[FrancesHinden]

Our opponents in a league match went off in this contract last night. How would you play it?

Scoring: IMP

1♥ P P x
P 1NT all pass

---

LHO leads the 8 of hearts (standard leads) which runs round to your Queen.
What do you do next?

[ArcLight]

We have 21 HCP, East opened but West couldnt scrape up a bid.
I think of the 19 HCP out, West has at least 14, and could be a bit more.

Thus the Club finesse (running the Jack) is a poor percentage play.

We will lose 4 hearts (maybe 5), but with a huge hand and 6 hearts to the AK East may have rebid the suit, so say 4 losers.

The Spade ace is 5.

I would Play on Diamonds:
A, Q, then to K.
West may be short, since (s)he has 5 hearts.
Force out the west Diamond stopper if one is there

Then force out the Spade Ace.

East can not affort to lead Clubs

[FrancesHinden]

Sorry, I shouldn't have called it an 'easy play problem' when posting in this forum, because the point is that for B/I players it isn't....otherwise I wouldn't have posted it!

[ArcLight]

FrancesHinden, on Jun 6 2006, 09:16 AM, said:

Sorry, I shouldn't have called it an 'easy play problem' when posting in this forum, because the point is that for B/I players it isn't....otherwise I wouldn't have posted it!

Oh oh. Now I'm worried. Is this one of those non-simultaneous quadruple Hinden squeezes from Adventures in Card Play?

I don't see a squeeze because East likely has the clubs.
And West the diamonds. You can give up 4 hearts but thats not enogh to recify the count. If you run off 2 spades East can duck, unless he's forced to take his ace on the 2nd round.

You need 4 Diamonds, 1 heart , and 2 spades.
If you attack Diamonds, and they are 4-1 you are fine. If 5-0, then you are hosed, unless you can bring in the Clubs.

If they are 5-0 then run the Jack of Clubs

[david_c]

ArcLight, on Jun 6 2006, 03:45 PM, said:

You need 4 Diamonds, 1 heart , and 2 spades.
If you attack Diamonds, and they are 4-1 you are fine.

Remember to count your opponents' tricks. Can you afford to lose a diamond?

[ArcLight]

>Remember to count your opponents' tricks. Can you afford to lose a diamond?

OOps!
They have 4 hearts, 1 Spade, 1 Club. I overlooked the Club, just thinking they wouldn't lead that suit, but of course they would as the setting trick.

If West gets in and leads a Club, and East has AQ you are hosed.

You really need Diamonds to be 3-2

I don't see a squeeze nor an elimination/endplay

I don't think its possible to Eliminate/endplay East by cashing Diamonds and then Spades because east can win the ace and continue spades.

With Ax will East Duck a lead of a spade from Dummy?

How is this:

Test the diamonds, King then Ace maintaing the hidden Q, and then run the Club J if Diamonds don't come in.
Then flush out the Spade Ace, then cash your King of Clubs.

[Impact]

You will make if D32 unless you mispick the ending (opponents have 4H and 2 black A, if H bereak worse than 53 you are down anyway) - so one risk is that LHO forces you to unguard a suit.

You are likely off if you generate an extra trick for the opponents (D4-1) unless that hand (responder presumably) has no entry - and then you need CA onside.

Since only dummy can guard C in the likely event of being forced to guess you must avoid playing SK from hand.

So, cash DAQ - if they break you have 6 tricks and should take them,and must exit with S honour from dummy as opener can cash H and CA otherwise and make you guess...and you will play West for CA if he leads low..

If D do not break, you have to assume that RHO (responder) holds 4D (note cashing DAQ means that you would pick up West's 4D anyway assuming a sing J/T) and no entry.

In these circumstances you need 2S and C to go with the H, 3D.

Now the key is to realise that you will have to find 4 discards from dummy and be in position to lead a C towards dummy...and that opener does not hold 4S! You actually cannot cover all reasonable possibilities if you have
played DAQ first as a good defender can stop you coming to hand.

For that reason (and the likelihood that if D don't break West is unlikely to hold 4 given his H lenght), there is good reason to eschew the best play in the D suit and instead play DKQ ending in hand to lead a S hoping opener (assuming non-breaking D) is 3-5-1-4...if he wins that trick you are home, otherwise just play 2nd S and you retain D entry to hand to lead C up...

[FrancesHinden]

This is actually a real death-trap of a hand.
Thanks to the people who have replied so far - I know it must feel a bit like putting your head on the block.

You've spotted the problems, but I'm not sure they've yet been solved.

It's worth thinking a bit about the heart suit: LHO led the 8, but we know we need hearts to be 5-3 to have any hope of making anyway, so the 8 must be the lowest heart from J98. RHO will know that as well - certainly after seeing the 9 on the second round - so LHO has a heart entry if necessary. That means we need the CQ onside anyway to make. It also means that RHO must have both the black aces, or LHO would have had a response to 1H (HJ, CQ and an ace).

(In fact, all this analysis of the high cards and distribution is not always entirely necessary for this hand, but it's good practice - and as the opponents can organise to give us the club guess if they want to, a good idea.)

The bit that is necessary is to realise that as soon as we lose the lead, they are going to cash hearts. Even if diamonds break, you could be in trouble. Impact suggests taking your 5 diamond tricks before playing a spade... but what you are planning to discard from hand on the 4th and 5th diamonds? Two clubs? Then what are you going to discard from hand on the 4th and 5th hearts? As you say, a good idea to keep that SK in your hand.

[foo]

♠QJ9♥T4♦K9764♣K63
♠K84♥Q52♦AQ3♣JT82

1H-pa-pa-X;
pa-1N-end

{??? Is the given correct? N made a balancing T/O X with =3253 and 9 HCP?}

They have 6 tricks as soon as They get in (SA + 4H's + CA)
LHO can't have either A and J98 of H's or they would have been able to respond to 1H. At best LHO has HJ+DJ+CQ.

The simplistic line that comes to mind is
1= Try to cash 5 D's, tossing 2 H's from hand, and noting discards so you know what you are going to be able to toss when They get in and cash whatever H's They have left.
2= Now put the SJ on the felt. If it holds, put SQ on the felt.
The goal w/ this line is 2S's+5D's or 1S+5D's+1C

[ArcLight]

>Thanks to the people who have replied so far - I know it must feel a bit like putting your head on the block.

The way to learn is to volunteer and get crushed. You are humbled, BUT you learn for next time.

>It's worth thinking a bit about the heart suit: LHO led the 8, but we know we need hearts to be 5-3 to have any hope of making anyway, so the 8 must be the lowest heart from J98. RHO will know that as well - certainly after seeing the 9 on the second round - so LHO has a heart entry if necessary. That means we need the CQ onside anyway to make. It also means that RHO must have both the black aces, or LHO would have had a response to 1H (HJ, CQ and an ace).

This is a point I had not considered. What lead convention do the opps use from 3 small or from a suit pard bid that they didnt support? MUD? Lowest?
What about from a doubleton? Ive seen some pairs use lwest from a doubleton (usually those tricky English!)


Frances, one point - What about covering the opening lead with the 10?
What does that cost? The plus is that west can't get in on hearts.
And if East covers it with the A or K, even better, as it implies West has the J.

[FrancesHinden]

ArcLight, on Jun 7 2006, 01:35 PM, said:

This is a point I had not considered. What lead convention do the opps use from 3 small or from a suit pard bid that they didnt support? MUD? Lowest?
What about from a doubleton? Ive seen some pairs use lwest from a doubleton (usually those tricky English!)


Frances, one point - What about covering the opening lead with the 10?
What does that cost? The plus is that west can't get in on hearts.
And if East covers it with the A or K, even better, as it implies West has the J.

If it's from a doubleton, you are off (5 hearts and 2 aces). But it's certainly worth enquiring about their lead style from 3 cards in a suit partner bid that they didn't support.

This particular LHO (me!) would make a count lead in partner's bid but not supported suit, so if the 8 is from a 3-card holding, which we need, it's from honour-9-8.

Putting the 10 on from dummy won't stop West having a heart entry: RHO can win with the ace or king and play a low one back.

(you were lucky you didn't have Q10x in hand, or RHO would have won the first heart and played a low one back anyway to give you the guess.)

[david_c]

Ho hum. Without really thinking about it, I would have led a small spade to the queen at trick two. The reason being that I don't fancy my chances at all if diamonds don't break, and if they do break I want the opponents to defend without knowing I have five diamond tricks to take. But if Frances is on my left that's all a bit futile . I'm now getting the feeling that it might be the right play for the wrong reason.

By the way, it's probably better to write the bidding as

- - 1♥ P
P x P 1NT

so that East is to the right of West. Some people seem to be assuming that the strong hand is on your left.

[bid_em_up]

foo, on Jun 7 2006, 05:13 AM, said:

{??? Is the given correct? N made a balancing T/O X with =3253 and 9 HCP?}

Is there a problem with this?

It is almost mandantory that North reopens in this position, in order to cater to a trap pass by South. Since he can tolerate whatever South bids, he should X.

[bid_em_up]

I find this to be an interesting play problem.

Taking a quick assesment of winners, I find that I have 1 heart in the bag, and 5 possible diamonds tricks, and then probably 1 trick in the black suits in the end position.

Alternatively, if the diamonds dont break, I can score 1 ♥, 3♦, 2♠, and 1♣ (or possibly 2♣ and 1 ♠) if I get really lucky. My first step is to cash the AQ♦ to see if they break.

Do they split 3-2 or not? Can I tell which hand holds the diamond J?

[Trumpace]

I am pretty sure the correct answer would have been posted by now, still I will give it a try.


It looks like you need diamonds 3-2 and hearts 5-3 and Club Q with West.

Win the ♥Q and play a spade up to the Q or J.
If this is ducked, play on diamonds and make your contract.

If RHO wins this and cashes hearts, throw 2 spades and a club from dummy. 2 clubs from hand or (1 club and 1 spade).

It is necessary that there is at least one entry to both hand and dummy. For that reason leave the ♦K and ♦A alone. For instance, if say, you cash ♦A,Q before playing a spade to the Q, RHO will win, cash his hearts and stick you in dummy with a diamond. You are now cut off from the Spade K.

If you cash the ♦K and the the ♠Q, after RHO wins the hearts, you will be stuck in hand with a spade lead.

[FrancesHinden]

Well, I originally intended to make two very simple points, though in fact the hand turned out to be more interesting than I had thought. So this is going to be a bit of an essay.

The two simple points were:
i) If RHO has singleton D10 or J you have 5 diamond tricks as long as you start with the AQ
ii) There is a standard piece of play advice "when in doubt run your long suit" but here you aren't in doubt and you shouldn't run your long suit.

We've observed that if LHO has led from J98 then they have a heart entry and you need the CQ onside, but if possible we should try and find a line that doesn't depend on the CQ onside, because they might misdefend (or LHO might have led the 8 from 98x or 8xx or something asystemic). We also should endeavour not to go off when diamonds are 3-2.

If diamonds break, we have 5 diamond tricks, 1 heart and two spades - plenty, except that they have 4 hearts and 2 aces first. If they don't break, we'll need to take a club finesse as well.

How can it hurt to play diamonds first?

If we take the A and K or the K and Q (as suggested), keeping a top honour in hand, and play a spade, then even if diamonds are 3-2 we are going to be in trouble. We have to find 3 discards from dummy and 2 discards from hand, and keep sufficient entries to cash the top diamond and get back to dummy. If you work it through you'll find we have to discard two diamond winners from dummy and are back needing the club finesse. So we can't do that.

If we start by taking the AQ of diamonds only, then play a spade, RHO may be able to win the first spade and cash hearts. We can discard one club from dummy, but will then be stuck if RHO can return the third diamond, as Trumpace pointed out.

What about this possble club finesse? Suppose we take the AQ of diamonds and RHO shows out (without singleton J or 10). If RHO has J10xx he can play another diamond when he's in and will have 7 tricks before we do, but LHO might have J10xx. Now we run the jack of clubs to RHO's ace? If LHO covers, RHO can play a club back and we'll need to guess immediately if he has the 9 of clubs (finesse) or a doubleton (rise). Gulp. No, we don't want to do that yet, so we can play a spade: we know we can always get back to hand with the king of spades. So spade to the Queen ducked... but we'd better take the DK now we're here or we'll never make it.... and we're off if RHO had Jxxx or 10xxx because he'll be able to cash it (whereas before we'd kept hold of the tenace in dummy). Second spade taken, hearts cashed. Dummy discards a club and 2 diamonds, hand discards two clubs and we are just about OK as long as RHO was exactly 3514.

Now suppose diamonds are 3-2 all along. What if we cash all 5 diamonds discarding hearts from hand? We then play a spade, RHo will win and cash hearts. We'll have played 5 diamond tricks, 5 heart tricks and a spade in total, so dummy and hand each come down to 2 cards. Dummy must keep Kx of clubs, so hand will have a spade honour. Better make sure we keep the SKx in hand as we run diamonds.

So we can survive by starting with the AQ of diamonds as long as we are really, really careful later on. But the point of this hand was that you can avoid the need to be really, really careful later on if you simply don't touch diamonds. Play a spade towards dummy at trick 2. If that is taken, you can discard a club, a diamond and a spade from dummy and two clubs from hand with no problems at all. If that is ducked, play the AQ of diamonds. If they come in you have 7 tricks. If they don't, cash the AKQ of diamonds and play a second spade honour from dummy, planning to take the club finesse eventually.

We can avoid the need to be careful by setting up our 7 tricks early. At the table, declarer wasn't careful:

---

He won the opening heart lead with the Queen, and ran five rounds of diamonds, discarding two spades from hand. Oops. He then played a spade off dummy, and RHO rose with the ace. On the last heart dummy had to discard from the queen of spades and Kx of clubs, and he had to guess what RHO's 13th card was. He decided RHO had come down to Ax of clubs, discarded the SQ from dummy, and East's 7 of spades was the setting trick.