[mikeh]

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IN showed 14-16, since you are playing a 1N opening at this vul. as 11-13. But you’d have reached game anyway.

The opening lead is a small heart…looks like 4th or 5th best.

What do you play from dummy, and why?

It’s a minor point, but this sort of subtle play can have a big impact.

[sfi]

Grumble - I found the low heart lead as well. I knew I was in trouble when declarer got it right.

[sfi]

.

[AL78]

Play the queen to make it look like I've finessed against West for the king, then lead a spade. If East wins hopefully they will misread the situation and continue with hearts.

[LBengtsson]

AL78, on 2022-March-28, 06:15, said:

Play the queen to make it look like I've finessed against West for the king, then lead a spade. If East wins hopefully they will misread the situation and continue with hearts.

You could play the ace also and make both opps. think the other has the ♥K

I think it becomes more easy for East to discourage the lead if you play ♥Q on the first trick. At this stage we do not know who has the ♠A and the ♣ honors or suit. If West has the imaginary ♥K, then you would still gain two tricks from the ♥ suit as the cards lie. Is this the tiny bit of technique needed?

[smerriman]

Hmm, I'm a bit stumped.

If West has the spade Ace, it doesn't appear to make much difference what we play. If we play the Q, West will know for sure East doesn't have the King. If we play the A, West will also know East doesn't have the King, both from East's signal and the fact we wouldn't play it with AQx vs xx as that would be the only way to go down.

Conversely, if East has the spade Ace, it also feels like we'll probably make whatever we do - why would East immediately rise with the Ace when we lead a small one from dummy? This would often give away a trick for nothing, unless they know that they need to cash 5 tricks immediately, and neither heart play seems to imply that.

I guess I'll play the Q as it at least leaves East slightly in the dark, and maybe lead the J of spades in case West thinks they have to duck. But there must be something else to it that I'm not seeing.

[mikeh]

smerriman, on 2022-March-28, 14:10, said:

Hmm, I'm a bit stumped.

If West has the spade Ace, it doesn't appear to make much difference what we play. If we play the Q, West will know for sure East doesn't have the King. If we play the A, West will also know East doesn't have the King, both from East's signal and the fact we wouldn't play it with AQx vs xx as that would be the only way to go down.

Conversely, if East has the spade Ace, it also feels like we'll probably make whatever we do - why would East immediately rise with the Ace when we lead a small one from dummy? This would often give away a trick for nothing, unless they know that they need to cash 5 tricks immediately, and neither heart play seems to imply that.

I guess I'll play the Q as it at least leaves East slightly in the dark, and maybe lead the J of spades in case West thinks they have to duck. But there must be something else to it that I'm not seeing.

It’s a tiny matter, as I said, but here’s how I looked at it:

The ace is out. You’d never play the ace without the king in your hand…you’d duck and now east can’t safely return a heart if he has the king. Also, if the king is onside, we can’t get our second heart trick without giving up a trick…and, presumably, we have other tricks we need to establish as well, and may well lose a critical tempo.

Playing low is out…we have to show the king, and it won’t take a genius to figure out the club switch when we drive out the spade Ace.

So we play the Queen. Yes, we’re not fooling west, but west knows, no matter which heart we win with, that neither he nor east has the king.

They also know they’re not beating us in spades (when I tackle the suit next) and not only has dummy diamond cards, but I opened the suit.

Now over to east. We might very well play the Queen from xxx because we need two heart tricks and/or for reasons of tempo. So when we play the Queen, we foster the illusion that maybe west has the King…in which case that value is elsewhere in our hand. Now, imo, east absolutely needs to rise with the spade ace when we lead spades.I think most experts, on their game, would do so, and then play clubs. This is imps (I apologize if I didn’t say so) so nobody cares about overtricks if there is any chance for a beat.

However, when there is nobody ringing a bell telling one that this is a critical play, it’s easy to duck the spade…and all the more so when you have been seduced into thinking partner probably has the heart king.

East did duck the spade.

Did he do so just because he wasn’t thinking clearly, and was he influenced by the lay of the heart Queen? I don’t know….it’s not the sort of thing you ask😀 but I think it possible…and I know for sure that no other heart play at trick one could create the right mindset.

[Cyberyeti]

He's also virtually certain to duck the spade from Axxxx in cas his partner has stiff Q and you were about to misguess, even if he has less spades, if you have K10x you might be about to get this wrong, it's not that easy to rise.

[DavidKok]

And here I thought you were about to win the king of hearts, cross in diamonds and lead a club

Jokes aside, playing the queen is a good play to fool East.

[nullve]

mikeh, on 2022-March-28, 21:52, said:

The ace is out. You’d never play the ace without the king in your hand…you’d duck and now east can’t safely return a heart if he has the king. Also, if the king is onside, we can’t get our second heart trick without giving up a trick…and, presumably, we have other tricks we need to establish as well, and may well lose a critical tempo.

Playing low is out…we have to show the king, and it won’t take a genius to figure out the club switch when we drive out the spade Ace.

So we play the Queen. Yes, we’re not fooling west, but west knows, no matter which heart we win with, that neither he nor east has the king.

I don't follow. Is the ace out because we would always duck without the king in hand? If so, then the queen should also out by the same reasoning.

mikeh, on 2022-March-28, 21:52, said:

I know for sure that no other heart play at trick one could create the right mindset.

I'd try A from dummy, K from hand against GiB. Might work against some humans, too.

[mikeh]

nullve, on 2022-March-29, 04:11, said:

I don't follow. Is the ace out because we would always duck without the king in hand? If so, then the queen should also out by the same reasoning.


I'd try A from dummy, K from hand against GiB. Might work against some humans, too.

The Ace from dummy, playing the king under it, is about the silliest post you’ve ever made.

Ducking without the king is usually going to be silly as well, since we are likely to need two heart winners any time we lack the king, and once again we surrender tempo by ducking.

It’s clearly right to win the first heart, if we can…so we’d always play the queen from AQx opposite low. Since we want RHO to think we have xx in hearts, we make the play that’s consistent with that holding.

To cyber’s point, it is indeed easier to induce south to duck from the Axx(x)(x) if one has not shown the heart king. But he definitely should rise if you play any heart other than the Queen at trick one. Which is why one plays it.

[nullve]

I give up. Hopefully someone else will read my post carefully.