[pclayton]

Scoring: MP

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Edited:

South opened 1♠ and rebid 3♦ in a Jacoby auction. South took control but signed off.

For purposes of this thread, you lead the ♠10. Declarer wins and draws a 2nd round. On this trick, pard discards the ♦8 (discouraging).

Declarer tests the clubs (having started with Axx). On the 2nd, pard shows out and plays the ♦6 (present count showing an original holding of ♦86xxx.

Declarer now runs her spades. Plan your discards. You needs to come down to 3 cards after declarer finishes off the spade suit.

Scoring: MP

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Declarer plays the final spade. What do you pitch? By the way, pard gives you an encouraging heart along the way. If you need more info, ask.

[mikeh]

Sorry, Phil, but you screwed something up here: in the earlier post you had an auction that makes no sense with that dummy and thus invalidates the lead question.

To refresh: you gave:

1♠   2N
3♦   4♣
4N   5♥
6♠

Which has S taking control, not North.

And that auction bears NO resemblance to the dummy we see,

Leaving aside the odd 2N bid (who, in their right mind, bids Jacoby on that hand?), we have the oddity of N bypassing the easy 3♥ cue, with an Ace, to cue 4♣ on a K. Then, with N having presumably denied even 2nd round ♥ control, we have S, with at best AQxxxxx Qx J Axx using keycard!

Of course, your auction as posted virtually eliminated a ♥ lead since we all KNEW where the A was...except that we didn't.

As for the problem, assuming we had a more intelligible auction (I suspect you left out a 3♥ cue, and thus had the wrong hand cuebidding 4♣ and the wrong hand using keycard, and the wrong response to keycard ), and a non-♥ lead (I would have given serious consideration to a ♥ lead if I knew where the A was, but cannot be objective on that now)....

As to the problem as now posted, can you tell us if declarer ruffed the 4th ♣? i am assuming not

[bid_em_up]

Phil, this is kind of an impossible question to answer without knowing what 4 cards have you reduced yourself to at this point, and what four cards does dummy have remaining? If I understand the question correctly, declarer has shown up with 7 spades, 3 clubs, and 3 unknown red suit cards.

The auction and information given (from partners diamond plays) indicates that declarer has 2 hearts and 1 diamond.

I would assume you have void K A10 J and dummy has void AJ K 9 at this point, and you pitch the heart K (or the diamond 10, i think either works), since partner holding the heart Q is the only chance you have to beat this. If declarer has the heart Q, he has 12 tricks anyway.

Otherwise, I am totally misreading this.

[mikeh]

BTW, who on earth is declarer? With AQxxxxx xx x Axx, they had 12 aces on top: lead a ♦ at some relatively early point... and they'd be crazy to play any other way, given that a ♥ lead would probably have led to a set.

So we can assume AQxxxxx Qx x Axx, with the ♦ maybe the J....I doubt that you can safely infer that partner has specifically 86xxx of diamonds, because that leaves declarer with the singleton J9, which is an impossible holding

You didn't tell us that declarer ruffed the last ♣, so I assume she didn't.

It is difficult to be sure what to do when you don't get the ♦ suit right and don't tell us what dummy pitches to in the 4 card ending.

My guess is that she comes down to void AJ10 void x and in her hand x Qx J void, and then tables the last ♠, with you having void Kx A J.

You cannot pitch the ♦ IFF declarer has that J.. she plays it and repeats the squeeze, such that your ♥K shows up.

If you pitch the ♣, she may decide to take her 12 tricks... ♥ to the A and cash the ♣... she risks going down if you have made a nice falsecard, holding onto xx in ♥, to look like a player with Kx.

If you pitch a ♥, she really has no choice but to take the ♥ hook now... a questionable line in that she risks going down in a cold contract, but she might be trying to beat those in 6N.... an ironclad contract from her partner's side.

Well, maybe not so: if your partner has the Kx ♥ and the ♦A, he may have been reduced to Kx A and can be endplayed.... but maybe declarer is the trusting sort, who believe a defender's signals against slams ...but maybe a defender in that position would reduce to K Ax? Too many variables to worry about.

I pitch the ♣ in this assumed end position, since the alternatives lead inexorably to 13 tricks.

If she has xx in ♥s, she still comes to only the 12 tricks she started with, since the last 3 cards in dummy are void AJ void x and she can only take the ♥ and the ♣

[pclayton]

Declarer is fish food.

You are right; South did take control and signed off. I'm busy at work now, and I'll recreate the position a little later.

[cherdano]

Jlall, on Jan 11 2007, 08:40 PM, said:

I come down to a diamond and a club perforce...so I stiff my heart king.

I think it's sexier to throw the ♥K. (It might also help partner to come down to ♥Qx ♦x instead of ♥Qxx.)

[mikeh]

cherdano, on Jan 11 2007, 02:55 PM, said:

Jlall, on Jan 11 2007, 08:40 PM, said:

I come down to a diamond and a club perforce...so I stiff my heart king.

I think it's sexier to throw the ♥K. (It might also help partner to come down to ♥Qx ♦x instead of ♥Qxx.)

If our goal is to set the contract, I agree with this. But I was defending on the basis that declarer was not an utter beginner.... if partner holds the ♥Q, could any declarer with a pulse play in the stated manner? Why, why wouldn't declarer take her 12 top tricks, conceding a ♦? The scoring was given as mps, btw.

[pclayton]

mikeh, on Jan 12 2007, 08:28 AM, said:

cherdano, on Jan 11 2007, 02:55 PM, said:

Jlall, on Jan 11 2007, 08:40 PM, said:

I come down to a diamond and a club perforce...so I stiff my heart king.

I think it's sexier to throw the ♥K. (It might also help partner to come down to ♥Qx ♦x instead of ♥Qxx.)

If our goal is to set the contract, I agree with this. But I was defending on the basis that declarer was not an utter beginner.... if partner holds the ♥Q, could any declarer with a pulse play in the stated manner? Why, why wouldn't declarer take her 12 top tricks, conceding a ♦? The scoring was given as mps, btw.

From your standpoint, declarer is completely butchering this hand. There's no holding that makes sense that is consistent with pard's signaling and declarer's play.

Pard isn't in on the joke, however. For all pard knows, declarer has: AQxxxxx, Kx, x, Axx and is trying for a legitimate red suit squeeze. Pard will cling to ♥Qxx in the endgame, and declarer will get a heart trick in the wash.....unless you tell pard about the ♥K, and you need to do it now. Pard will save ♥Qx, ♦x and you will get the last laugh.