[awm]

On a rather silly auction you reach 6NT by south on the following cards:

Scoring: IMP

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The lead is a high spade. After a reasonable amount of thought, you win in dummy and play the ♥K. At this point RHO goes into the tank for a substantial interval, and finally plays low. Everyone follows and the ♥K holds the trick. Next is to cash all the diamonds; RHO shows out on the second round and discards three clubs and a spade. LHO discards a club on the fifth diamond. Now two rounds of spades (all following), and the club ace. The position is now:

Scoring: IMP

---

Opponents have six cards left between them, of which four are hearts and two are clubs. When you advance the club nine, LHO plays the ten. Now is the moment of truth: do you play the club king hoping for the queen to fall, or take the finesse? Why?

If it matters, RHO is a fairly good player but has some serious tempo issues. She had some time to plan at trick one and her break in tempo at trick two was substantial; her subsequent discards were in normal tempo as were LHO's. The auction revealed that south started with five hearts, has enough for slam opposite a balanced 22, and probably has balanced or semi-balanced shape (didn't try too hard for a suit slam).

[Foxx]

If RHO has serious tempo issues, why was she so quick to come down to a doubleton ♣Q? I'm hooking.

[Fluffy]

I'll follow the agree with justin rule on this one because I have no real clue

[hotShot]

If I didn't miss something ♥AJT9 and ♣QT are left.

RHO had 1♦ and we saw 1♥, 4♣ and 4♠
LHO had 4♦ and we saw 1♥, 2♣ and 3 ♠

Somehow I think RHO has ♥AJ9 while LHO has ♥T and ♣QT, meaning that initially opps held:
LHO 3244 RHO 4414

So I'll try the Jack.

[SoTired]

finesse BECAUSE:

Only if RHO has ♥AJ109 and ♣Qxxx is there a heart/club squeeze against RHO. That is highly unlikely, so if RHO has any other heart holding with ♣q, RHO can set the contract just by taking the ♥A and waiting for the ♣Q. By not taking the ♥A, RHO has put herself into a strip-squeeze.

With all that thought, I will assume she saw this. If she does not have the ♣Q and she takes the ♥A immediately, declarer will have no option but try the successful club finesse. By not taking the ♥A, RHO gives declarer a chance for an endplay by leading a ♥ at the end instead. But since RHO does not have the ♣Q and can retain ♥AJ, RHO can set the contract by ducking.

[cherdano]

Jlall, on Feb 22 2007, 09:32 AM, said:

SoTired, on Feb 22 2007, 07:54 AM, said:

finesse BECAUSE:

Only if RHO has ♥AJ109 and ♣Qxxx is there a heart/club squeeze against RHO. That is highly unlikely, so if RHO has any other heart holding with ♣q, RHO can set the contract just by taking the ♥A and waiting for the ♣Q. By not taking the ♥A, RHO has put herself into a strip-squeeze.

No.

It doesn't have to be AJT9 of hearts, it can be any 4 card heart holding. If RHO has the club queen then we know she has 4 hearts (4 spades, 1 diamond 4 clubs leaves..).

RHO pitched 3 clubs and followed to the ♣A. So if she has the ♣Q, she has 3 hearts originally, and you are playing for a (double-dummy) defensive mistake.

Of course, that mistake may well be possible, if she had ♥AJx she had to guess whether to play partner for the ♥T or declarer for a misguess. However, since declarer still has a guess if he has the ten, I think it would be single-dummy mistake, too.

I admit though that pitching 3 clubs from ♣xxxx and ♥AJT9 seems very unlikely.

Arend

[cherdano]

Jlall, on Feb 22 2007, 09:52 AM, said:

I don't see how you can call it a mistake to stiff the club queen instead of the heart ace. Isn't that totally dependent on what declarer will think you will do, and what declarer thinks you think, etc.

I am referring to the mistake of not taking the ♥A. If your read is right, RHO could have beaten the contract 100% by taking the ♥A at trick two and let partner guard hearts.

[SoTired]

Right, justin... RHO is 4414... BUT RHO has already played 4♣ ... RHO pitched 3♣ on the diam and 1 on the ♣A, so has no more clubs. (unless I miscounted again)

[inquiry]

SoTired, on Feb 22 2007, 11:53 AM, said:

Right, justin... RHO is 4414... BUT RHO has already played 4♣ ... RHO pitched 3♣ on the diam and 1 on the ♣A, so has no more clubs. (unless I miscounted again)

Right hand opponent is know to have held 4S and 1D... and so far has played 4 C....

There is only 1 C left out before you play from dummy...so RHO was either

4-4-1-4 as you suggest, or
4-3-1-5

There is no certain way to tell. If he was 4315, play the club king, if he was 4414 finessee.. that is the gist of the problem. If he was 4315 he misdefended by not winning the heart ACE, if he was 4414 you always make if the club Queen is onside (and of course you hook).. I think that is where this argument has gone. Do you make the normal, safe play of hook, making or not making? (play EAST for 4414) or do you play east for misdefense with 4315?

[hotShot]

Just to mention it, opps had exactly 7HCP (♥AJ and ♣Q) at trick 1 and they still have 7HCP after trick 10.

If we give all that to RHO, LHO never had a point.

[pclayton]

My hunch is to drop.

With ♥AJTx and nothing in clubs, its pretty automatic to win and fire a heart back. There's simply no 'tension' on this hand. Just hold onto your hearts and pitch the appropriate number of clubs to 'look' like you're squoze.

Ducking the heart doesn't necessarily lead to a successful defense. It just leads to a complicated endgame.

If RHO has 'problems' on this hand, (s)he doesn't have tempo problems, (s)he has ethical issues. Sounds like you got coffeehoused.