Spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out how to render iframes in collapsable markdown sections to improve formatting for yesterday’s post. Unfortunately that didn’t leave much time for studying, but I did manage to get through the first chapter of Lawrence’s How to Read Your Opponent’s Cards.
Chapter 1 provided you with a hand and contract, and then asked how you would play it based on several bidding/lead scenarios. The primary focus was on two ideas:
- Using the bidding to place specific honors (e.g. you are in a 26 point game, East opened, and West leads the Ace so you know all the remaining honors should be with East)
- Reading the opening lead to place other honors (e.g. West leads the 9, dummy has Axx, you hold KQ8x. You can probably finesse East for the JT)
This hand in particular introduced an idea that I have encountered before but not fully internalized.
Answers
- Play SA to drop a singleton Q, then finesse
- Spade lead implies West does not hold SQ, play for the drop
- Opening bid implies East holds remaining HCP, play for the drop
It is tempting to think the finesse is an even chance, and there is nothing you can do about it so you might as well try it. I need to reject that line of thinking and play the hand, not just the suit. There is only a ⅛ chance that East will hold Qx, but that is still a better chance than the finesse in scenarios 2 and 3.
You can see the same idea again on this hand where you are declaring 4H:
Answers
Again the naive play is just hope for the finesse, but if you know the likely location of the SA, you can do better (Solution 3 is the same as solution 2).