[Trumpace]

Scoring: Rubber

lead ♦J

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West was dealer and prempted with a 2♦ call. You are south and you reach 6NT.

Plan the play on ♦J lead.

ADV/+ please hide your answers and please avoid responding too early.

(Beginners, do not attempt. If you do attempt and get it without any help, you show a lot of promise, or you underestimate yourself )

If you are stuck: HINT:

Spoiler

It involves an automatic squeeze

:

Note: this is meant as a puzzle hand, so please don't argue if it is really intermediate or not. I think as a puzzle, it is best suited here.

[inquiry]

No hint needed,,,

Spoiler

11 tricks, knocking out the ♣A will correct the count but there is serious transportation problem.. 12 trick from ♥=♠ squeeze on EAST so the threat has to be the 3rd spade in your hand. Cash ♠AK (vienna coup) then lead clubs.... play EAST for 3-4 ♠, 4♥ and not ♣Ace... Run all clubs keep ♥AKx in dummy.. if your ♠ is not good (also cash ♦ after you knock out ♣ ACe, play hearts from top.

[pclayton]

Agree wth Ben. By the way, I think this is spot-on for the BI section.

[jocdelevat]

I count 11 tricks . I need one more trick.My plan is after take the diamond lead tu run clubs till pull out the ace the come back on diamond finish the remaining clubs then run the spades ace and king follow by ace king of hearts hoping opps to discard the spades and keep hearts so i can make a third spade.

[SoTired]

Planning to knock out the ♣A and run the clubs, if you look ahead a little you will see there are 6 small major suit cards in dummy. You will pitch 5 on the clubs. Which ever major AK you blank on the last club, the defense does not have to guard, so that plan cannot work.

[inquiry]

pclayton, on Dec 13 2006, 01:28 PM, said:

Agree wth Ben. By the way, I think this is spot-on for the BI section.

You know, I posted a long series of articles on squeezes in the BI section, dealing with what they are, and how to identify them, and was roundly accused of presenting material "too complicated" for intermediates (BI includes intermediates). I happened to disagree, so I pretty much ignored the comments. Any BI who studied those notes should have been able to spot this one fairly quickly. So needless to say, I agree with your and trmpace's idea that this hand is appropriate for this user group.

I read trumpace's hint now, just one comment.. technically, an automatic squeeze does not require the unblock (vienna coup), of course, once you do unblock, the squeeze becomes an automatic one.

[HeartA]

I have to take the chance that the opp who has ♣A has (at most) 2 spades only. So I need to cash ♠AK at tricks #2&3, and then play clubs.