is not a likely IMPs strategy. I
suppose what this really points up is that Smith is probably better
against slam than game.
barryrigal
I'm not sure if I've missed something technical but surely as a matter
of psychology you should play the club 10 from dummy at trick one?
Say West has Kxxx/Jxx/xxx/76x.
The club goes 10JA.
Declarer overtakes the DQ and runs the SJ. If West ducks, it is
curtains, so he overtakes and now.... does he play partner for HA or
CK?
Barry
Eric Leong
>
> - Show quoted text -
It depends on the diamond spot you play when you follow.
Diamond count can't be valuable information.
Further, declarer is clearly overtaking the queen to take a finesse.
Also, partner is going to need to know what card to return when he
gets in.
Consequently, what you follow to in diamonds should suggest suit
preference.
Eric Leong
barryrigal
>
> - Show quoted text -
Hmm. The fact that the defenders may have Smith or the like available
to counteract your play doesn't prevent your play being best does it?
And once in a while East's eg 53 doubleton wont be so easy to read
when you have Q8 and lead the queen to the king?
henry...@yahoo.com
And West knows that East can exercise choice (i.e., that East does not
have a singleton diamond) how?
Henrysun909
henry...@yahoo.com
This hand bothers me.
I will follow the path of least resistance and win the club in hand
and then lead a low heart to the queen. If it loses to the ace, I am
forced to rely on the spade finesse. If it wins, I have the
additional option of squeezing West without the count if he also has
the king of spades. No doubt, West will come down to a spade (king or
small), the ace of hearts, and a winning club in the end and I will
have to guess whether to play for the throw in or a simple finesse.
Henrysun909
Joachim Parsch
>
> On Nov 20, 11:34 am, Ville Likitalo <l...@hutcs.cs.hut.fi> wrote:
> > Alan Malloy <alan.NO.S...@malloys.org> wrote:
> >
> > > Favorable at IMPs:
> >
> > > J
> > > Q62
> > > AKJT82
> > > QT5
> >
> > > AQT75
> > > K984
> > > Q6
> > > AK
>
> of psychology you should play the club 10 from dummy at trick one?
> Say West has Kxxx/Jxx/xxx/76x.
> The club goes 10JA.
> Declarer overtakes the DQ and runs the SJ. If West ducks, it is
> curtains, so he overtakes and now.... does he play partner for HA or
> CK?
That's more or less the line that I suggested and I think it's
better than playing a heart (you'll almost always need the spade
finesse anyway, and in that case it's surely better to play
spades at once).
But I recommended playing the 6 of diamonds to the Ace instead of the
Q. This loses to 50 diamonds with W, of course, but it may make
it more difficult for West to read a signal from East.
Joachim
Eric Leong
>
> - Show quoted text -
Also, if count in the spade suit is irrelevant to the defense, the
spade spot which partner follows to should suggest suit preference.
If RHO follows with D 5 and S9 or D 5 and S2 the defense should be
clear. If RHO follows with D 5 and say S 4 when S 3 and S 2 are
missing the chances that he is does not have the D3 and the S 3 and
the S2 is small. Still playing the C 10 at trick one could work when
the spots cards in both diamonds and spades are ambiguous. However,
the chances of confusing LHO is not quite as great as one originally
think.
Eric Leong
OldPalooka
If I thought a player of your caliber would get this wrong more than
once or twice a decade, and only then when his client wined and dined
him between sessions, I would buy it.
Playing hearts will find the favorable singleton ace about as often.
And although you will not gain often, if a heart to the Q holds,
against all but the very best you can make an informed guess in the
endgame when West is short in the minors.
I agree with Eric, it is East's spade 8 that will sink this slam,
probably not his diamond spot.
-- Bill Shutts
rich
Agreeing with Eric again Mr. Shutts? Must be something in the
California air.
I think you both are too much into situational blackboard thinking.
You need to try to put yourself at the table. The key to Barry's
proposed line is to put up the ten of clubs and ONLY if rho plays the
Jack of clubs do you try the spade finnesse first. This has a 50%
chance of success PLUS the % of all the people you fooled. To think
that LHO is going to automatically return the heart to his partners
Ace because of some spot card is fantasyland. In the real world
players often have problems getting it right... even the very best.
J
Q62
AKJT82
QT5
K843
J75
54
8642
Rich Regan
OldPalooka
Partner's spade, the bidding (not just leaping to 6NT on a sucker club
holding, what was that heart stuff all about?), the electricity of the
opening lead (and in the real world, not only AI, often some
unconscious black magic at work, i.e., the George S. Kaufman
convention not detected), declarer's improbable guess that one would
attack from a jack on this bidding, the fact that if declarer has 4
hearts to the AK he made a GawdAwful play. That is why I expect Barry
to almost never get it wrong against a declarer he respects - ok, a
new condition added.
I am biased because I had a knack when playing for cash for failing
when I tried for decent swindles on deals where forlorn technical
chances would have succeeded (could be a knack for selective memory).
Yes, it tends to warp the psyche and causes one to love the Camp
Pendleton air more than the Camp Lejeune air, particularly in the
first twelve months of the year.
But hey, I can see you are making rapid RGB improvement. One good
example sent Eric to the sidelines.
-- Bill