Declarer play problem

Ok, let me try.

You have to play for a layout like this:

I played around with Bene's 1st line; duck a diamond. However, the defense can counter all your moves. For instance, say you try: 1. Diamond duck, 2. spade return, 3. concede a heart; the defense can always prevail, unless you get a miracle layout like the stiff ♠K. However, unless the defense is very lazy, and doesn't push a club through, you can succeed by squeezing RHO in the minors.

Therefore, I don't think the hand can be made if RHO holds a trump.

Look at the layout above. If you duck a diamond, RHO can win, play a heart and LHO plays a trump. Later when LHO wins the ♠K, a ♣ through breaks up the squeeze.

So what you must do is WIN the 1st diamond, and play A♣, J♣. When RHO wins, pitch your heart and the defense is helpless. RHO plays another heart (as good as anything), you ruff and exit the ♦J, and you can ruff the ♦ after all.

Note that if ♦'s are 7-1, LHO can ruff his partner's trick to play the trump, but that would just be too mean wouldn't it?

[quote name='Patapon' date='Jan 21 2007, 12:12 AM'] I think you can always make Phil, even if you play low Diamond at trick two on the layout you propose.

Even if RHO returns a Club when he wins the King of Spade,he doesn't break up the squeeze since the Ace of Diamond is still in dummy to communicate.

Scoring: Unknown

♠
♥	x
♦	A
♣	Jx

♠
♥
♦	x
♣	xxx

♠
♥	K
♦	Kx
♣	K

♠	QJ
♥
♦	Jx
♣

The problem is that the 10 of Club is still not useful in this line!
And the contract is always down on a trump lead.. [/quote]
How did you get the [he] guard exclusively in East? You don't have the entries to the board to ruff 2 hearts to isolate the [he] menace. As long as West can guard hearts, this squeeze position becomes isometric with the club shift.

After I posted this last night, a thought at 2AM came to me. The loser-on-loser also works in this layout:

Dealer:

North

Vul:

????

Scoring:

Unknown

When you play the A[cl], East can't afford an unblock of the King, since you now make a club trick by force. But also note that if East has Qx, West can't afford to overtake to play a trump for the same reason.

The rabbit hole seems to go pretty deep here, but somehow I don't think we've hit bottom. :blink:

"Phil" on BBO

#9 Patapon

Group: Full Members
Posts: 82
Joined: 2003-March-20
Gender:Female
Location:Paris

Posted 2007-January-21, 14:36

Quote :"How did you get the ♥ guard exclusively in East? You don't have the entries to the board to ruff 2 hearts to isolate the ♥ menace. As long as West can guard hearts, this squeeze position becomes isometric with the club shift. "

RHO played a small heart to LHO so that he plays Spade.
When I take the Ace of Spade, I ruff a Heart again, and when he plays Club, I ruff the second Heart.Three rounds of heart have been played now and the menace is isolated...

#10 Halo

Group: Full Members
Posts: 875
Joined: 2006-June-08

Posted 2007-January-21, 14:56

Thing of beauty as a single dummy problem. Well done the two who analysed it.

#11 Patapon

Group: Full Members
Posts: 82
Joined: 2003-March-20
Gender:Female
Location:Paris

Posted 2007-January-21, 14:57

The rabbit hole seems to go pretty deep here, but somehow I don't think we've hit bottom. :blink:

[/QUOTE]

The loser on loser works also with KQx in Club with RHO actually...

I think we are not that far to hit the bottom!

Not so many ways to win this contract.

-Playing for trumps 4-0 and play the Ace of Diamond at trick one,then Ace of Club and Jack of Club discarding the Heart..

- This works also with K or Q stiff in Club( or KQ) if he helds the Kx in Spade..

This is the best line I think

#12 pclayton

Group: Advanced Members
Posts: 9,151
Joined: 2003-June-11
Location:Southern California

Posted 2007-January-21, 18:37

Patapon, on Jan 21 2007, 12:36 PM, said:

Yep, I agree. 1. Duck ♦, 2. ♥ to West (1x), 3. ♠ return, 4. ♥ ruffed (2x), 5. Give up to ♠K, 6. ♣ returned, 7. heart ruffed (3x), 8-9-10. draw trump and squeezing East as described.

Note that East needs to hold 4♥ in this case, but very possible with the (presumed) void spade.

"Phil" on BBO

#13 Patapon

Group: Full Members
Posts: 82
Joined: 2003-March-20
Gender:Female
Location:Paris

Posted 2007-January-21, 20:28

The contract is always down if RHO holds only 3 cards in Heart I think, except if he has HHx because the Jack of Heart will established at some point( as RHO must underlead HHx so that his partner plays trump)

But in this case the only way to make is to play low Diamond at trick one otherwise you are down as you couldn't establish the Clubs( as he holds KQxx)..

Notice that the Jack of Heart is important here for the first time <_<

The Jack of Heart and the 10 of Club are two confusing cards here..

#14 fred

Group: Advanced Members
Posts: 4,617
Joined: 2003-February-11
Gender:Male
Location:Las Vegas, USA

Posted 2007-January-22, 13:20

The "trick" in this problem is to not go down when the King of spades is singleton (which is by far your best chance of making the contract).

When given this problem a surprising number of experts try to do something complicated that cannot possible gain against good defense. Some of these "solutions" will lead to defeat when the King of spades is singleton. For example, ducking the first trick never gains but it loses if the King of spades is singleton and the diamonds are 7-1.

When I was given this problem the South hand lacked the 9 of spades (which makes for a better problem as there are now more ways to go down when the hand is cold). Sorry for not realizing that my attempt to improve the problem actually made it worse.

Well done by the people who responded for (mostly) not falling into any traps and for identifying some small extra chances beyond the main chance of a singleton King of trump.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

#15 pclayton

Group: Advanced Members
Posts: 9,151
Joined: 2003-June-11
Location:Southern California

Posted 2007-January-22, 14:11

fred, on Jan 22 2007, 11:20 AM, said:

To think I was looking for an analysis similar to the old Deal of the Weeks.

Anyway, I had fun with the hand, and I think Bene did too.

"Phil" on BBO

#16 Patapon

Group: Full Members
Posts: 82
Joined: 2003-March-20
Gender:Female
Location:Paris

Posted 2007-January-22, 17:42

pclayton, on Jan 22 2007, 08:11 PM, said:

fred, on Jan 22 2007, 11:20 AM, said:

To think I was looking for an analysis similar to the old Deal of the Weeks.

Anyway, I had fun with the hand, and I think Bene did too.

Yes I did have fun too

And yes it was a tricky problem!

But I think I know now the best line:

I play the Ace of Diamond at trick one.

I play the Ace of Club at trick two.
- If an Honnor appears, I continue with the Jack of Club, discarding a heart, playing RHO for the King of Spade second( and works also with the stiff ♠King).
-If nothing appears:

I play the Ace of Spade-I won't be down with the stiff King -

Page 1 of 1

You cannot start a new topic
You cannot reply to this topic

3 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 3 guests, 0 anonymous users

Time Now: 2026-Nov-13, 04:15

Community Forum Software by IP.Board 3.1.4

BBO Discussion Forums: Declarer play problem - BBO Discussion Forums