BBO Discussion Forums: A Subtle Entree - BBO Discussion Forums

So I was at the EC in Croatia, and at the request of some people I wrote up a bunch of hands. Since I am back checking the forums I thought I would start putting some up, but obviously, you might already have seen the hands either on vugraph or because someone already put them up.

Hopefully you will find them interesting anyway.

First up was the very first hand of the championship. Play problem for Dennis Bilde.




The lead was the heart 8.

How will you play?

Going up to him and telling him he missplayed it was possibly not inspired, particularly since it was the wrong Bilde.

I didn't say that. We were drinking in a bar, and I said i thought i was a fascinating hand, and I was curious about his line. Me and Dennis had a long and friendly chat about this hand. Its still not clear to me what the best line is.

Did East have the ♦AQ? Did West have a diamond?

jogs, on 2014-July-22, 10:37, said:

You think East passed at his first turn with AQ109xxxx in diamonds?

I don't know what to make of the lead. West may have trusted N far more than he ought to have done, assuming that N wouldn't have used keycard with 2 fast diamond losers.

I expect West not to hold the diamond Ace...with that card, knowing that N used keycard, he'd be able to lay it down and then switch. He may have the Queen.

I think he is hoping that N has to ruff diamonds to get to 12 tricks and is therefore leading through dummy's hearts.

He may have the heart K, and be trying to talk us out of a hook, but the fact that he overrode the lead-directing double makes me somewhat doubtful that that is the case.

Do we have options?

We need to bring the clubs home and I am definitely not playing them to be 3=3 with the Q onside, so I have to plan on ruffing in dummy. I think I need a lot of luck.

While I have very little confidence, because there are a lot of options available, I win the heart, play a club to hand and play a second top club.

If the Queen has appeared, I ruff a club high, draw trump ending in hand and eventually lead a diamond to the J.

If the Queen hasn't appeared, I think that for entry reasons I need to table a diamond now...hoping the J forces the A.

The opps now have to lead trump or face the possibility that, if I can score a club ruff with the spade 8, I get a diamond, a heart, 2 clubs and 8 trumps.

If they do lead trump, I think I can win in dummy, high, and ruff a heart. I think I need trumps 3-2 and this caters to the heart K being doubleton.

If the K pops on my left, I ruff, ruff a club high. If the Q has appeared, I pull trump and claim. If not, I lead the heart Q, forcing a ruff, hopefully from the long trump. Then I ruff another club and cash dummy's last top trump. Now another heart, ruffed, pull the remaining trump, hopefully 1-1 and claim If the heart K doesn't pop, I need the clubs to come home with only 1 ruff.

I think that basically covers the layouts where I may be making, given that I am rejecting the tempting 1st round heart hook. And it is tempting....the hand is relatively easy if we can win the first trick in hand with the heart J.

Of course, the reluctance of any player to go down in slam at (in essence) trick 1 is the reason underleading the heart K is such a common tactic. As I wrote....I have little confidence in this line of mine.

since I need some sort of reasonable club distribution to make this I have to wonder why lho opted for a
heart lead vs a diamond---should I play them for xxx x Qxxxx Qxxx or xx Kxxx xxxx (Qx)xx? I have a feeling
the lead is from heart length to the K and trying to get me to make a decision on hearts before I gather
information so with little fan fare or even strong hope I duck trick one hopefully around to the jack and
hope for some other small miracles to make this thing === I should either quit overbidding or quit underplaying
and I wasn't even involved:)

phil_20686, on 2014-July-22, 07:52, said:

My guess is to run the opening lead to ♥J. The finesse is unlikely to win but that seems the best chance.
If you survive that, then you can cash ♣AK and ruff a ♣ with ♠K.
If an opponent has ♣Qx(x), you can sometimes draw trumps, before cashing ♥A.
If an opponent has ♣Qxxx then ♠AQ, ruff a ♣ with ♠J, ♥A, ruff a ♥.
It's close as to whether to try to cash ♥A early -- or to draw two rounds of trumps first.

Let me get this straight: East doubled for the lead but his pard led a heart instead? Did he think before making his lead?

whereagles, on 2014-July-23, 01:26, said:

You are playing against the Polish Open team in the first board of the european championships. I think we can assume that he considered his lead carefully.

mikeh, on 2014-July-22, 13:03, said:

If you play AK and ruff a club, west has Qxxx

So you said you then play a diamond, but even if you get the diamonds right you now lack the entries to set up clubs and draw trumps, so if they win the diamond ace and play a trump you only have 11 tricks? two top clubs, 7 spades, 1h 1d? Even if the k of hearts is coming, down they can afford to ruff the Q low. So I don't think your variation of playing a diamond after two top clubs is viable.

So there are a number of interesting things on this board:




(1) First - why didnt he lead a diamond? To my mind it was 100% that west held a diamond honour, and I thought tha with Qx I would happily have lead a low diamond, IF partner has the ace you are putting them to the guess at trick one. Also, if partner has the diamond K and a card - hardly impossible, you might need to create your diamond trick at this point. The only time you won't be thinking that is if you have the ace, and therefore can infer that lho has the diamond K. I think its reasonably clear from the auction that north doesn't have a singleton diamond. So I think you should infer that he has Ax, though obviously mikeh thought differently.

(2) It seems basically impossible given (1) that lho has the heart K for this lead. If he was a gambling man why not lead a low diamond and hope for the position that it in fact is.

(3) If you cannot bring in the clubs for 5 tricks then you have a real problem because your only entry to the clubs are in trumps. Suppose that you play AK of clubs and ruff a club high, if they are 3-3 your problems are over more or less, though you still have to guess the diamonds. If they are 4-2 though, you probably have to cash a top trump cross in trumps riuff another club high, ruff a heart, and then play two more rounds of trumps. Then when they win the diamonds they have a heart and a diamond to cash.

Thus your choices appear to be (1) play for clubs 3-3, or (2) take the heart finesse. at trick one, but there are actually two more possibilities.

If you play as above but the heart K comes down, then you can make on 4-2 clubs playing as in 3, as lho will be oddly squeezed when he has Ax of diamonds and 5 hearts. He either keeps Ax of diamonds, or he bares it an keeps a heart, and either way he must let dummy score a trick. The endposition is:


Alternatively, you can play to start ruffing hearts immediately. Suppose you win the heart ace and ruff a heart low and play AK of clubs and a diamond , now provided you guess the diamonds right you are nearly home if the hearts kxx offside. Suppose the the hearts are 5-2 as in the layout on the actual board. Suppose lho rises with the ace and plays a trump. I can win, ruff a heart, cross in diamonds, ruff a third heart, ruff a club with the 8 and claim, and win whenever lho has the spade 9x or 9xx

So really fascinating/tough hand

phil_20686, on 2014-July-24, 05:42, said:

West should be leading the ♦4 at trick 1. If West had held Qx of diamonds, he should lead the small diamond against slam.

After ahem successfully running the heart around to the jack at trick 1

trick 2 club A
trick 3 ruff club small
trick 4 trump to hand
trick 5 ruff club high
trick 6 top trump (win in dummy)
trick 7 heart A pitch dia
trick 8 ruff a heart
trick 9 pull last trump
trick 10 top club
trick 11 club
trick 12 club
trick 13 give up dia ace and avoid thanking lho for non diamond lead:)

the other advantage of taking the heart finesse is not wasting too much brain
power on what can be a very tough and totally non makeable hand.