[han]

After a quick auction you find yourself in 6H with the following hands:

Scoring: IMP

---

West leads the diamond ace and continues with another diamond. Plan the play.

[DrTodd13]

It seems like 4-1 onside with singleton honor is higher odds than QJ doubleton of trump. So, play trump K and hope for singleton honor on your left and then take the hook. From the opening lead and continuation, it looks like LHO is hoping to give pd a ruff so let's give RHO a doubleton ♦. If 4-1 on our right we also need a trump coup and a !S pitch. We have to ruff twice in hand to equalize trump length. If RHO has 3 ♠ then you can get your spade pitch safely with a ♦. If RHO has a doubleton spade then how you play things depends on where you think the Q♠ is. I don't see a 100% line against all ♠ splits of 2+ with RHO and Q♠ locations. Then again, I'm very distracted now.

[JohnnyH7]

Think you're missing an option Todd, the title is a not so subtle clue.

[han]

Hey, don't ruin it Johnny!

[FrancesHinden]

Well, we could play for RHO to have Hxx in hearts.

Win the second diamond, ruff a diamond (let's hope everyone follows).
Three rounds of clubs discarding a spade.
Fourth club, on which RHO will discard, which we ruff in hand.
Spade to dummy. Fourth diamond, on which RHO will discard, and we ruff in hand.
Spade to dummy, spade in the 3-card ending.

We're hoping that RHO is down to Hxx hearts, and LHO down to Hx and a club.

This line needs RHO to hold
xxxx
Hxx
xxx
xxx

we might be able to cater for some other distributions by re-timing the cashing/discarding.

The alternative line is to play for LHO to have a singleton heart honour.
Win the second diamond, king of hearts, heart finesse.
Club to dummy, diamond ruff.
Club to dummy, third club discarding a spade (or over-ruffing), minor suit ruffed in hand (selected according to where we think RHO is following).
AK of spades, last minor suit card for a trump coup.

There is a lot more flexibility in the non-trump shapes compared to the first line if we can only read it: if RHO has at least 2 cards in every side suit we're OK, but only if we get the layout right.

I'm not sure which line offers the better odds, but I bet the first is the one the OP had in mind.

[pclayton]

FrancesHinden, on May 10 2006, 10:41 AM, said:

Well, we could play for RHO to have Hxx in hearts.

Win the second diamond, ruff a diamond (let's hope everyone follows).
Three rounds of clubs discarding a spade.
Fourth club, on which RHO will discard, which we ruff in hand.
Spade to dummy. Fourth diamond, on which RHO will discard, and we ruff in hand.
Spade to dummy, spade in the 3-card ending.

We're hoping that RHO is down to Hxx hearts, and LHO down to Hx and a club.

This line needs RHO to hold
xxxx
Hxx
xxx
xxx

we might be able to cater for some other distributions by re-timing the cashing/discarding.

The alternative line is to play for LHO to have a singleton heart honour.
Win the second diamond, king of hearts, heart finesse.
Club to dummy, diamond ruff.
Club to dummy, third club discarding a spade (or over-ruffing), minor suit ruffed in hand (selected according to where we think RHO is following).
AK of spades, last minor suit card for a trump coup.

There is a lot more flexibility in the non-trump shapes compared to the first line if we can only read it: if RHO has at least 2 cards in every side suit we're OK, but only if we get the layout right.

I'm not sure which line offers the better odds, but I bet the first is the one the OP had in mind.

Does RHO need to be 4=3=3=3? This is an interesting exercise, but I believe LHO must have 4+ cards in both minors, but has to have at least 3 spades (else the spade gets overruffed at T10).

So, yes, we need LHO to be 3=2=4=4, and RHO to be 4=3=3=3. While a devil's coup is fun on paper (I haven't had one in real life yet; although I had a stepping stone last night ), It seems playing LHO for the stiff Q or J and setting up a trump coup offers better chances.

It also seems to me that you can combine your chances for the respective devils / trump coup by delaying the critical decision (cashing the ♥K).