[rhm]

BBO Individual weak field

---

You receive the lead of the ♠5
You win in South and play club.
West plays low and you decide this West is not good enough to duck and play low your self.
East wins with the club 9 and persists with another spade, which you have to win with your ace.
When you ruff a club West drops the queen.

Plan the play

[billw55]

Option 1: I have two entries to dummy left, so I can ruff one more club and still get back. The ace either drops or it doesn't. If there is a miracle singelton ♦K I will find out along the way (true in option 2 also).

Option 2: enter dummy and lead the ♣K as a ruffing finesse, hoping to pin the jack in west. If I am so confident that west could not duck the ace to begin with, I must choose this over #1.

Option 3: a squeeze against the ♣A and ♦K. Not sure if this will actually work ... still thinking.

Did 5♠ mean "bid slam with three aces" ?

[PhilKing]

I'll aim for a trump squeeze against East (and it also works against West).

Play off all the trumps except one throwing two diamonds a heart and a club from dummy. Then play two hearts ending in dummy ...

Three card ending is ♠- ♥- ♦A ♣KT opposite ♠8 ♥- ♦Q6 ♣-

There is a guard squeeze element in diamonds (when West has the king and East the jack) that may lead me to switch horses at some stage, but I can't tell yet, so I will keep the heart and diamond menaces alive till the last discards.

[gszes]

I think the odds of lho beginning life with QJx and not inserting a club honor when we
lead it is too much to ask even in a "weak" field. That does not mean we are toast
however. If lho began life with 1 spade and 2 clubs we have a very real threat against
west if they hold at least 6 hearts and the dia K.

dia to the ace and the club k (which we are going to ruff no matter what rho plays)
now run all of the trumps reducing our hands to

void
A64
void
void


void
K3
Q
void

If LHO started with 6+ hearts and the dia K they are toast on the last spade
where they have no good discard from their 4 card holding of void QJT K void.

[sathyab]

I'll try for a trump squeeze against LHO. I'll play off all but one trump and two high ♥ ending in my hand. My three cards ♠ - ♥ - ♦A ♣Kx opposite ♠x ♥ - ♦Qx ♣- . I have a feeling there's more to it than a simple trump squeeze, but realistically that's what I could come up with at the table.

[mikeh]

I cross in hearts and lead the club K.

If I squash the J, I claim (tho I wonder why, in a weak field, I didn't try the 10 at trick 2).

Obviously I am down if LHO ducked the AQx(x) in clubs at trick 2.

If LHO follows low....he played the Q from QJxx(x), the latter being a very good play, giving me a losing option that I promptly took....I run the spades. I will have retained the stiff heart K and the diamond Qx. In the 4 card end game, I have my last trump.

If LHO has the diamond K and the club J, he will be in a world of hurt when I cash the heart K. Dummy will hold void void Ax 10x, and he presumably the equivalent of void void Kx Jx. He has to reduce to void void Kx J. Dummy also reduces to 2=1 minors and I inflict the coup de grace via my last trump. LHO is squeezed in the minors.

If LHO shows out on the 3rd round of clubs, I play LHO to hold 6 hearts and the diamond K.

I run the spades to a 4 card ending, with me in hand with x K Qx void, dummy with void xx A10 void and LHO with void xx Kx void.

On my last trump, LHO is squeezed in the reds. If he pitches a heart, I pitch the diamond 10 and cash the heart K and now dummy is high.

He can't fool me by stiffing his diamond K, acting as if he were 1=5=5=2, since I can't make it on that line...RHO guards the hearts.

[ewj]

Can't I just cross to the spade ace, and run the club king? As long as East has the ace of clubs, I'm cold no? That's what I would do anyway

[mikeh]

ewj, on 2012-December-05, 16:48, said:

Can't I just cross to the spade ace, and run the club king? As long as East has the ace of clubs, I'm cold no? That's what I would do anyway

please explain. be precise in the sequence of cards you expect to play, bearing in mind that you were in dummy at trick 3 with the spade A.

At that stage, you have yet to see a club honour, so leading the Club K seems a bit odd, but maybe you can convince me.

[rhm]

rhm, on 2012-December-05, 08:05, said:

BBO Individual weak field

---

You receive the lead of the ♠5
You win in South and play club.
West plays low and you decide this West is not good enough to duck and play low your self.
East wins with the club 9 and persists with another spade, which you have to win with your ace.
When you ruff a club West drops the queen.

Plan the play

---

This was the actual layout, clearly indicated by the play if you assume sensible but not expert defense.
South clearly overbid but this makes for good declarer problems.
Philking and sathyab correctly diagonsed how declarer should have proceeded:

---

When you lead a heart to the ace East has no good discard.
I was North and annoyed missing the trump squeeze.

The deal was played 75 times, 23 times 6♠ was bid and 8 times it succeeded, typically on a minor suit lead or on bad defense.
Not a single time was the trump squeeze executed at the table.

Rainer Herrmann

[billw55]

Rainer, did I miss something, how is the ♦K with east clearly indicated by the play?

[PhilKing]

billw55, on 2012-December-06, 07:41, said:

Rainer, did I miss something, how is the ♦K with east clearly indicated by the play?

Nobody said it was.

Assuming the ♣Q is a true card, then if West is 1642 the simple squeeze on West and the trump squeeze have equal chances, whereas if West is 1552 or 1462 only the trump squeeze has a chance.

Having said that, by the time we have to commit ourselves, we will probably have worked out West's actual shape.