[skjaeran]

Scoring: IMP

N E S W
1♠ 2♦ X P
4♦ P 4♥ P
4NT P 5♥ P
5NT P 7♥ P
P P

---

Lead: ♦A ruffed in dummy.
How do you plan the play?

[Fluffy]

Without thinking enough I would play ....

EDIT: I wouldn't even call thinking to what I though lol, that was stupid.

[FrancesHinden]

We seem to have a 3-way choice:

The first line is
diamond lead ruffed, spade to the queen, diamond ruffed, QJ of hearts overtaking, last trump (club discard), spades; if spades are 4-1 ruff the 4th round in hand and either take the club finesse or drop the Q doubleton. This needs hearts 3-2 plus a bit, but also has some minuscule play if RHO has a singleton heart - Cash the SA next in case the J drops doubleton in RHO, then the AK of clubs in case the Q drops short on my right (if RHO Plays the SJ from Jxx on the second round I might go wrong)

The second line is
diamond lead ruffed, draw trumps in 4 rounds if necessary, AQ of spades, club finesse (or drop Qx)
This line needs the club finesse plus either trumps 3-2 or spades playing for 5 tricks


The third line is
diamond lead ruffed, spade to the 9, diamond ruffed, QJ of hearts overtaking if RHO follows; if RHO discards spade to the Queen, trumps.

This seems no better than the club finesse line.

You might argue how likely RHO is to have the CQ based on the 2D overcall, but I'm not convinced that KQJxxx with or without the CQ makes a difference.

I would go with the first line - taking two diamond ruffs in dummy.
But I would prefer to be a level lower!

[inquiry]

The auction makes little sense to me. How does North know that one of south's two key cards is not the ACE of diamonds?

RHO can not have much for his 2♦ bid.. ESPECIALLY given his partner LEAD the ♦ACE... That leaves him with, at most D-KQJ S-JACK, and C-Q as that is all that is unaccounted for. No doubt he had a preemptive hand, but at these colors just could not "afford" a jump to 3♦. We can assume EAST will not have a spade void (no lightner double) and that EAST can not have five spades (since WEST with spade void would have raised diamonds), so spades are no worse than 4-1.

If spades split 3-2 or if LHO has 4 of them, you have 5♠, 4♥, 1♦ ruff and 2♣, so it looks like you need at the very least to ruff one more diamond. Three diamond ruffs would see you home with 3♠, 3♦ruff, 2♣ and 4♥ -- but you lack the entries to get three diamond ruff and return to you hnad to pull trumps.

Can you manage a 4-1 ♠ split? 4♠, 4♥, 2♦ ruff, and 2♣ is is one trick short. The diamond ACE lead, however, has very likely isolated the diamond threat to RHO hand given the bidding. If we think RHO needed the ♣Q for his bid, we might think of a squeeze. Unfortunately, such a squeeze would have to be a vienna coupe (cash both club winners), and the manuever to establish the fourth spade (ruff one), will have removed the entry from dummy (spade ACE-KING) so the squeeze would fail for lack of entry. In fact there is no useful way to excercise such a squeeze even if you get spades correct for five tricks, because the entries are so muddled up. Assume, for instacne Heart ACE, Heart QUEEN, Heart Jack, S-AQT(success)K3, you end up with something like with lead in dummy.

No chance, and cashing last heart earlier is also useless as your hand would then be entryless

---

So, you simply have to play for 3-2 hearts, and (gasp), LHO having four spades and three hearts.

Ruff lead. Cash Heart Queen, Heart ACE. Ace of spades, queen of spades -- RHO best show out and not ruff. If RHO follows, you will have to reconsider the line and play for club queen drop or club queen hook). Spade hook, spade throw away a club. AK of club, club ruffing finesse (ruff with the TOP heart, heart to dummy and claim. 4♥ in dummy (one a ruff), 3♣, 1♣ ruff, 5♠.

[cnszsun]

Maybe we can discover ♥ distribution first, then decide different line to play depending on ♥3-2 or 4-1.
♥Q, ♥A,
if 3-2, ruff 2nd♦ in dummy and return to hand with ♠Q, try to win 5♠s or ♣ finesse.
if 4-1, ♥J to dummy, and return with ♠Q, pull last trump, and try ♣ finesse.

[skjaeran]

inquiry, on May 17 2007, 03:16 PM, said:

The auction makes little sense to me. How does North know that one of south's two key cards is not the ACE of diamonds?

Sorry, my fault. I should have commented it in the OP.
4♦ showed a void, thus 5♥ showed AK of ♥'s.
I really didn't think of this when posting, since it's standard here that this shows a void. I know that's not the case everywhere.

[inquiry]

I think whatever line anyone chooses, it has to include the club queen with RHO. With a few diamonmds to the ACE and the club Queen, LHO would have raised to 3♦, if for no other reason to encourage his partner to lead one. Surely then the club queen is greatly odds on to be with the overcaller.

[jdonn]

skaeran, on May 17 2007, 11:04 AM, said:

inquiry, on May 17 2007, 03:16 PM, said:

The auction makes little sense to me. How does North know that one of south's two key cards is not the ACE of diamonds?

Sorry, my fault. I should have commented it in the OP.
4♦ showed a void, thus 5♥ showed AK of ♥'s.
I really didn't think of this when posting, since it's standard here that this shows a void. I know that's not the case everywhere.

Then isn't south much too good to just sign off in 4♥?

[skjaeran]

jdonn, on May 17 2007, 06:15 PM, said:

skaeran, on May 17 2007, 11:04 AM, said:

inquiry, on May 17 2007, 03:16 PM, said:

The auction makes little sense to me. How does North know that one of south's two key cards is not the ACE of diamonds?

Sorry, my fault. I should have commented it in the OP.
4♦ showed a void, thus 5♥ showed AK of ♥'s.
I really didn't think of this when posting, since it's standard here that this shows a void. I know that's not the case everywhere.

Then isn't south much too good to just sign off in 4♥?

Too good I agree. Maybe not much too good IMO. 4♦ normally doesn't promise any extra high card strenght.
I wasn't at the table though. My regular partner was north.