[WellSpyder]

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(Imps, NS Vul)
1♠ was Precision (max 15 points). Any better ideas for North's bidding?

What is the best line in 6♠ after West leads ♣K? (East plays ♣9, standard count - or a singleton, of course).

[dicklont]

I like the 5♠ call, it brought you to a good slam.
I can afford one round of trumps, winning in south. Then 3 rounds of hearts pitching the clubs and diamond queen.
After regaining the lead diamond king and ruff diamonds with A and Q.
This works with diamonds 4-2 and hearts 4-3 or when west holds a red singleton with a singleton trump.
With trumps 2-2 and a red singleton I go down.

[WellSpyder]

dicklont, on 2014-April-08, 04:17, said:

With trumps 2-2 and a red singleton I go down.

Also if N has 2 trumps and 2 hearts?

If you play a trump at T2, both follow....

[mikeh]

I think this is the sort of hand on which one can start with a general idea, but the specific line one takes mid-hand depends on what one learns as one proceeds.

Obviously we win trick one, and equally obviously we play some trump.

I'd win the 1st two trumps in hand, unless LHO shows out...see below.

Now, if trump are 2-2, I have 12 winners....I can score 7 trump tricks by ruffing diamonds in dummy, and getting 7 spades, 3 hearts, and 1 in each minor.

So we assume a bad trump break.

let's look at 1=3, the most likely lie. The hand is cold now (edit, as noted below, as part of the original version of this post, this is incorrect....we are cold if rho has 5 hearts, with 3=6=3=1, I think we are down)

We draw 2 rounds...and now play on hearts to pitch clubs.

If hearts are 4-3, we ruff one and set up our 12th trick in the suit.

So assume they are not 4-3. Let's give RHO 5, which is, again, a likely lie...LHO being now 1=2=3=7.

We ruff a club. This is the key...what can East pitch on the club?

If he pitches a heart, we can cross to dummy's spade A and ruff another heart, establishing our 12th trick.

If he pitches a diamond, then he is now down to a 3 card holding, as is his partner, and we drive out the diamond A, and ruff the 3rd round of the suit in dummy, establishing our long diamond for our 12th trick.

If he underruffs ahead of us, then the play reverts to a 2-2 trump lie and we are cold.

If spades are 0-4, we stop trump immediately, cash the top hearts to pitch clubs and play on diamonds...we can't pull 2 rounds of trump because RHO may win the diamond Ace (capturing the Q) and play a 3rd round. We are hoping for 5 trump in hand, 1 high diamond, 3 tops hearts, the club A and two diamond ruffs in dummy

If rho is 3=6=3=1, then I think we are down, but I haven't spent any time on that layout. I mean, I could clearly make by pulling only one trump and then reverting to the ruff diamonds twice line, but then I fail if trump were 2-2 and LHO had either a stiff or doubleton heart, or a stiff diamond.....but I was always failing then, since he could and arguably should have led a stiff spot (stiff Ace doesn't bother me)

[gszes]

GO MIKE H

[larlar]

mikeh, on 2014-April-08, 10:41, said:

I think this is the sort of hand on which one can start with a general idea, but the specific line one takes mid-hand depends on what one learns as one proceeds.

Obviously we win trick one, and equally obviously we play some trump.

I'd win the 1st two trumps in hand, unless LHO shows out...see below.

Now, if trump are 2-2, I have 12 winners....I can score 7 trump tricks by ruffing diamonds in dummy, and getting 7 spades, 3 hearts, and 1 in each minor.

So we assume a bad trump break.

let's look at 1=3, the most likely lie. The hand is cold now (edit, as noted below, as part of the original version of this post, this is incorrect....we are cold if rho has 5 hearts, with 3=6=3=1, I think we are down)

We draw 2 rounds...and now play on hearts to pitch clubs.

If hearts are 4-3, we ruff one and set up our 12th trick in the suit.

So assume they are not 4-3. Let's give RHO 5, which is, again, a likely lie...LHO being now 1=2=3=7.

We ruff a club. This is the key...what can East pitch on the club?

If he pitches a heart, we can cross to dummy's spade A and ruff another heart, establishing our 12th trick.

If he pitches a diamond, then he is now down to a 3 card holding, as is his partner, and we drive out the diamond A, and ruff the 3rd round of the suit in dummy, establishing our long diamond for our 12th trick.

If he underruffs ahead of us, then the play reverts to a 2-2 trump lie and we are cold.

If spades are 0-4, we stop trump immediately, cash the top hearts to pitch clubs and play on diamonds...we can't pull 2 rounds of trump because RHO may win the diamond Ace (capturing the Q) and play a 3rd round. We are hoping for 5 trump in hand, 1 high diamond, 3 tops hearts, the club A and two diamond ruffs in dummy

If rho is 3=6=3=1, then I think we are down, but I haven't spent any time on that layout. I mean, I could clearly make by pulling only one trump and then reverting to the ruff diamonds twice line, but then I fail if trump were 2-2 and LHO had either a stiff or doubleton heart, or a stiff diamond.....but I was always failing then, since he could and arguably should have led a stiff spot (stiff Ace doesn't bother me)

beautiful line!!

[WellSpyder]

Well done, mikeh.

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Most suggestions work. You can draw one round of trumps, then play on ♥ to discard the ♣losers, continue ♦ and cross-ruff. You can play a ♦straight away since East has ♦A and the defence cannot cash a ♣. However, in a recent county A teams of 8 match we lost a large swing on this hand since both our pairs bid the slam and went off, while neither of the oppo's pairs bid it - more than enough to reverse the result of the match.

In practice, both declarers drew 2 rounds of trumps, since they were reluctant to give up on the chance of trumps 2-2. Then both played 3 rounds of ♥ to discard the ♣ losers, planning to ruff out the ♥s if the suit broke 4-3. Unfortunately neither declarer saw the advantage of ruffing the ♣ loser at this point, and whether they ruffed a ♥ and then played a ♦ or played a ♦ straight away, East made no mistake and returned his last trump after winning ♦A. Sigh....

[cherdano]

Very nice - let me just add that Mike's line of course also works when RHO is 3631 but does not have ♦A - we just set up a diamond trick and finish with a high cross-ruff. (I don't see anything else to play for when RHO shows up with 3=6 in the majors.)