[el mister]

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Random BBO IMPS game, no special agreements, you arrive in a shaky 5♠X. [Comments welcome on how best to find the superior 5H contract]

Lead is 4♦ - how are you tackling this one?

[Fluffy]

I think ♦A and heart are obvious start. We need to tap West before he taps dummy.

As a side note: don't you hate it when a player psyches a 2♣ opener preempting you out of your best contract?, that is why 2♣ opener psyches are forbidden in some countries.

[ahydra]

Fluffy, on 2015-February-02, 05:24, said:

I think ♦A and heart are obvious start. We need to tap West before he taps dummy.

As a side note: don't you hate it when a player psyches a 2♣ opener preempting you out of your best contract?, that is why 2♣ opener psyches are forbidden in some countries.

There are people in clubs all over the world who think ♦KQJ10xxxx and a side ace constitute a 2C opener as it's "eight playing tricks". Suspect that's what's happened here. (I'm ashamed to admit my regular partner once opened such a bid with ♦AKQJxxxx and out. Thankfully, he has since changed his ways!)

I agree with your line, but must admit, the hearts being blocked make this awkward. Let's hope hearts are 2-2.

ahydra

[el mister]

East wins A♥ and plays back a top diamond.

[Fluffy]

I don't see any gain from discarding the ♥Q on second diamond so I will ruff, question is if I ruff high or low, if our goal is to make the contract we must ruff high as we can't make with spades 5-0.

[el mister]

Fluffy, on 2015-February-02, 07:05, said:

I don't see any gain from discarding the ♥Q on second diamond so I will ruff, question is if I ruff high or low, if our goal is to make the contract we must ruff high as we can't make with spades 5-0.

Is it obvious here that you need to ruff high in hand, to preserve a ruffing value in dummy with the club void? I believe this is the error pard made, and got a subsequent walloping.

The winning line is to play for spades 4-1, drawing one round of trumps with the AS, cash top heart, second round of trumps crossing to the JS, third round of trumps with KS and you're home. W can ruff one of your heart winners but has no exit card due to your club ruff on table.

This would be quite an intricate play by my standards, so I wondered if this was the sort of hand strong players would expect to get right.

Declarer's 2C opener was ♠8 ♥A ♦KQJT87653 ♣AQ. Would that be out of line in the EBU?

[rhm]

Fluffy, on 2015-February-02, 05:24, said:

As a side note: don't you hate it when a player psyches a 2♣ opener preempting you out of your best contract?, that is why 2♣ opener psyches are forbidden in some countries.

I beg to differ.
First this is not a psyche, since a psyche is a deliberate decision to deviate from your agreements to deliver false information. An error in judgement is never a psyche because it is not deliberate.
People open such hands with a strong bid because they believe their hand has enough playing tricks for the bid, ignoring other criteria.
Jurisdiction, which tells people how to bid and forbids bad judgement is contrary to what the game is all about.
A different question is whether opponents can be damaged if the bid is not described or alerted properly.

el mister, on 2015-February-03, 05:18, said:

Is it obvious here that you need to ruff high in hand, to preserve a ruffing value in dummy with the club void? I believe this is the error pard made, and got a subsequent walloping.

The winning line is to play for spades 4-1, drawing one round of trumps with the AS, cash top heart, second round of trumps crossing to the JS, third round of trumps with KS and you're home. W can ruff one of your heart winners but has no exit card due to your club ruff on table.

This would be quite an intricate play by my standards, so I wondered if this was the sort of hand strong players would expect to get right.

Declarer's 2C opener was ♠8 ♥A ♦KQJT87653 ♣AQ. Would that be out of line in the EBU?

This is a typical double dummy line, which is silly single dummy.
The right line is to ruff high and play two rounds of trumps ending in dummy.
If both follow to 2 rounds of trumps continue drawing trumps.
If not, cash your heart and play a third round of trumps to hand and feed the trump holder (presumably West) hearts.
I would expect any good player to get that right, since the line follows established principles of declarer play.

Rainer Herrmann

[Fluffy]

el mister, on 2015-February-03, 05:18, said:

Declarer's 2C opener was ♠8 ♥A ♦KQJT87653 ♣AQ. Would that be out of line in the EBU?

Don't think so. The hand is potentially good enough, and the intentions weren't to psyche.

but I think other factos like having deprived your side from reaching your best fit should count.

Also Imagine this bidding:

2♣-2♠-pass*-pass

pass* = 0-4

It is obvious that opponents are cold for 4♠ and perhaps 5♠ as well, if opener decided to pass he would had succesfully preempted you out of reaching your best contract with 2♣ opening, this is a good indicator of when 2♣ should be treated as a psyche IMO. But rules do not say anything related to what I am saying.