[Cascade]

brianshark, on Aug 19 2008, 05:47 AM, said:

At the table, I played a spade to the Q first, later discarded heart on diamond and then cashed AK and ruffed a heart.

I ran the hand by a few friends on the Irish team that made the B-final, telling them my line and we chatted about potential improvements. I think the best line is:

- Draw trump
- Cash Heart A and K (assume both follow small)
- Discard Heart on Diamond and ruff a Heart
- Fall back on the Spade to the Q if nothing else works

This line fails if the ♠K is offside and RHO has exactly ♥QTxx or LHO has ♥QTxx(+)

Put another way, the line succeeds if ♥s are 3-3, any ♥ honour is doubleton or singleton, RHO has 5+ hearts or LHO has the spade K.

Unless I'm mistaken, the only layout it fails where another line can succeed is with exactly QTxx on your right (and the ♠K also on your right).

By my calculation this line is around 87.6%

3-3 hearts 35.5%

4-2 with doubleton queen or jack 9/15 of 48.4% = 29.1%

5-1 onside 1/2 of 14.5% = 7.3%

5-1 offside stiff queen or ten 2/6 of 7.3% = 2.4%

6-0 onside 0.7%

A total of 75.0%

stiff ♠K 1% of rest = .25%

Spade onside 1/2 of the rest 12.4%

Giving a total of 87.6%

stiff ♠K

[rfedrick]

Our opponents had an auction that started 2♦-3♣; 3♥-4♥; 4NT-5♦; ??

2♦ was any GF, 3♥ showed primary hearts, 4NT was key-card for hearts, 5♦ showed 1 of 5.

Now the strong hand had a problem - he wanted to play 6♣, but how to stop partner being tempted to correct to 6♥ (or possibly view 6♣ as a grand-slam try with solid hearts and K or Kx in clubs)?

This was accomplished easily enough by pulling the STOP card out of the bidding box, placing it firmly on the table with something of a flourish, and then bidding 6♣. Partner duly passed without pause for thought.

The TD saw nothing awry - no adjustment, no procedural penalty.

Comments?

[Cascade]

rfedrick, on Aug 19 2008, 09:27 AM, said:

Our opponents had an auction that started 2♦-3♣; 3♥-4♥; 4NT-5♦; ??

2♦ was any GF, 3♥ showed primary hearts, 4NT was key-card for hearts, 5♦ showed 1 of 5.

Now the strong hand had a problem - he wanted to play 6♣, but how to stop partner being tempted to correct to 6♥ (or possibly view 6♣ as a grand-slam try with solid hearts and K or Kx in clubs)?

This was accomplished easily enough by pulling the STOP card out of the bidding box, placing it firmly on the table with something of a flourish, and then bidding 6♣. Partner duly passed without pause for thought.

The TD saw nothing awry - no adjustment, no procedural penalty.

Comments?

Did the TD get a golden handshake?

[the saint]

dburn, on Aug 18 2008, 03:13 PM, said:

brianshark, on Aug 18 2008, 09:38 AM, said:

If the ♥T drops, why don't you just run the ♥J and pitch a ♠. Later pitch the other ♠ on the ♥9.

Very good idea.

That was what I did when someone dropped the ♥10 prematurely.

[phil_20686]

According to suitplay, the chances of playing the hearts for 1 loser are 84.7%, if it failes, having played AK and small to the J, if whoever wins it has the spade king that is also enough, so about 15.3*(9/20). (9/20 is the chance of spade K being in a hand already marked with 4 hearts). which by my count makes AK and small toteh J!h around 6.9%+84.7% = 91.6%