[pclayton]

Scoring: IMP

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LHO opens 1♣ pard passes and RHO bids 1♥ and you try 1♠

LHO competes with 2♣, pard passes (!) and RHO passes. You compete with 2♠. Pard raises to 3 and you push to 4.

LHO leads the A♣ and swiches to the ♥Q. Ur move.

[kenrexford]

I'll win in hand with the Ace, cash a top spade, cross to the King of hearts on dummy, and ruff a club high.

I'll next cross to the spade 10 on dummy, overtaking my nine.

I'll play the remaining top club, pitching my last heart.

Whoever wins this trick cannot play a heart back, either because they don't have one or because it will establish the tenth trick for me. Spades are gone, so that's out. Clubs are stripped, allowing a ruff-sluff, so that's out. Meaning, the opponents MUST break diamonds.

If RHO breaks diamonds, I cannot go wrong. RHO might not have unblocked, might not have been unable to unblock, or might play the Jack and be playing with an idiot. All work.

If, however, LHO can win the trick, I will have a complete knowledge of the majors and of clubs, I suspect. This will give me a lot of distributional inference on diamonds, as well as some info about likely HCP holdings. If LHO has both diamond honors left, I cannot go wrong. If he has neither, I will have already dropped the Q-J tight of hearts and will have just claimed earlier.

So, I'll now be guessing who has the Queen and who has the Ace, with a lot of info.

If LHO had two spades and a stiff heart, he might have ruffed in on the heart, to fire a diamond immediately. I'll pop King, obviously, if that happens, back to the original game plan had there not been the sexy line.

[cnszsun]

Cute line by ken.
I will win ♥A, ♠A then ♠9 overtaken by 10 to enter dummy, then a ♣ planning to ruff, the rest is the same as Ken. Not sure if there are any differences.
One interesting point, if RHO drops ♣Q or J on 2nd ♣, will you change your plan?

[Echognome]

Win ♥A and play 6♠ pitching 1♥, 1♦ and 1♣. And lefty?

[pclayton]

The guy that gave me the problem played it the same as Ken, and was left with a nasty guess in ♦'s at the critical time.

I think there's a better line.

Matt: If you peel off all but one of your trump, it will be 5 card ending: ♠A ♥xx ♦Jx and dummy will hold: ♥KTx ♦Kx ♣T (and needs to pitch behind LHO). LHO (who will know your distribution) will come down to 2♦, 1♣ and either a 2nd heart or a 3rd ♦.

[pclayton]

kenrexford, on Aug 6 2007, 07:22 PM, said:

Whoever wins this trick cannot play a heart back, either because they don't have one or because it will establish the tenth trick for me.

Why do hearts needs to be 5-1? And if they are 4-2, how does this establish a trick for you if LHO plays one through the KTx?

[pclayton]

Jlall, on Aug 7 2007, 07:05 AM, said:

pclayton, on Aug 7 2007, 10:05 AM, said:

kenrexford, on Aug 6 2007, 07:22 PM, said:

Whoever wins this trick cannot play a heart back, either because they don't have one or because it will establish the tenth trick for me.

Why do hearts needs to be 5-1?

he played the ace and the king of hearts.

Oh - missed that. RHO plays the ♣J on the 10 and plunks down the ♥J.

[han]

pclayton, on Aug 7 2007, 10:07 AM, said:

Jlall, on Aug 7 2007, 07:05 AM, said:

pclayton, on Aug 7 2007, 10:05 AM, said:

kenrexford, on Aug 6 2007, 07:22 PM, said:

Whoever wins this trick cannot play a heart back, either because they don't have one or because it will establish the tenth trick for me.

Why do hearts needs to be 5-1?

he played the ace and the king of hearts.

Oh - missed that. RHO plays the ♣J on the 10 and plunks down the ♥J.

Well, I assume that Ken ruffs, enters dummy with a spade and pitches a diamond on the heart 10, losing two clubs and a diamond. Nice line Ken.

[pclayton]

Ken's line still fails when he misguesses diamonds, right?

[kenrexford]

pclayton, on Aug 7 2007, 10:47 AM, said:

Ken's line still fails when he misguesses diamonds, right?

Sure. But, that's a hard guiess to fail when you make that guess. You will know who had what club honors and who had what heart honors.

If Opener started initially with ♥Q, ♣AQJ, and one of the diamonds, it is hard to imagine that Responder bid 1♥ with Jxxx and the diamond Queen. If Responder turns up with the club Queen, it is tough to imagine Opener having AJxxxx in clubs, a stiff heart Queen, and just the diamond Queen.

You get the picture.

[pclayton]

Don't read this if you aren't into long, tedious analysis. If you want something quick and interesting, try one of the threads on balancing over weak 2's.

I think this is a very interesting hand. I played around with the heart suit a little - whomever gave me the hand wasn't sure about the spade spots, or the heart spots, but I think they are close. Certainly if Dummy doesn't have a late, 2nd spade entry, the loser-on-loser play has more appeal, since I can't eliminate clubs.

I suggested this line:

1. A♣ - lost
2. A♥
3. ♠9 to 10
4. ruff club with high spade
5. ♠A
6. ♠4 to 6
7. ruff last club
8. ♥

Clubs are certainly 6-3 on this bidding. If hearts are 5-1, I'm automatically cold, since RHO must lead a heart or a diamond. If hearts are 4-2, things get interesting...

Examine the heart suit in isolation at T8:

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Duck and RHO is endplayed.

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If RHO didn't start unblocking with the 9 or 8 when the Q was led, RHO will be endplayed. If RHO did unblock, cover the 7 with the 10 and RHO will be endplayed with 9-5 under the T-6. Kind of a one suit squeeze going on here.

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I think these are identical, and from here it involves a little guessing. Declarer's best play is to duck the 8/9 to preserve dummy's tenace. LHO can put you to the same guess with a low diamond that Ken faces when he plays loser-on-loser, or can painlessly exit a club.

Assuming he exits a club, in the endgame, you still have two chances, and you'll get it right with the same guess. If you judge RHO to hold the ♦Q, just play up to the ♦K at some point. If you think RHO has the ♦A instead, bare the ♦K in dummy in the 3 card ending, and RHO is strip-squeezed.

Understand that if the ♥7 is the ♥6, this line guarantees the contract when spades are 2-1 and clubs are 6-3 or 7-2.

I think Ken's line is very reasonable. The fact is (and its pointless to tell where the ♦A and the ♦Q are), you can place LHO with the ♣AQxxxx / ♥Q and RHO with the ♥J and the ♣J. Depending on their bidding style, you really can't tell where the ♦ honors are. The player that took that line is a very good player and he misguessed, so go figure. Hearts were 5-1 by the way (I think).

[kenrexford]

That's a nice line.

If hearts are 5-1, it seems that your line is superior. However, it gains only when Opener also has a second spade and can ruff when Declarer leads toward dummy and when Opener guesses diamond wrong.

If hearts are Q5, the line gains nothing, really, as both lines probably work. It gains on that rare "weird bidding" scenario only.

If hearts are QJ-tight, either line works fine.

If hearts are Q7, your line works well, but it again only gains against the weird bidders.

If hearts are Q8/Q9, your diamond guess will be with the same information, because clubs have been eliminated.

So, it appears that this "one suit squeeze" line is a superior line, I think.