[CSGibson]

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First of all, how do you bid these playing 2/1?

2nd, with the play as given (4th best leads, standard carding), how do you proceed? If it matters to you, LHO is unknown to you, described as competent, while RHO is very good (this is a pro-client pair).

[mgoetze]

Since 2♦ all but denies 4 spades, I think I would prefer to rebid 2NT with South just to keep the auction simpler and less ambiguous. Overall I think the bidding is fine.

At T1 my first thought is that playing the J from ♦JTx(x) is a rather nonobvious falsecard to make. so it might be reasonable to play LHO for ♦T and go for, say, 2♠ 2♥ 4♦ 4♣ by crossing to a high heart and taking a club hook. But this is an assessment that would be influenced heavily by table feeling, i.e. was the play fast and automatic or did RHO have or take a lot of time for his ♦J. I will leave further comment on the play to the actual experts.

[Codo]

I lkie the bidding till 3 ♥, I would like to invite to 6 NT with 4 NT and play it there.

For the play: I would cross in hearts and finesse in clubs.

[cherdano]

mgoetze, on 2013-January-06, 06:30, said:

At T1 my first thought is that playing the J from ♦JTx(x) is a rather nonobvious falsecard to make.

I think it's one of the most obvious falsecards, ever.

[gnasher]

I think RHO is very likely to have ♦10. It's unlikely that LHO would lead a diamond from a holding like 108xx, which could easily pick up East's queen. Furthermore, if he has done that, he's also led a non-systemic card.

I agree with playing a heart at trick two. If clubs are worth five tricks, they'll still be worth five tricks later in the play. If I cross to dummy and take a club finesse, then set up four tricks in the suit, against best defence I'll still need LHO to have both heart honours. (There might instead be a double squeeze with spades as the pivot, but they can play a spade back to break that up.)

If I run ♥9 and it loses, I'm still well placed. I can win the black-suit return and test the diamonds before deciding which round-suit finesse to take.

With the play as it went, after ♥9 wins I'll play another one. Suppose that's covered by an honour and won in dummy as RHO follows. If hearts are 3-3 it doesn't matter what I do now. If the both hearts and clubs are 4-2 with the club right, again it doesn't matter which suit I play next. If the club finesse is wrong, I still have the chance of clubs 3-3, so I now switch to clubs. I don't have any squeeze chances in this line, because they can play back a diamond to force me to cash my winners in the wrong order, but I can't see any way to cater for the squeezes as well as everything else.

[aguahombre]

mgoetze, on 2013-January-06, 06:30, said:

Since 2♦ all but denies 4 spades, I think I would prefer to rebid 2NT with South just to keep the auction simpler and less ambiguous.

Codo, on 2013-January-06, 07:21, said:

I would like to invite to 6 NT with 4 NT and play it there.

Combining just what I feel like combining from the snips of these two posts, we get to:

1H-2C
2D-2N
3N-4N

Simple, unambiguous as suggested by Michael. 2/1 framework as stipulated by the OP. Staying out of slam on non-fitting 31's as recommended by us old people.

[kayin801]

I would have the same auction as aguahombre except jump to 6NT.

I like gnasher's line. I think it would be a fun play from RHO to duck the first heart with (deleted hand including QJxx of hearts) if declarer "knows" we'd play the J from JTxx

Edit: Or some hand like that. The hand isn't exactly right but I feel like there's basically gotta be some hands where ducking a heart makes declarer decide what to do in diamonds before he tests clubs.

Further edit: Full hand was gibberish, ignore specifics please, wondering what would happen if RHO ducked the first round with QJxx of hearts

[Fluffy]

I would play a heart, the only question is if I advance ♣A or not, advancing it is bad if RHO has ♥Qxxx and plays a club through before I can test diamonds, but it is better if LHO has ♣Q stiff and diamonds don't break (LHO killing dummy's comunication playing another diamond). ♣A could be the key if LHO has 5♥ and stiff ♣Q, and also might change the play if ♣9 or 10 falls, so I am not sure. I think I would advance it.


IMO the bidding should be:

1♥-2♣
2♦-2NT
3NT

and now either East bids 4NT because of the missfit, or bids 5NT because he is full of bullets, bidding 6NT looks wrong since partner's first priority over 5NT would be to bid 6♣ on doubleton queen wich should be better due to heart ruff(s) in our hand. I don't think he should bid 6♣ with low doubleton, but maybe ♣10x (wich I don't mind)

[jogs]

aguahombre, on 2013-January-06, 11:05, said:

Combining just what I feel like combining from the snips of these two posts, we get to:

1H-2C
2D-2N
3N-4N

Simple, unambiguous as suggested by Michael. 2/1 framework as stipulated by the OP. Staying out of slam on non-fitting 31's as recommended by us old people.

Agree. Let the opponents play these low percentage slams.

[Free]

Pushing to slam with a misfit isn't a great idea. A quantitative 4NT is probably better.

I would run ♥9. I'm planning on finessing ♥ twice (protecting the ♦ communication in the process), see how much tricks it gives me, and decide later if I have to finesse ♣ or go for a (double?) squeeze. I just hope that West has at least one ♥ honor.