[broze]

The Portland Bowl is an annual EBU university event. This year's winners were Southampton A team who triumphed by 2 IMPS over Oxford A in a very closely fought final; congratulations to them. Swings all over the place but the scores remained close to tied throughout the 48 board match. Here is an interesting play problem in 6S:

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6S, declarer West, lead T♣. NS silent in the bidding, except on one table where

Spoiler

South doubles a 5♣ keycard response

If you play on trumps:

Spoiler

South with play the T♠

Spoiler

He will show out on the next round

[JLOGIC]

I would try to bring in trumps and if that failed I'd hope the HQ dropped. Ace of spade, spade when the layout is revealed I'd duck. Say they play back a club. I'd win, play the HAK. If south dropped the HQ pull trumps and hook the heart and claim. If north dropped it, cash a club pitching a diamond, ruff a diamond, pull trumps, hope it all lived. I guess north should come back a trump, that messes with my entries to test for Qx of hearts with south.

So basically, I'd take a finesse, then hope for some luck. Very non expert line on a hand like this I know.

edit: sorry I didn't see that south doubled clubs. You say on one table, should I be playing assuming south had doubled clubs or not? It is in spoilers and unclear.

This post has been edited by JLOGIC: 2012-April-25, 12:45

[broze]

JLOGIC, on 2012-April-25, 12:43, said:

edit: sorry I didn't see that south doubled clubs. You say on one table, should I be playing assuming south had doubled clubs or not? It is in spoilers and unclear.

Apologies. I'm never quite sure on spoiler etiquette, but I thought I'd provide all the information that one of the declarers received. Feel free to say if/how the double changes your line.

[dave_w]

I think one should test Hearts before playing on trumps. After ♥AK, no Queen has dropped you'll have to bring in the trumps. If South drops the Queen then cash the ♠K and then ♠A (if the ♠T falls then run the Jack to retain control). If North drops the ♥Q then ♠A, finesse the ♠9 (to retain control in case trumps are 4-1).

If the Heart Queen hasn't dropped then I take the Spade finesse. Cash the Clubs (pitching a Heart) and then exit in Hearts and play for split Diamond honours.

This line seems to work when:
♥Q is doubleton
OR
♠Q is onside and Diamond honours are split (minus some for when Hearts are 5-1 and a Heart honour got ruffed).

[gnasher]

broze, on 2012-April-25, 12:59, said:

Apologies. I'm never quite sure on spoiler etiquette, but I thought I'd provide all the information that one of the declarers received. Feel free to say if/how the double changes your line.

To avoid confusion about what people are responding to, I would present the problem as two separate problems, eg:
(1) How do you play on an uncontested auction?
(2) How would you play if South had doubled 5♣?

[gnasher]

dave_w, on 2012-May-01, 21:26, said:

I think one should test Hearts before playing on trumps. After ♥AK, no Queen has dropped you'll have to bring in the trumps. If South drops the Queen then cash the ♠K and then ♠A (if the ♠T falls then run the Jack to retain control). If North drops the ♥Q then ♠A, finesse the ♠9 (to retain control in case trumps are 4-1).

If the Heart Queen hasn't dropped then I take the Spade finesse. Cash the Clubs (pitching a Heart) and then exit in Hearts and play for split Diamond honours.

After ♥AK, ♠A, succesful spade finesse, it would be a good idea to just claim your twelve winners.

[dave_w]

gnasher, on 2012-May-02, 01:05, said:

After ♥AK, ♠A, succesful spade finesse, it would be a good idea to just claim your twelve winners.

I think that's a large improvement on my line :-)

[broze]

Just realised I never actually posted the full deal for this hand so for the sake of posterity here it is:

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Justin's line:

JLOGIC, on 2012-April-25, 12:43, said:

Ace of spade, spade when the layout is revealed I'd duck. Say they play back a club. I'd win, play the HAK. If south dropped the HQ pull trumps and hook the heart and claim. If north dropped it, cash a club pitching a diamond, ruff a diamond, pull trumps, hope it all lived.

...fails because North can ruff the club. Which is why I wondered what the correct line might be if South does indeed double a ♣ keycard response at any point.