Two routine hands

[James Dow Allen]

Exotic hands are more fun, but I'm hoping for feedback on simple decisions. I am rusty.

(1) LHO opens One Diamond as dealer and partner doubles. With you and partner passing thereafter, the opponents' auction is 1D 1H 3D 3NT. What do you lead from 942 T842 K4 9862 ? How do you rank the choices? Which card may be interesting, but I'm more interested in which suit.

(2) Vul against non, the West hand is
AK6
KQ872
J832
6
and the East hand is
T53
J63
76
AQ853
With South dealing the auction is
2D * P 3C
P 3H 3S 4H
* P P P
What were the worst call(s) by West and East in this auction?

Thanks,
James

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

The auction looks weird, and I can't figure out who bid what. Please
explain which corner I am and who opened 1D.

--
Bertel, Denmark

[James Dow Allen]

On Monday, July 24, 2023 at 12:45:07 PM UTC+7, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:
> James Dow Allen wrote:
>
> > Exotic hands are more fun, but I'm hoping for feedback on simple decisions. I am rusty.
> >
> > (1) LHO opens One Diamond as dealer and partner doubles. With you and partner passing thereafter, the opponents' auction is 1D 1H 3D 3NT. What do you lead from 942 T842 K4 9862 ? How do you rank the choices? Which card may be interesting, but I'm more interested in which suit.

> The auction looks weird, and I can't figure out who bid what. Please
> explain which corner I am and who opened 1D.

West // North // East '// South (you)
1D // Double // 1H // Pass
3D // Pass // 3NT // Pass
Pass // Pass // Pass

What do you lead as South, holding 942 T842 K4 9862 ?

[Alan]

1) I would try S4. Partner has all of our points, and has more spades than anyone else at the table. Maybe they're good enough to set something up.

2) West should just overcall 2H. Double is a clear error; having made that error I can't really judge whether 3H is making it worse or trying to fix it. East's actions are fine, unless playing Lebensohl here, in which case I'd prefer 2NT.

[James Dow Allen]

Thank you Alan. I'm so rusty at bridge that I question my judgement.
You have vindicated me!

On (1) I also led a spade (is the choice between 9 top of nothing and 4 MUD mostly a matter of
partnership agreement?) That my very weak club suit is longer than my spade suit is a reason NOT to lead
clubs: with fewer clubs in the other hands, partner is more likely (at least the way I bid) to have 5 spades than 5 clubs.
In fact partner had 5 clubs and criticized my lead. (Club lead makes declarer's play much more
difficult but doesn't defeat 3NT.)

The very next hand, with this same partner, a BBO "expert", was

(2) I like to have 3+ cards in every unbid suit to make take-out double, but will settle for 2 if
double is appealing. But I will NOT double with an unbid singleton unless I have a huge power-house.
When partner takes out 3C to 3H I assumed he had much more than 13hcp and a mediocre-ish suit.
I pondered but thought I owed him the raise to 4.
Partner however, Removed me from the BBO game soon after my dummy appeared.

Thanks and cheers,
James