[han]

Matchpoints, none vulnerable.

J10x
AQ10xx
xxx
xx

Q9xx
xx
QJ
AKQ109

1C - (1D) - 1H - (1S)
2C - (p) - p - (2D)
p - (p) - 3C - all pass.

West leads the spade 8 to east's king.

East returns the diamond 10 to west's king.

West cashes the diamonds ace.

West plays a spade to east's ace.

East returns a third round of spades, west ruffs with a low club.

West plays a low heart, you play the queen and it holds.

How do you play the clubs?

(intended for intermediate players, others hide your answers)

[VM1973]

Well if ♣ go 3-3 and the king♥ is in the pocket other tables are beating 3♦ and you're headed for a bad result. So I assume you have to play for ♣ to go 4-2 so you hook it.

[fingolfin3]

Play ♣AKQ. It only loses to Jxxx with East. If West started with Jxxx, the J will drop, since West ruffed once.

This seems too easy, so I assume I'm missing something here.

[quiddity]

Spoiler

ruff a diamond and cash AK of clubs.
If West shows out, play East to be 4234. Cash the spade and lead a heart to the ace for a trump coup.

[kenrexford]

This deal is funny. I could imagine North-South declaring in clubs, hearts, or spades, in this or in many other possible sequences.

[BunnyGo]

VM1973, quiddity, and kenrexford all have interesting ideas.

I'm not sure I agree completely with VM1973 because even if clubs are 4-2 we're beating 3♦ (2 clubs, 2 hearts, and a heart ruff...unless the king of hearts is doubleton in West which means he's 2=2=7=2).

Quiddity has an interesting idea, except that it loses on any 4-2 clubs split except East having 4=2=3=4. That said, it's probably what I'd do at the table. If he has one fewer heart or diamond, then he'll get a ruff before you can complete the coup.

Kenrexford is definitely correct, very strange hand when you have three 7 card fits. Leads to lots of different strains.

[han]

 quiddity, on 2011-June-21, 11:56, said:

Spoiler

ruff a diamond and cash AK of clubs.
If West shows out, play East to be 4234. Cash the spade and lead a heart to the ace for a trump coup.

+1

[jjbrr]

 BunnyGo, on 2011-June-21, 12:53, said:

Quiddity has an interesting idea, except that it loses on any 4-2 clubs split except East having 4=2=3=4. That said, it's probably what I'd do at the table. If he has one fewer heart or diamond, then he'll get a ruff before you can complete the coup.

Edit, sorry, my wording was weird. E can only have two possible shapes now: 4234 and 4333 (or possibly 4423 but that's really weird), all of which are fine in quiddity's line.

[VM1973]

 BunnyGo, on 2011-June-21, 12:53, said:

VM1973, quiddity, and kenrexford all have interesting ideas.

I'm not sure I agree completely with VM1973 because even if clubs are 4-2 we're beating 3♦ (2 clubs, 2 hearts, and a heart ruff...unless the king of hearts is doubleton in West which means he's 2=2=7=2).

Quiddity has an interesting idea, except that it loses on any 4-2 clubs split except East having 4=2=3=4. That said, it's probably what I'd do at the table. If he has one fewer heart or diamond, then he'll get a ruff before you can complete the coup.

Kenrexford is definitely correct, very strange hand when you have three 7 card fits. Leads to lots of different strains.

Well if most tables are beating 2♦ then you have a 0 no matter what you do. If clubs go 3-3 then you're taking 3♣, 2♥ and a heart ruff on defense (+50). Most people are not going to bid 3♣ with the North hand. Since you're already down 1, you can expect to find yourself -50 (or -100) in a field of +50. Even if you are down more it will just make the zero a little bit rounder. You must envision an E-W hand that makes 2♦ (-110) and then keep your losses to at most down 2 (-100).

Personally I think I'm going to take a deep breath after this hand to calm my anger and then tell partner that he needs to not bid this way. I know the law of total tricks is going out of fashion in some circles, but to me a partner better have a pretty good reason to bid 3 over 2 with 15 trumps and I don't see that in this hand.

[quiddity]

 VM1973, on 2011-June-22, 11:44, said:

Personally I think I'm going to take a deep breath after this hand to calm my anger and then tell partner that he needs to not bid this way. I know the law of total tricks is going out of fashion in some circles, but to me a partner better have a pretty good reason to bid 3 over 2 with 15 trumps and I don't see that in this hand.

North didn't know that South had only 5 clubs, or that South had diamond waste, or that he was beating 2♦.
Besides, he saw a chance to present you with an interesting play problem. Isn't that reason enough?

[jjbrr]

It's pretty poor to get frustrated about your contract and then not take as many tricks as you should. You frequently go -200 here if you're careless, because imo RHO is much more likely to be 4234 than 4333. And -200 is terrible, whereas -100 may be bad but it's not the worst ever.

You'd feel pretty dumb if everyone in the room was in 1NT -1 and you were the only joker going -200 because you were too angry to play the hand correctly!

[VM1973]

 jjbrr, on 2011-June-22, 14:37, said:

It's pretty poor to get frustrated about your contract and then not take as many tricks as you should. You frequently go -200 here if you're careless, because imo RHO is much more likely to be 4234 than 4333. And -200 is terrible, whereas -100 may be bad but it's not the worst ever.

You'd feel pretty dumb if everyone in the room was in 1NT -1 and you were the only joker going -200 because you were too angry to play the hand correctly!

As I said, I finesse the 10♣. If you're worried about the (now) stiff J♣ with LHO you can always cash a high club first. Assuming that RHO does have the 4234 pattern you suggested as more likely, you make out.

Additionally, I'd like to hear the auction that leads to 1NT. Are you suggesting many Souths would bid 1NT on the strength of the QJ♦ pseudo-stopper? Personally I think a far more likely auction is 1♣-1♦-Pass-1♠-Pass-2♣(or 2♥) than 1NT North.

[helene_t]

W can't have four clubs since he must have at least Kx of hearts in addition to five diamonds and three spades. Oh well he could have overcalled on a four-card suit I suppose.

Clubs could be 3-3 but in that case -1 is already a very bad score as we would have at least six tricks against any suit contract and at least seven against notrump. So let's assume E, who also has the most empty spaces, started with four clubs.

I cash one big club just in case W started with Jx, then enter dummy with a heart and finesse clubs.

[semeai]

 helene_t, on 2011-June-22, 15:43, said:

W can't have four clubs since he must have at least Kx of hearts in addition to five diamonds and three spades.

West ruffed the third round of spades.