[pclayton]

More MPs. Its the 1st round and you are both at Table 3. LHO is a local pro with a lot of swagger playing with the wife of a GLM. Plus, you are playing with one his regulars, so there's a little extra at stake.

The client nails the pro on the 1st hand for 800 (wdp!) against nothing. The 2nd board is a push. Here's a chance to gain a little extra respect at the table (and with your client):

Scoring: MP

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No bidding from the opponents. You are dealer (I think) and the bidding proceeds 1♥ - 1N - 2♥ - 3♥ - 4♥ (perhaps questionable at MPs).

Mr. Pro leads the ♥8, low, King, low. Heart returned to the Ace (LHO follows with the 9).

Proceed.

[matmat]

i'd call the director when LHO leads the ♥ 8

[pclayton]

Fixed. Now get back to work.

[inquiry]

I guess dealer was south....

anyway, entries to dummy are rare, so club to ace, pull last trump. play some hearts coming to...

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At this point, i would lead a low club. Either the queen wins or EAST overtakes with the king (if west wins, then of course, i have 10 tricks). there are other possible lines, low towards the T8 if I think the pro has held onto Kx or Qx of spades, DA, and D ruff if i think the 13th will be good. There just isn't enough info to decide which play i would make without seeing honest carding at this point.

[matmat]

with no hope of ruffing out the diamond suit and general disdain for anything that looks remotely like a finesse...
i cross over to the club ace, cash the heart queen dropping the heart jack from someone (probably lho), play off a couple more hearts and lead my lone remaining club up to the QJx.

i then start counting undertricks...

[pclayton]

I don't understand the idea of playing a few hearts. Certainly, they will give a count signal on the club and have an idea of what to keep. We might need to establish 2 spade tricks so why are we letting ourselves lose control of this hand?

[keylime]

Phil,

I think the lead is what tells you the situation here. Either spades are split or Mr. Local Pro didn't want to blow the lead with a spade; in addition, he's trying to recover the 800 your client hammered him with and is trying to be passive.

Me thinks Mr. Pro owns the KC and K and or Q of spades. So, once in the dummy, put him over Morton's fork. Club to the Ace, pull last trump, exit a club. Game over, hopefully.

[mikeh]

I am going to play LHO for the majority of the hcp due to the lead.

So, I cross to the ♣A, play 2 more rounds of trump, the 4th round merely on the no-cost offchance that LHO may pitch a club from Kxxx.

I then lead a club up.

If LHO pops, game over.

If he ducks, I win and ruff a club back. If he began with or pitched down to Kxx, game over.

If he has Kxxx, and the K doesn't drop, I lead a low spade.

If he pops an honour, game over.

If he plays the 9, I cover and later lead low to the 8, spurning the chance to drop his now stiff honour if he began with H9, because I don't need to.

If he plays low, then I play the 8, hoping he had K9x or Q9x, and next time, I run the 10.

If he ducks the 1st spade smoothly from KQxx, he has me

[Fluffy]

If mike says that it must be correct.

[pclayton]

mikeh, on Oct 11 2007, 12:00 PM, said:

I am going to play LHO for the majority of the hcp due to the lead.

So, I cross to the ♣A, play 2 more rounds of trump, the 4th round merely on the no-cost offchance that LHO may pitch a club from Kxxx.

I then lead a club up.

If LHO pops, game over.

If he ducks, I win and ruff a club back. If he began with or pitched down to Kxx, game over.

If he has Kxxx, and the K doesn't drop, I lead a low spade.

If he pops an honour, game over.

If he plays the 9, I cover and later lead low to the 8, spurning the chance to drop his now stiff honour if he began with H9, because I don't need to.

If he plays low, then I play the 8, hoping he had K9x or Q9x, and next time, I run the 10.

If he ducks the 1st spade smoothly from KQxx, he has me

This is more or less what happened. LHO did have ♣Kxx, although the spade 9 was offside. RHO gave me a friendly peter on the club, so the play rated to work.

The pro berated his pard for not shooting through a spade at T2

I said, no, that gives me the contract too. I did say the winning defense at T2 is a diamond. Since LHO has the 3rd trump and the shorter clubs, the defense can prevail whether or not LHO grabs the ♣K. I believe with a diamond shift, I need to play for the ♣K and ♠9 offside, so I'd probably go -2.