Vil posed two problems to his mailing list recently. The first was:
Match Point session. You are South
At All Vul the bidding has been, dealer East
| South | West | North | East |
|---|
| - | - | - | 1 |
|
| Pass | 2 | Pass | 2NT |
|
| Pass | 3NT | | |
Your lead, holding
.. which turned out be Board 13 from 9-April, a Thursday night. Vil suggests we
all take a look at the X-Clubs results to see how our answers would have fared
Board 13 everyone should be in 4H BUT..one of the best pairs was in 3NT and
a LOW spade lead would have given EW a top but East led the JACK. See what a
disaster that was! That is why from a broken suit (and J9xxx is just that)
you lead LOW whether partner has bid the suit or not
Vil's second poser was for one for declarer. We were all WEST this time
Dealer East Nil Vul
Your partner, East, opened 1C, you bid 1D, 1H from partner, 3NT from you.
Did you think about bidding 1S? Anyway, North leads the TEN OF HEARTS. What
is your plan of action? What are the things you think about, or should be
thinking about?
This turned out to be Board 14 from the same session
It is a good one for reading the opening lead and thinking about your
declarer play. No competent player would lead the TEN through dummy's bid
suit if they had Q109x so it's highly likely South has the queen. Since you
want to try the diamond finesse, the best source of tricks, win the KH in
dummy and run the D10. The play of the KH is an unnecessary play and the
suit is still well held even if N does have the queen. Well done if you
approached the play this way, and do check the deal out!
Vil (villyn@xtra.co.nz) is ready and waiting for YOUR questions now please
J9653
7643