[kgr]

Club tournament, MP's
Not a strong field, but having a very bad session.

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Partner showed a S-preempt, with ♠AKQ and a singleton ♦.
5, 6 or 7?

[manudude03]

If I need a swing, I'll give 7S a shot, requiring diamonds 3-3 on a heart lead (unless partner is brave enough to finesse at trick 1...), an extra chance of a heart finesse on a club lead, and on a different lead, I need either diamonds 4-2 (or better) or the finesse. In more normal circumstances I'll settle for 6S though, which should be close to cold.

[gszes]

your methods have allowed you to find a singleton dia--the rest of the field
probably has no such mechanism and they will probably bid 7s since
running dia has a high degree of probability on a random basis. We know
6s is a much better contract than 7s so we should avoid the grand. The next
question is should we stop in 5s due to the state of the match???

I think no mainly because 6s is a pretty heavy favorite and lots of players
that don't like to ever bid a grand will stop in 6 and there is no sense in
scoring less than them. Take advantage of other systems knowledge when you
can so you can estimate how others will bid and then decide the best course
of action. This means the more systems you know the better your estimates.

[ArtK78]

Does 4♦ show SPECIFICALLY a diamond singleton or could it be a void?

I am going to settle for 6♠. Even if partner has a (non-Q) diamond, making all 13 tricks is anti-percentage. Making 12 tricks, on the other hand, is certainly a good bet.

[billw55]

I am on sort of a stupid streak, but this looks like a 5 or 7 hand to me. What layout is making specifically 6? (I am assuming the lead is always a round suit)

edit: ok, if diamonds are 33, a heart is led, and you take the hook and lose, you make 12 tricks. That's pretty specific.

[ArtK78]

billw55, on 2013-April-03, 12:17, said:

I am on sort of a stupid streak, but this looks like a 5 or 7 hand to me. What layout is making specifically 6? (I am assuming the lead is always a round suit)

edit: ok, if diamonds are 33, a heart is led, and you take the hook and lose, you make 12 tricks. That's pretty specific.

The heart finesse works, but diamonds are 5-1 or spades are 4-0.

If the heart finesse works and diamonds are 5-1, you may still have a chance of making 7 by ruffing a heart in dummy.

[kgr]

ArtK78, on 2013-April-03, 11:20, said:

Does 4♦ show SPECIFICALLY a diamond singleton or could it be a void?

shortage, can be a void

[kgr]

I did bid 7 and that was no success.
Partner had ♠AKQxxx ♥xxx ♦J ♣xxx
A club lead by East, East had a 4c♦ and West had ♥K.
I was thinking that 6 could be down if 7 can't make, but thinking more: this is less important at MPs, -100 is still better than -200 (or -300)

[wyman]

In a bad club field, I'd expect 6S to be the most common contract. I'm not saying they are in the wrong spot, but IME club fields never bid grands (unless there are 13 obvious tricks, and even then...), and this kind of hand (slam values, all KC + SQ) looks like one they'll bid. If I need a swing, I'm bidding anything but 6S, and it's not common that 6N>7S here, so I'd probably bid 7 but I can see passing 5 and playing for everything to be wrong. If I had another board(s) against them, I'd do that, since if 5 is right, they are going to be incredibly tilted next hand.

[ArtK78]

kgr, on 2013-April-03, 15:27, said:

I did bid 7 and that was no success.
Partner had ♠AKQxxx ♥xxx ♦J ♣xxx
A club lead by East, East had a 4c♦ and West had ♥K.
I was thinking that 6 could be down if 7 can't make, but thinking more: this is less important at MPs, -100 is still better than -200 (or -300)

When the comment was made that this was probably a 5 or 7 hand, I recalled that I read somewhere that at matchpoints there is a lot to be said for being in 6 on such a hand. If it makes 7, you probably are getting a fair score, but if it makes only 5 you do better than those who gambled 7.

[han]

Partner opened 3S on a six-card suit, red against white.