You hold xxx xx Axx QJT8x. You deal, red/white, it goes P-3D-X-P-?
Let’s say you bid 3NT. It goes P, P, double and you…?
I got this one wrong and we lost that match, but so far about 8 VPS above average through 4 matches.
Update: We’ve now played 6 of our 10 matches and are 20 VPs above average. 7 out of 11 qualify, so we would have to really stink to blow it. We might win our group, which would give us a small bonus in seeding points.
A tricky defensive problem: You hold xxx AKJ9 xxx xxx, on lead against 1c-1h-2nt-3nt. Say you lead the A, which asks for attitude. Dummy has JTx 8xxx Jt9x Ax. Partner plays the lowest outstanding spot, upside-down attitude. Your play?
3 comments:
Do you play any version of redouble to express doubt? If not, I would run. I hate to let them chase me out of 3NT, but I don't want a big swing.
Call me crazy but I would pass. The opps will open 3d white on red with just about anything. Maybe the doubler was hoping to catch his pd with a legit preempt, an outside entry, or just get you to run. I'll stand my ground.
As for the second hand, I'd continue with the heart king. Declarer clearly (I hope!) doesn't have four hearts and so pd had a chance to call you off of the suit with a card other than his lowest. I like my chances for running the suit by continuing it from the top.
Well, I polled some people here on the 3nt-x hand, and opinion varied widely, from instantly running to "obvious pass," with xx for doubt being a common suggestion also. My thinking was the same as what Brian Glubok said when I asked, which was "If you thought 3nt was right but close without the X, the odds must have changed enough to run now." So I ran, and that was very wrong -- you can make 3nt but not 4c. I kind of like xx if you have that agreement, which we do now.
The second one, you can assume partner has HQ, but there are some problems. If you lead high, will he unblock from Qxx? And if you lead low, he might have Qx. Also, do you want to run hearts now? What if partner is squeezed? On these hands you often need to set up your 5th trick first. A spade exit looks safe -- if partner has DA declarer has at most 8, right? Partner played S on this reasoning which makes sense to me. Wrong. Declarer was 3-2-2-6 (yikes) and ran nine tricks when you had 5 (with DA.)
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