[Phil]

All IMPs, short matches

1. 7, AQJT63, KT62, Q5

1♥ - (2♣) - pass - (2N)
pass - 3N - AP

lead?

2. 852, A98532, void, J643

1♦ - pass - 1♥ - pass
3♠ - (x) - ?

3.

[TWO4BRIDGE]

#2)..... 4H after that GF splinter.

[aguahombre]

#2..facing reg pard, I think 4H. She had other ways of showing 19 HCP in addition to the short spade, and another way to show a long solid diamond suit with heart slam interest.

#1...I never get these right....heart ace.

[BunnyGo]

#1 I agree with aguahombre...I never get these right either, Heart Queen.

#2 I'll pass. Might be too aggressive, but I like my six hearts to the A, probably ten (at least 9) card fit. Where can his points be? Worst case is KQJ of hearts, and he still has 13 points in diamonds and clubs. I'll at least try for more.

[aguahombre]

disregard....misread something...on #2, it is just a different partner Bunny has than mine, so I don't need to repeat. His reasoning is valid opposite his CHO.

[rduran1216]

heart Q is normal on board 1.

on board 2, if partner's points are outside the diamond suit, we'll make our 6 or 7 and apologize. Just bid 4H.

[han]

1. Heart queen.

2. We have to do something positive with 6 hearts to the ace. The heart length is really big on this hand. Pass seems perfect, shows some interest without having to make up a fake cue.

3. Very tough, I'd pass.

[whereagles]

Phil, on 2011-June-28, 19:49, said:

All IMPs, short matches

1. 7, AQJT63, KT62, Q5

1♥ - (2♣) - pass - (2N)
pass - 3N - AP

lead?

2. 852, A98532, void, J643

1♦ - pass - 1♥ - pass
3♠ - (x) - ?

1. Canonical heart. Anything else is a guess, i.e. makes you a hero or zero.

2. Pard can have a lot of wastage and slam will still be good. Don't think my methods will allow me to sort this out scientifically, so I'm going to just make the percentage bid and shoot at 6♥.

[Phil]

Thanks all.

1. I held this and thought a heart was best too at IMP, although at MPs I'd lead a diamond. But which heart? I considered the A, but my RHO wasn't creative enough to try it on a stiff K, and the auction's tempo said that wasn't the case. So the ♥Q is 'canonical' (in the words of Whereagles), but is it best?

Imagine declarer holding ♣Axx / Kxx or Ax / Kx (and both holding the T9) and ♥Kxx and hearts 2-2. Or, imagine dummy with both the AK and partner Jxx. These layouts seem plausible as well as relevant.

We lead the ♥Q and it goes duck all around. Now what? In either of the above cases, if we stay away from hearts, declarer ducks a club to our hand. If we clear hearts, declarer plays clubs to put partner on lead.

At the table, to a fanfare of trumpets, I tried a LOW heart. If partner can provide the 9, declarer can't duck and doesn't have the luxury of making an avoidance play into either hand. In many cases the 9 doesn't matter. Try it for yourself.

Nothing sets it, but the heart lead was the 10th trick.

2. Partner held this and just shot 6♥ which was premature. My thoughts echoed Han's where pass is encouraging and 4♥ is 'go away'. Over pass, we might make an inspired stop in 4♥. I had x KQTx AKQJxx Kx.

3. Agree with Han. Very tough hand and I don't agree with my action at the table.

[whereagles]

I bid a slam off two aces? Damn... really a long time since last one eheheh.

[JLOGIC]

Yeah obv pass over the double. If they had not doubled then hopefully you can bid 3N (this hand type illustrates why 3N is needed as artificial over 1D 1H 3S...you will often have slam interest with no club control or diamond control, and you really would like 4D to keep it's integrity as it's a cuebid in partners main suit which is often very useful to him).