I typed this too fast last night, Some corrections have now been made.
Pam and Sonya have mentioned that maybe I could mentor. I thought i would post a hand here and you can tell me whether such things are helpful
AJ
Q9
KQ92
T9763
K32
KT83
AT4
KQ5
North deals, nobody vul, matchpoints (as you will see, mathcpoints is highly relevant here).
North opens 1C, E makes a weak jump overcall of 2S. A double woould show four hearts, South has four hearts, so he doubles. W stays quiet, N rebids 2NT, a pleasant surprise, and S raises to 3NT.
N E S W
1
2
X P
2NT P 3NT P
P P
The opening lead is the
T, standard leads, riding to the J
N hopes to set up the clubs and so leads the 2. E hops up with the A and leads the
Q on which W throws the
7. That !h 7 probably should not be taken too seriously but we now know E started with 7 spades. Another club to the K, everyone follows, another club and E follows with the J, W discards a
. So E started with 7 spades and 3 clubs. Presumably not 2 aces, given his weak jump overcall.
Now what? Old joke: Count your winners, count your losers, if they don't add up to 13 count your cards.
Winners: 3 spades, no hearts yet, probable 4 diamonds (E had 10 black cards, that fourth diamond is likely to be a winner), 4 clubs. That's 11. Can you get 12? Maybe. Lead a small heart from dummy. The position might not be clear to W, it wasn't, so he played low. Yes the diamonds come in, E holding the Jx, and you score 12 tricks for 83%.
The main point is how completely unremarkable this hand is. After the clubs fall well the lead of the heart cannot cost a trick. Even if E is messing with your head and produces the heart A you still have 11 tricks without even worrying about how the diamonds break. Otoh, if you cash your 11 winners first, nobody is throwing the heart A and so you will get 11 tricks.
Leading the heart is heads I win, tails we break even.
Should W hop up with the A? I think so. He has a pretty clear picture of what's going on but that's another story.
I am not sure this lends itself well to at the table mentoring, it seems better, to me, to just think about it quietly. But maybe I am wrong. I am open to other opinions. It is my strong view, I think very much backed by experience, that most good results and most bad results come about in this way. I had a truly wild hand the other day that i will post maybe later, but there is nothing wild here. Usually there isn't. Every session I think back to mistakes. Sometimes it will be a reasonable choice that went wrong. But often it is a mistake. We can all find errors in out own play. Really.
http://tinyurl.com/yafbk3xcAdded: Here is the wild hand that I mentioned. Sitting South I held
AQ862
K
A86
KQ98
Mps.white against red, I deal and open 1
. W passes, partner bids 4
, E doubles. For take out surely, and I decided to get clever, usually an error. I bid 5
thinking that when W bids 5
this should give partner a voice in whether we should bid 5
or double 5
. Well, it didn't go that way. W passed and N bid 6
. This is unlikely to be good.
North
KT543
QT7
QT75
7
South
AQ862
K
A86
KQ98
The opening lead is the heart 4 and it goes 47JK. Remarkable. In fact E has the A but I suppose he thought that 4 was from the K so the J would hold. These are bots I am playing aganist and they sometimes get too clever for their own good.
T2:
A93, and
2
Ok, E has no spades so he has, at least, 5 of something. Let's assume that he has 0=4=4=5 shape and suppose he has the high cards, namely the
A, the
K, and the
A. That's all you need, if it is true, and it is, you can claim 12 tricks. E made it easy for me, but he can't stop me.
8 (the 6 would be ok, the 2 would be an error) to the T, E tossing a small
.
T3. Small
from the board, E hops up, probably not his best play, and lays down the
A, also probably not his best play. I ruff with the Q.
Count tricks. My heart K, a heart ruff, and a good heart in dummy. 5 spades in dummy.
A,
KQ. That's 11 tricks. I need another. A squeeze is available.
So I take the top clubs leaving me with one club in my had. I lead the
6 to the K, cash the !Q, and cash the remaining spades. E is squeezed in diamonds and clubs. He has to keep the high club so he unguards the
K, I throw the club, a
from the board brings down the K, and I lead a
to the Q. 12 tricks.
If E refuses to rise with the
A when the stiff is led from the board then 12 tricks gets tougher but it can be done.
But the contract, we can probably all agree, is totally nuts.
http://tinyurl.com/yajkf3me