Can you land your slam?

#1 Walddk

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Posted 2006-April-28, 15:11

Scoring: IMP

Strong game on BBO; all 4 players are world class. You, as South, have arrived in the reasonable 6♥, and you get the following info:

You open 1♣, 2♠ weak to your left, double from partner and you rebid 3♥. Sweet music to partner's ears and seconds later you are declarer in 6♥. West leads ♠Q, and the first 3 tricks are:

♠Q, A, 7, 5
♥6, 2, K, 3
♥Q, ♠3, ♥8, ♥4

Bad news but not a big shock on the auction. How do you proceed from here?

Roland

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice

#2 Guest_Jlall_*

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Posted 2006-April-28, 15:42

I would play king of spades and a spade ruffing high, hook the heart, cross to my club ace, pull trumps pitching a diamond and lead a club to the jack. I make unless Spades are 7-1 with the CQ offside, or if LHO has a stiff club to go with his stiff heart. Both are pretty much impossible from a white/red 2S bidder.

#3 mikeh

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Posted 2006-April-28, 15:55

I was writing a much longer post (to no-one's surprise) when I saw Justin's when I previewed mine

He said it far more concisely that I was going to.

Incidentally, when thinking about an alternate line (an immediate ♣ hook of the J) it struck me that I was surprised that declarer had not reflexibly unblocked in trump: indeed, if one were going to play a ♣ to the Jack at trick 4, there are holdings on which one HAD to have unblocked the 8 and 9 of trump in order to survive (imagine RHO with 2=4=5=2 shape and the Qx ♣, winning and returning a ♣.

As it happens, declarer was probably ahead of me (another non-surprise) and already knew that he was playing as per Justin's line, in which it doesn't matter: even if ♣ are 5-0, east cannot usefully ruff in on the first round.

'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari

#4 FrancesHinden

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Posted 2006-April-29, 04:40

What Justin and Mike said (usually a good bet for play problems).

Only reason I can see to have a rethink is if they are playing reverse count on the opening lead, which increases the chance that spades are 7-1.

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