I confess to admiring the declarer that would lead small towards JH at Trick 2!
Might not West decide against continuing hearts? Might not a spade switch look better?
Jeff SJuly 16th, 2022 at 4:53 pm
What if South leads the QC at trick 2, then the KD and AD followed by throwing West in with a low club and discarding a spade from the board? The logic here would be that South knows hearts are wide-open so he may want to put West on the spot early.
From the West point of view at this point, would he not wonder why South would not play the KC and then a low club? Maybe he didn’t have two safe discards on the board? East would presumably have also dropped a spade. I could see West concluding that South avoided spades because he was missing the AK. So, maybe he leads the AS followed by a spade to his partner’s presumed K for a heart lead through South.
Any merit to this line?
bobbywolffJuly 16th, 2022 at 11:00 pm
Hi Jim2 & Jeff S,
When the subject turns to deception, bridge resembles poker, usually before the draw, but once in a while a bit further down the road.
Especially so, when experience is also playing against experience because it then has to figure in the tempo of a play or two, which in turn, may either give the ruse away, or the opposite, make it appear to do just that, but be clever enough to finish the heist.
Yes a heart led to the singleton jack has a pretty good chance to work, but, on this hand, only against a defense which is unsuspecting, since declarer certainly figures to hold solid diamonds (both because of the bidding plus his not trying to make sure he will take the lions share of tricks in that suit. Also the QJ of spades holding in dummy seems on the surface as a better way to establish the game going trick, unless declarer also possessed the K of hearts with his jack, but if so, declarer will certainly make his contract.
I, of course, am not 100% sure of all the different layouts declarer can possess, restricting me from making anywhere near 100% chances for success, but I do think, that in spite of Jim2’s admiration of the heart play, to which I agree with him, methinks that West’s exact holding may make the difference, causing West to not fall for the trap and cash his sides setting trick.
However, nothing succeeds like success and nothing also feels better than landing an otherwise down contract, so here we are, back at the beginning, armed only with what might have been.
In any event IMO, it is worth discussing.
bobbywolffJuly 17th, 2022 at 12:46 am
Hi Jeff,
The merit would be, as previously advertized,
your opponents doing the wrong thing, and I do not believe that they would fall for it.
But undoubtedly some would, so we get back to where we started.
IOW, deception is a separate topic, tremendously dependent on what bridge mental stage are the opponents.
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I confess to admiring the declarer that would lead small towards JH at Trick 2!
Might not West decide against continuing hearts? Might not a spade switch look better?
What if South leads the QC at trick 2, then the KD and AD followed by throwing West in with a low club and discarding a spade from the board? The logic here would be that South knows hearts are wide-open so he may want to put West on the spot early.
From the West point of view at this point, would he not wonder why South would not play the KC and then a low club? Maybe he didn’t have two safe discards on the board? East would presumably have also dropped a spade. I could see West concluding that South avoided spades because he was missing the AK. So, maybe he leads the AS followed by a spade to his partner’s presumed K for a heart lead through South.
Any merit to this line?
Hi Jim2 & Jeff S,
When the subject turns to deception, bridge resembles poker, usually before the draw, but once in a while a bit further down the road.
Especially so, when experience is also playing against experience because it then has to figure in the tempo of a play or two, which in turn, may either give the ruse away, or the opposite, make it appear to do just that, but be clever enough to finish the heist.
Yes a heart led to the singleton jack has a pretty good chance to work, but, on this hand, only against a defense which is unsuspecting, since declarer certainly figures to hold solid diamonds (both because of the bidding plus his not trying to make sure he will take the lions share of tricks in that suit. Also the QJ of spades holding in dummy seems on the surface as a better way to establish the game going trick, unless declarer also possessed the K of hearts with his jack, but if so, declarer will certainly make his contract.
I, of course, am not 100% sure of all the different layouts declarer can possess, restricting me from making anywhere near 100% chances for success, but I do think, that in spite of Jim2’s admiration of the heart play, to which I agree with him, methinks that West’s exact holding may make the difference, causing West to not fall for the trap and cash his sides setting trick.
However, nothing succeeds like success and nothing also feels better than landing an otherwise down contract, so here we are, back at the beginning, armed only with what might have been.
In any event IMO, it is worth discussing.
Hi Jeff,
The merit would be, as previously advertized,
your opponents doing the wrong thing, and I do not believe that they would fall for it.
But undoubtedly some would, so we get back to where we started.
IOW, deception is a separate topic, tremendously dependent on what bridge mental stage are the opponents.