[Free]

Scoring: IMP

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Bidding (not produced by me or any of my partners, so don't argue about that plz ):
1♣* - 2♥ - Dbl - 3♥
6♠ - all pass
(* is forcing: natural or some strong balanced hands)

You end up in 6♠ by South. LHO leads ♥Q. Plan the play, preferably the safest line

[pclayton]

Free, on Oct 24 2006, 05:26 AM, said:

Scoring: IMP

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Bidding (not produced by me or any of my partners, so don't argue about that plz ):
1♣* - 2♥ - Dbl - 3♥
6♠ - all pass
(* is forcing: natural or some strong balanced hands)

You end up in 6♠ by South. LHO leads ♥Q. Plan the play, preferably the safest line

We start with 5 clubs, 4 spades, the A♦ and the ♥ ruff for 11. By the way, what is this Q lead? Is it from AKQ? KQ (rusinow) or KQT? It might matter, so ask. For this hand, I'll assume its AKQ.

Ruff the heart, club to J, pass the J♦.

1. If covered; cash the AK of trump:

A. If they break, draw the last trump, run the clubs pitching 3 hearts and concede a ♦ for 12.

B. If trump don't break, knock out the ♦ while we still have trump control - exactly HOW we knock out the diamond matters (read down), because if they tap the closed hand (after ♥ruff, ♣J, ♦J, Q (A), ♠AK, ♦ conceded), the hand becomes the most interesting.

To knock out the ♦ play the ♦9 leaving RHO with a Hobson's choice: if he wins, I have a dummy re-entry to draw the trump (after the closed hand is tapped), and if he ducks, the ♦9 is trick #12

If the ♦J wins, I have my 12th trick immediately.

2. If the diamond LOSES:

A. The best defense is a heart tapping the closed hand. Now I need to ruff high, cash the K♠ and overtake the J with the Q and (hopefully draw the last trump with the ♠10). The 2nd heart trick becomes my 12th trick. I can't see how I can combine losing the ♦ with 4-1 trump.

B. If LHO goes passive with a trump or a club after winning the ♦, rely on the 2nd ♦ hook for #12. Note we need to risk the ♦ hook immediately after trump. If it loses kindly ask LHO why he made a jump overcall with a 14 count.

[Blofeld]

The two lines that immediately appeal are ruffing two hearts, or taking the double diamond finesse.

If we ruff two hearts then we need two entries to dummy - one to ruff the second heart, and one to pull trumps at the end. There's an entry in clubs, but we'd need to use a trump for the second entry, which would mean that we'd only have 3 high trumps to clear the opponents' with.

So that needs trumps 3-2 and no club void.

The double diamond finesse involves ruffing high, playing a high trump then a low one to the Q, then finessing ♦s. If this loses then we're ok so long as nobody has a club or diamond singletong, and trumps are 4-1 at worst (and at least 1 diamond honour is onside).

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But of course these lines lend themselves readily to combination. Ruff high, play a high trump then a low one to the Q. If trumps are 3-2 then you ruff another heart, and if not you play for the diamonds to come in.

My play analysis isn't very good, but that's the best I can come up with.

[Free]

I don't know what the ♥Q means, but it's definetly not important. LHO has another high one and the ♥T. It's probably some Russinov lead...

[Free]

The way Phil says is pretty nice, but I think it doesn't work. RHO has ♦KQxx so if you're playing ♦9 the hands will block if he continues a ♣.

The only successful line of play is a small ♦ to the J at trick 2: this way you keep your entry to draw trumps, you keep communication between the hands, and you can handle a 4-1♠ split. Only problem is when LHO has ♦Hxx and decides not to take it immediatly.

[lowerline]

Free, on Oct 24 2006, 08:26 AM, said:

Scoring: IMP

---

Bidding (not produced by me or any of my partners, so don't argue about that plz ):
1♣* - 2♥ - Dbl - 3♥
6♠ - all pass
(* is forcing: natural or some strong balanced hands)

You end up in 6♠ by South. LHO leads ♥Q. Plan the play, preferably the safest line

I don't see how to deal with spades 4-1...
I will ruff the lead. Play 2 rounds of spades ending in dummy and take the double diamond finesse. When RHO puts in the K/Q I will duck, playing him for KQ. I have one trump left in hand to ruff a heart continuation and the club jack as entry to draw the last trump and take the diamond finesse again.

Steven

[pclayton]

Free, on Oct 26 2006, 07:45 AM, said:

The way Phil says is pretty nice, but I think it doesn't work. RHO has ♦KQxx so if you're playing ♦9 the hands will block if he continues a ♣.

The only successful line of play is a small ♦ to the J at trick 2: this way you keep your entry to draw trumps, you keep communication between the hands, and you can handle a 4-1♠ split. Only problem is when LHO has ♦Hxx and decides not to take it immediatly.

LHO won't grab the ♦ from Hxx, and shouldn't from even Hx.

Maybe double hooking diamonds was necessary on the actual layout (I'm guessing RHO had HHx or HHxx of diamonds and 4 trump), but leading diamonds from hand is really sub-optimal, unless you absolutely believe that LHO doesn't have an honor.