paulg: tonight I have eight declarer problems .. paulg: we shall not worry about the bidding unless it is relevant karrizzma: hello Paul,mary and thanks............ paulg: making the contract is sufficient :) paulg: i suggest counting your tricks carefully ... and if it adds up to the number you need then try adding up again :) sceptic: ok LOL paulg: kibitzers may like to just watch SOUTH and try the problems with Wayne gregg1012: hello paulg: well my PC says the hour is here so we'll start ... BILmanager: => Club: !D!D paulg's session has just begun--All Members Welcome. !D!D paulg: wayne, if you can just bid 6NT when it gets to you hallway (Lobby): Hi Paul - got your email thx - I will have a look through the site and get back to you ->hallway: ok :) sceptic: 1!S 3!c 2!D 6!H with club lead I can lose a heart and make 12 safely paulg: seems reasonable sceptic: I have a problem with a spade lead sceptic: misclick Gaya->Kibitzers: hello :) paulg: well done :) sceptic->Club: I nearly screwed up yoffy->Kibitzers: hi all paulg: as you saw, it was important to lose the first heart .... paulg: if you cash all the clubs, then West has a club winner when he gets in with the heart winner paulg: 6!h would have been a much better contract paulg: actually that's not true, 6NT is better paulg: this would be more interesting at matchpoints .... paulg: when ducking a heart could get you a bottom when hearts are not 4-0 paulg: but in a session like this, you KNOW hearts will not break :) paulg: a good start fabijam: how would wayne start bidding?? just 1!h? paulg: bidding is next week's trial, we shall focus only on play tonight paulg: can you open 6NT again .... fabijam: ok ty sceptic: 3!S 2!H 2!D 3!C need 2 more paulg: yes, and plenty of chances sceptic: so best is 3-3 split on !S and !C but unlikely sceptic: !H finese is option paulg: yes paulg: the key is to find the line that combines as many chances as possible sceptic: I need to test possibly have to squeeze gregg1012: ...second Honour !D paulg: without having to make decisions too early about the 3-3 breaks etc sceptic: may be spades now 4 LHo paulg: the chance of a squeeze should be a clue about a line of play .... sceptic: now I am not sure if I should kep enty in !S or !D to late !D it is BILmanager: Maureen is talking over Bilmanager for the rest of your session ->BILmanager: ok, thabks sceptic: to late I csrewed it paulg: actually it's not working anyhow paulg: so this line is down 1 as the clubs fail to break paulg: or 2 down if you fail to cash the spade paulg: so, back to the critical point :) paulg: your line did combine a number of chances .... paulg: but you failed to recognise the potential of the diamond suit to help sceptic: totally missed that paulg: on a hand like this, with many chances available, first select the line that must lose a trick if it is to win paulg: this was my hint about a squeeze ... paulg: for a squeeze to work you must lose all the tricks you can first ... paulg: although this is not actually a squeeze hand ... paulg: so try the diamond finesse restring->Club: 2 for restring, friendly table ->sceptic: so you have to try this as I cannot play the cards ;) paulg: why didn't you play the Ace first? paulg: i'm not saying it was wrong! :) paulg: so playing the small diamond is correct sceptic: I should in case QJ is doubleton sceptic: or QJx paulg: so small diamond is correct, but I'll replay and let you play the !dA first to show the problem paulg: so what do you discard from dummy? sceptic: heart J paulg: which chance will you throw away without testing it? sceptic: finese paulg: so !hJ is BEST chance ... as it is 50% whereas 3-3 break is 36% paulg: this is why small diamond is best ... you will not have to make embarrassing discard from dummy paulg: so play the !d2 as you correctly did before ... paulg: now you should play to test the 3-3 breaks ending in your hand sceptic: thinkin paulg: so you have just thrown away the chance of the heart finesse paulg: which may be important .... paulg: so what you needed to do was cash the 13th spade when in dummy, and then cash 3 rounds of clubs ending in your hand paulg: then you would know if clubs were 3-3 and the hearts are still entries paulg: so you know that clubs are not 3-3, and that East holds the !cJ paulg: in this endgame the !dQ drops paulg: but actually you have performed a double squeeze paulg: because you forced the hearts to be 1-1 at the end paulg: so this is a tough hand ... lots of chances ... and the aim is to keep as many intact for as long as possible paulg: the only hint is to lose the tricks you can afford to lose early sceptic: k sceptic: 2!d 1!H 1!C 1!s on that lead 2 more to make, first look !D look favorable to make extra sceptic: but no entries paulg: nope sceptic: 3-3 split on clubs would be good sceptic: I cant see !H making extra paulg: yes, but you will lose 2 clubs, 3+ spades and they will switch to hearts before you get your winners sceptic: may be 2!S if J holds and I dont lose to LHO paulg: yep paulg: .. but of course that would never happen :) sceptic: :) paulg: can you spot a tiny chance in diamonds sceptic: finese 10 paulg: ok sceptic: hm it is going well so far ->sceptic: try throwing losers paulg: overtrick, it's an easy game paulg: so perhaps the kibs can tell me who misdefended on this hand? chrisuk->Club: west paulg: what could west do? sceptic: duck !D chrisuk: play low on 10 paulg: west could play the !dQ ... chrisuk: east sorry paulg: east could duck too, yes, so they both misdefended .... it was meant to be an easy question :) ->sceptic: the bid is 4!s paulg: so it makes no difference here, but people rarely underlead aces in suit contracts so I'd normally duck in case East only had !hAx ->sceptic: playing for doubleton Q??? paulg: so you played it so well until you refused to take the diamond finesse paulg: it was an excellent dummy reversal sceptic->Club: I had no idea which side paulg: but there was only one side that you could take the finesse, through LHO paulg: as there is no finesse through RHO sceptic: that was my mistake I did not realise which way to go I have to fin the J paulg: right, but you did play it very well for the first 10 tricks paulg: i think you can risk 3!s here sceptic: I should play A!S for drop best percentage I think paulg: yes but there's no finesse either sceptic: 2!H losers 1!s loser 1!C loser paulg: any other potential losers? sceptic: may be 2 !C loser if I play bad paulg: yes paulg: or if the clubs lie badly sceptic: let opps play that suit paulg: good idea paulg: do you know the heart break? juve: why op played the K !s? txs!! sceptic: now opps have to play hearts and they keep lead or clubs I think sceptic: unless you play me low on !H :( sceptic: I cant see advantage of playing spades paulg: who has the club ace? sceptic: LHO paulg: right sceptic: he ducked paulg: well, he underled his ace sceptic: yup thats what I meant LOL paulg: so leading a heart now gives them a heart trick and they will take the club ace, so you are down paulg: playing spades does not help .... sceptic: LHO has no !H left paulg: so i think you need to hope for something good in clubs paulg: so ducking the spade was excellent ... nahuel: why didnt he cover the j spades? paulg: if wayne wins the spade then he will lose 2 hearts and 2 clubs nahuel->Club: ok nahuel: ty paulg: you can play through this yourselves later ... but you will see that you need to endplay West to make this ... paulg: West knows it too, that is why he played the !sK under the !sA paulg: if West played !sJ on the first spade, most of us would see the endplay ->sceptic: 4!h paulg: so wayne is just bidding the final contract :) sceptic: sorry was not looking at chat sceptic: sorry 1 loser I did count paulg: as you can see, you can only do down if you do not cover this :) ->sceptic: take out the final trump first paulg: so you have two losers .... ->sceptic: small !d ->sceptic: !d sceptic: no !H or !C paulg: correct, so must give lead back to dummy paulg: it's never easy to throw away winners :) ->sceptic: 6!s paulg: so this is a good example of thinking before you play the first card .... paulg: what losers do you have .... sceptic: 1!D loser 1!s loser poss paulg: right, what can you do if East has 3 spades? sceptic: T ake !H play AK!S then 3 rounds of clubs and if opp does not ruff I lose my trump tp LHO (I hope) paulg: well, i'd be thinking of trying to endplay west if he has 3 trumps ... sceptic: but that leaves a !H return which hurts paulg: so it might be prudent to start eliminating hearts straightaway ... just in case sceptic: so they have 2 !H min LHO so I can ruff a !H safetly I think paulg: yes, i would have shown an 8-card heart suit in the bidding sceptic: now test if LHO has 3 !S as I can end play him for my !D after I use K!D as an entry to ruff last !H paulg: good, right to check the trumps in case I'm being very sneaky :) sceptic: u usually are LOL lcmdir: tu 1marko: that was neat paulg: well played, you timed that very well lcmdir: what about losing to QS early? sceptic->Club: I wish I had this much time to think at the table when I play in lounges lol ->lcmdir: they can return a spade and you will lose the diamond finesse going down lcmdir: ahhhh, tks paulg: you get quicker the more you play Blanca17: how could he see that he had 6sp, missing one paulg: 4!s ->sceptic: 4!s 1marko: well.. drgarie: tks bye paulg: wayne is opening the bidding with the final contract ... which I tell him! sceptic: 1!H and 2!C losers so should be a walk in the park (I don't think) RHO void and ruffs first trick ) paulg: would I do that? sceptic: ok close guess LOL ->sceptic: think about throwing your club on this? sceptic: I was thinking about playing 6!H on !C return sceptic: I need !C to lose the lead paulg: you might just endplay west by throwing your club ... what does he have left in his hand? sceptic: no clubs paulg: so, only red cards ..... sceptic: so heart or !D lead back which wins paulg: interesting that you found the best line with ease :) sceptic->Club: my way one down before the undo :( paulg: well, it depends on what you were going to do ... paulg: this hand is about who you believe has the !hK ... paulg: if West has it, then after ruffing the diamond you can play !hA and another, losing a heart but West is endplay paulg: if East has it, then your line of throwing him in with club will work .... paulg: your play showed another line, when diamonds are 6-2 you can endplay West whoever has the !hK ... paulg: but this is really just a little bonus paulg: there is little to indicate who has the !hK .... paulg: so it is best to count the "vacant places" that you can see in the East-West hands paulg: counting only complete suits .... paulg: West has shown 2 spades and 1 club .... so 10 vacant places MiRU: topologisch ist HB sicher unten" und bayern weiter oben paulg: East has shown 1 spade and 6 clubs ... so 6 vacant places MiRU: frauen lesen gar keine karten paulg: so it is more likely (10:6) that West has the !hK ->MiRU: mein deutsch ist nicht gut! MiRU: sorry :) paulg: so playing West for the !hK is best sceptic: k paulg: so the plan is as you played, eliminate diamonds and play !hA and another, hoping to endplay him paulg: and if you get really lucky, diamonds are 6-2 and you make it irrespective of who holds the !hK paulg: so that's it for tonight ... i'm sure Wayne is exhausted after all these hands! sceptic: thx Paul thats was fun lcmdir: thanks paul, this was great! lcmdir: thanks wayne paulg: next week we shall have the first round of our bidding challenge with Wayne and partner cdt: Thanks Paul and Wayne Clemmy: tx you both! paulg: i hope all your hands are easier than this ... but remember to count your tricks and plan for the worst if it looks too easy Blanca17: can you tell in other words when is a player end played, pls? ->Blanca17: endplay means that the player can only make a lead that is good for his opponent BILmanager: !D Thank You Paul and Wayne !D ->Blanca17: so, at the end here, West must lead away from !hK or lead diamond for ruff and discard ->Blanca17: both leads concede a trick Blanca17: ok, thks a lot:) BILmanager: !D wish it were as easy as you make it look !D sceptic (Lobby): thx Paul that was very good session as usual I enjoyed it