[rhm]

IMPs

---

West leads the ♣T. East follows with ♣6. Standard leads and carding.
Plan the play

Rainer Herrmann

[Hanoi5]

♣K, ♦K

[Kaitlyn S]

 Hanoi5, on 2016-November-21, 09:35, said:

♣K, ♦K

I think you need more than that This isn't a bridge movie.

Spoiler

I'll start with CK, DK. Assume it loses to East who returns a diamond. I ruff, heart to the ace, ruff a diamond. Now I lead a spade. If East has a single heart and the ♠KQx, he is not going to be happy. I don't think anybody can win the spade and hurt my chances if hearts are 2-2. I think this endplay has a better shot than queen third of clubs with hearts 3-1. My reasoning? If West has five diamonds and hearts don't break, he's probably bidding 3D, not 2D. Not vul, he might even bid 3D on Kxx, x, Jxxx, xxxxx.

If someone wins the spade and can lead a heart from three, I have to hope for a spade miracle.

[rhm]

 Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-21, 10:51, said:

I think you need more than that This isn't a bridge movie.

Spoiler

I'll start with CK, DK. Assume it loses to East who returns a diamond. I ruff, heart to the ace, ruff a diamond. Now I lead a spade. If East has a single heart and the ♠KQx, he is not going to be happy. I don't think anybody can win the spade and hurt my chances if hearts are 2-2. I think this endplay has a better shot than queen third of clubs with hearts 3-1. My reasoning? If West has five diamonds and hearts don't break, he's probably bidding 3D, not 2D. Not vul, he might even bid 3D on Kxx, x, Jxxx, xxxxx.

If someone wins the spade and can lead a heart from three, I have to hope for a spade miracle.

Why would East return a diamond when he can switch to a trump?

Rainer Herrmann

[Kaitlyn S]

 rhm, on 2016-November-21, 15:16, said:

Why would East return a diamond when he can switch to a trump?

Rainer Herrmann

I don't think that changes much. East leads a trump at trick 3, I win and ruff a diamond. Ruff a club and ruff a diamond. Spade from the dummy for the same endplay (and this is better since it picks up queen-third of clubs. Not so sure I can cater to both the endplay and queen-third of clubs if East returns a diamond so I assumed best defense by East.

[nige1]

rhm writes "IMPs. West leads the ♣T. East follows with ♣6. Standard leads and carding. Plan the play."

Intriguing problem, rhm! Kaitlyn's line is pretty:
Win lead with ♣K. Exit with ♦K. Win trump return with ♥K. Ruff a ♦. Ruff a ♣. Ruff a ♦. Exit in ♠. Winning when:
- trumps are 2-2; or
- RHO is endplayed; or
- ♣Q is trebleton.

---

[Fluffy]

I prefer to play for this lay out_

---

Win ♣K and play ♦K, ruff 2 diamonds in dummy and exit with third trump eventually.

[Kaitlyn S]

 Fluffy, on 2016-November-21, 18:21, said:

I prefer to play for this lay out_

---

Win ♣K and play ♦K, ruff 2 diamonds in dummy and exit with third trump eventually.

That's a pretty line also, but I wouldn't play for it because (a) East might open 2D and (b) West might bid 1NT. TBH I didn't consider distributions where West had only three diamonds although I can see where it might be necessary once in a while.

[MrAce]

 Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-21, 19:27, said:

That's a pretty line also, but I wouldn't play for it because (a) East might open 2D and (b) West might bid 1NT.

c- He would probably lead ♦

[MrAce]

 rhm, on 2016-November-21, 08:22, said:

IMPs

---

West leads the ♣T. East follows with ♣6. Standard leads and carding.
Plan the play

Rainer Herrmann

I would play W for having ♦A for not leading it.
He also does not have stiff spade or he would lead it.
I would also play W for having only 4 diamonds, with 5 he could have preempted instead of 2♦. I would definitely not play him for only 3 diamonds as Gonzalo did.


I would win the ♣K
Cash ♥K
And exit with ♦K

W now can not exit safely with ♣. He will exit spades or trump, if he has one.
If trumps are 2-2 no problem.
If E has 3 trumps, still no problem. If W has 3 of them I have a problem but that makes too many hcps for W with ♦A.
Assume he exit with spades, and assume this does not cost a trick for defense, I duck, E wins with Q.
His best defense is to play ♥ now. Assume hearts are not 2-2 and E originally held QJ9, now he plays Q and I win with A.
Ruff a ♦ to dummy
Cash ♣A discard a ♠
Play 3rd ♣ and ruff in hand. If ♣ Q still did not drop from E, that means he does not have it. Which makes E hold ♠ KQx or KQT originally for his opening.
Ruff my last ♦ and play 4th ♣. This is where E is screwed up! He can not ruff or I discard ♠! He can not pitch ♠ or I set spades. He has to pitch his last ♦ which is his best defense.
Then I ruff the 4th club and end play E with last trump, he has to play spades away from his Kx or KT now.

Basically I played for something like, which is most consistent with the auction and the lead.

---

There are hands that my line fails, for example when E has 1354, but as I said they are extremely unlikely when/if W has ♦ A.
I think I will pay off when E has Kx QJ9 QJxx Qxxx. Not sure if I can make it if they have this anyway.

[Kaitlyn S]

While it's a tough sell that East opened that hand, I must admit that I didn't consider why West didn't lead diamonds even though I did rule out a singleton spade that wasn't led.

[rhm]

 nige1, on 2016-November-21, 17:21, said:

rhm writes "IMPs. West leads the ♣T. East follows with ♣6. Standard leads and carding. Plan the play."

Kaitlyn's line is pretty: Win lead with ♣K. Exit with ♦K. Win trump return with ♥K. Ruff a ♦. Ruff a ♣. Ruff a ♦. Exit in ♠. Winning when:
- trumps are 2-2; or
- RHO is endplayed; or
- ♣Q is trebleton.

---

Well done

Rainer Herrmann

[Fluffy]

 Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-21, 19:27, said:

That's a pretty line also, but I wouldn't play for it because (a) East might open 2D and (b) West might bid 1NT. TBH I didn't consider distributions where West had only three diamonds although I can see where it might be necessary once in a while.

I somehow though East had overcalled 1♦ over 1♣. My construction makes no sense.

[MrAce]

 Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-22, 02:01, said:

While it's a tough sell that East opened that hand, I must admit that I didn't consider why West didn't lead diamonds even though I did rule out a singleton spade that wasn't led.

Note that, the hand I played for, the line I suggest does not make me lose anything if it turns out that E has the ♦A.

If E wins the ♦K and plays ♦ I play just like you said.
If he exits with 2nd trump (I cashed ♥A before ♦K) then trumps are 2-2.
If they are 3-1...

[nige1]

Another cunning variant, similar to Mr Ace's:
Win lead with ♣K. Exit with ♦K. Win trump return with ♥K. Ruff a ♦. Cash ♣A. Ruff a ♣. Ruff a ♦. Ruff a ♣, front-wash squeezing RHO in 3 suits including trumps. If RHO discards his ♦, then: Cash ♥A. Cash ♠A. Lead a ♠. If RHO allows LHO to win this, then you make your last ♥ en passant.

Making when
- trumps are 2-2 or
- ♣Q drops or
- RHO is 33 in the majors with one top ♠ honour.

---

[MrAce]

 nige1, on 2016-November-22, 04:34, said:

[hv=p c=n&e=SKT9HQJ9DAQJ7C765&s=sj872hak875dk42ck&n=sa654ht642d6caj83&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=pp1d1h2d4hppp]320|240| rhm writes "IMPs. West leads the ♣T. East follows with ♣6. Standard leads and carding. Plan the play."

Another cunning variant: Win lead with ♣K. Exit with ♦K. Win trump return with ♥K. Ruff a ♦. Cash ♣A, Ruff a ♣. Ruff a ♦. Ruff a ♣, squeezing East in 3 suits including trumps. Making when
- trumps are 2-2
- ♣Q drops.
- RHO is 3343 with one top trump honour.

Now you are coming to the point I suggested about squeezing and end playing East
But you are going down if E has the hand I gave to Rainer with your previous line,
With this latest line you are going down when E has

KQx
x
AQxxx
Qxxx

 rhm, on 2016-November-22, 03:28, said:

Well done

Rainer Herrmann

Not really well done if E had

KQx
QJ9
ATxxx
xx

 Kaitlyn S, on 2016-November-22, 02:01, said:

While it's a tough sell that East opened that hand, I must admit that I didn't consider why West didn't lead diamonds even though I did rule out a singleton spade that wasn't led.

Note that the line I suggest, does not prevent me from playing accordingly if ♦K is won by E. I simply mentioned how to squeeze and endplay East if W has ♦A and I could still do it if E has the Ace. My mistake was to cash ♥A. Also note the hand I just wrote above to Rainer for East, your line does not work even if they exit with ♦ after ♦A. Neither Nigel's line that Rainer said well done.

[rhm]

 MrAce, on 2016-November-22, 04:39, said:

Now you are coming to the point I suggested about squeezing and end playing East
But you are going down if E has the hand I gave to Rainer with your previous line,
With this latest line you are going down when E has

KQx
x
AQxxx
Qxxx




Not really well done if E had

KQx
QJ9
ATxxx
xx






Note that the line I suggest, does not prevent me from playing accordingly if ♦K is won by E. I simply mentioned how to squeeze and endplay East if W has ♦A and I could still do it if E has the Ace. My mistake was to cash ♥A. Also note the hand I just wrote above to Rainer for East, your line does not work even if they exit with ♦ after ♦A. Neither Nigel's line that Rainer said well done.

This is from real play.
Obviously the hand is cold if hears break, where we have no trump loser. So the question is what can be done when trumps do not break without jeopardizing our contract if they do.

From the bidding we can deduce with some likelihood

1) diamonds are likely 5-4
2) West does not have more than three spades (no negative double)

From the opening lead we can deduce with some likelihood

1) West does not have a singleton spade and spades should break 3-2
2) West has led from 109x(xx) in clubs and East holds the ♣Q. I would reject your construction though I admit it is a nice one. West would likely lead a diamond when East is likely to have the diamond ace or possibly a spade, which beats the contract most of the time when it can be beaten. Few would lead a club from QT9xxx against this bidding.

If clubs are not 4-4 we can either ruff out the club queen or if West has led from 109x in clubs we can establish the club 8 for a second club discard by forcing a cover of the club jack.
What to do in case clubs are 4-4?

If East has 3 hearts ruffing out the club queen is clearly percentage. He is not likely to have 4 clubs in this case. If East is 2=3=4=4 West at all white with 5 diamonds and a singleton heart might have jump raised to 3 diamonds.
So chances are that West has 3 hearts and in this case East most likely distribution is 3♠=1♥=5♦=4♣.

Kaitlin's solution covers both cases well.

Of course East could be 2-1-5-5 or 3-1-5-4 with only one spade honor, in which case different lines of plays might work.
But given the bidding and play Kaitlin's line seems to me the one most likely to succeed and would have at the table.

The first step in all successful lines is to realize that it is not necessary to play the singleton diamond from dummy towards the king even though East is a favorite to hold the ace. This almost always losses when hearts do not break. For that reason I did not want to tell anybody who has the diamond ace.

Rainer Herrmann

[Kaitlyn S]

I am not going to crow because my line would have worked. It was a decent line IMO but from the later responses, I think it can be improved upon. On the other hand, it was very bad that I didn't consider why LHO led a club and not a diamond, and I'm surprised that the thread got as far as it did before somebody mentioned it.

It has become quite clear to me that I am greatly outclassed by the other posters in this forum and it's an accomplishment when my line is even seriously considered. At first, I thought the Expert forum was for the BBO "experts" but have found a distinct lack of that level poster in these threads.

The type of poster that I am really surprised that I don't see more of here is the people posting questions in the expert forum because they want to see how experts answer. Clearly that is not the intent of the expert forum and the experts are happy to answer the questions in I/A and B/N but TBH I don't know how a new user would know this (they probably don't read the "Read This First" type posts.)

[Kaitlyn S]

duplicate post

[MrAce]

Kaitlyn, you did fine and you are definitely not outclassed in anyway.

Note that neither you, nor me, lose much from making the 4♠ when other defender holds the ♦A that we did not expect.
I can play the line you and Nigel suggested if my ♦K is won by E instead of W.
And vice versa, you can always change gears if your ♦K is won by W instead of E and play the line I suggested.