Agreements and then choices

[kenberg]

Club game, matchpoints, everyone vulnerable, partner deals and opens 1NT, 15-17. Pass on your right. You hold

AQ97
T98432
52
8

I imagine everyone would bid either 2 Stayman or 2 transfer.
Perhaps agreements matter. With this particular partner, the auction 1NT - 2 -  2 - 2 would show invitational strength with at least four spade and more hearts than spades. There are pluses and minuses to this agreement, but it was what we were playing.

Here was our auction:

1NT     Pass    2     Pass
2      Pass    Pass   2NT (minor suit take-out)
Pass     3     Pass   Pass
Pass

I can imagine others choosing differently, the actual results were all over the place. Now you have to, or on this auction I had to, find a  lead.

Your choice?

One interesting feature of this hand: The hand records give a par result, the result that everyone would reach if all four hands were seen. Of the many results at the table, not one of them was the par result.

This was mps but you can of course also consider your choices at imps.

This is a club game, but your opponents are certainly a capable pair.
 

[Masse24]

Auction is over, so I'm not going to fret about that.

I have no strong feeling about any lead here.

On a different auction, I could be convinced to lead a spade. Not here though.
A diamond, presumably in the hopes of getting a ruff? Eh. Too pie-in-the-sky.
So I'll go with the vanilla-down-the-middle heart.

T.

[kenberg]

And that's what I did.

Partner has four spades and two hearts. The hand makes, or at least can make, 2 and 3 . Nobody was in a spade partial. Those who found their spade fit apparently couldn't control themselves and laded in 4 off 1 or 2.

We beat  3 !c by one trick for +100. That would lose to the +140s but there weren't any.. There was a 4 making. I can't explain how. There was a 2 making, we lost to that.

On the heart lead I believe declarer can always hold it to down 1 but he gave me a chance to set him 2 and I flubbed it.

I considered a spade lead, after all partner did open 1NT and their values seem to be in the minors. Had I done so, down 2 is pretty easy but on a bit of a fluke. We take the first two spades, then we take two diamonds. Partner,  I hope, leads another diamond and yes, declarer had only 2 (he did take the 2NT out to clubs) but his clubs are five to the 7 and I have the 8. Partner has QJx of clubs so he later gets a club.

I'll put up the full hand later.

[kenberg]

Here is the hand, including the play. I simply cannot explain why I did not give partner his trump promotion.


http://tinyurl.com/ycx2mc7s

As mentioned, after the lead declarer can play it for down 1. But his line was, I think, reasonable. As far as he knows I have only five hearts. If so, he can pitch two spades without getting ruffed. If we start by taking two spades, two diamonds and then my ruff, the 6th trick is automatic.

Our lead agreements are such that the T could have been from QT9xxx which explains why pard put up the K.

My thinking with the trf instead of Stayman was that anytime partner has three hearts this will be fine, and if he has two hearts but only three spades it might might well be fine. If 1NT-2C-2D-2H forbids a correction then maybe 2C would have been better. It would have been better here as long as I can restrain myself after 1NT-2C-2S.  I imagine partner would accept an invitation if I bid 3 on my shape.

Added: In retrospect, if partner had known I had nothing higher than the T, and thus played low, this would not have worked well for us. Declarer wins the J and plays the A, dropping the K. He trusts that this is not some exotic falsecard so he gives up on trying to pitch another spade on the third heart. He changes course and, most likely, holds it to down 1. So the play of the K lured him, planned or not (my guess is not) into trying for another pitch! After which he is down 2 if I am at all awake. Bridge is a seriously strange game.