[hrothgar]

♠-
♥AQ3
♦J87654
♣T763

♠AJ92
♥K9874
♦-
♣AJ95

Here is a hand that a friend passed me.

The auction started as follows

1♥ - (X) - 2♣ - (2♠)
4♥ - all pass

partner's 2♣ showed a constructive Heart raise
LHO leads the K of Spades

Whats the best line to make 4♥?

[Free]

I would probably discard a ♣ while ducking the ♠K. Plan is to develop the ♣s by discarding another one on ♠A, and ruffing at least 1.

[ArcLight]

This is going to take some luck

A cross ruff wont work.
Neither will setting up the dimes

Lets hope for the following lucky layout

♠ 4 - 5
♥ 2-3
♦ 3/4 - 4/3
♣ 3-2 or 4-1 with East having an honor

Ruff
H Ace
H Q
club to 9, west wins
Win return
H King (trumps were 2-3
Club Ace dropping Easts honor
making 5 hearts, 1 spade, spade ruff, 3 clubs

If east plays an honor, win ace, pull trump and lead clubs, same result

[ochinko]

I ruff the lead, and play ♣10 for a finesse. When LHO shifts to diamonds I ruff, get back to dummy's Ace with a trump, cash the ♥Q, and repeat the club finesse.

[SoTired]

ruff spade, ruff diam, black aces, ruff 2nd spade, ruff 2nd diam, ruff 3rd spade, ruff 3rd diam. lead ♣J and wait to score your ♥9.

Makes whenever RHO has ♥10 and also some other times when LHO is endplayed.

[Gerben42]

I guess the trick is to ruff trick one with ♥Q and finesse the ♣. When this loses to an honor we will later cash the ♣A, dropping RHO's now singleton honor (otherwise LHO had a strange Dbl). If we now catch LHO with a high ♥ in the first round we choose to finesse ♥ through RHO, making 3♣, 5♥, ♠A and a ♠ ruff.

I'm intrigued by the possibility of ruffing THREE ♠ in dummy but it doesn't seem to work.

[SoTired]

Gerben42, on Aug 13 2007, 09:31 AM, said:

<snip> but it doesn't seem to work.

why not? you get 8 hearts and 2 black aces.

After ruffing 3 spades in dummy and 3 diam in hand and 2 black aces, you are left with:
Dummy
♦Jxx ♣10x

Declarer
♥K9 ♣J9x
You have 9 tricks ensured. If RHO has the ♥10, you are guaranteed to make it. Or if LHO gets endplayed. For example, if LHO started with something like: ♠KQx ♥10xx ♦Axxx ♣KQx

[Gerben42]

How do you get the 8th ♥ trick? When you've ruffed three ♠ no doubt the ♥J will take it.

[SoTired]

oops - where did the ♥J go? --- you're right... less chances, then

[pclayton]

There's 20 points outstanding and LHO didn't lead a diamond, so I'm putting RHO on at least the diamond A or K. RHO took a call over a constructive raise, so he isn't broke. I would expect the opposing point to be split 12/8, 13/7 or possible 14/6. LHO apparently has the ♠KQ, so the balance of their honors are more or less split.

Will a crossruff work? Ruff spade, D ruff, AS, AC, spade ruff, diamond ruff, last spade ruff, diamond ruff. That gets us to 8 with the ♥K9 left in our hand. We now exit a club. Its possible we can get home here, but it seems the defense can push out the KH, ruff a club, and draw our trump.

How about a club at T2 after ruffing the spade? Club to 10 losing. It seems their best defense is a trump. Win in dummy, draw a 2nd round and hook another club. If Hx pops up on our right, we are golden if trumps are 3-2, but problems may arise if we get a 4-1 split.

Can pitching a club at T1 be right? Come to think of it, this really simplifies things for us. A spade shift or a club shift are obviously beneficial. Even a diamond helps, because it gives us an entry to ruff the 4th diamond that we otherwise wouldn't have had. A trump shift really doesn't hurt us either, since it helps neutralize JTxx in RHO's hand.

I think I like the club pitch.

[pclayton]

SoTired, on Aug 13 2007, 06:43 AM, said:

You have 9 tricks ensured. If RHO has the ♥10, you are guaranteed to make it. Or if LHO gets endplayed. For example, if LHO started with something like: ♠KQx ♥10xx ♦Axxx ♣KQx

I don't think so. The lead is in your hand. LHO wins the club, cashes the club and plays a small trump to his partner's J. The ♥10 wins T13.

[cherdano]

pclayton, on Aug 13 2007, 09:31 AM, said:

Can pitching a club at T1 be right? Come to think of it, this really simplifies things for us. A spade shift or a club shift are obviously beneficial. Even a diamond helps, because it gives us an entry to ruff the 4th diamond that we otherwise wouldn't have had. A trump shift really doesn't hurt us either, since it helps neutralize JTxx in RHO's hand.

On a trump shift I think you have to play high in dummy since you want to take your spade ruff with the ♥3?

[pclayton]

ochinko, on Aug 13 2007, 05:38 AM, said:

I ruff the lead, and play ♣10 for a finesse. When LHO shifts to diamonds I ruff, get back to dummy's Ace with a trump, cash the ♥Q, and repeat the club finesse.

Here's an alternate idea if LHO shifts to diamonds:

1. Ruff spade
2. Lose club to LHO
3. (presumed diamond, ruffed in hand)
4/5 A♠, A♣
6. Ruff ♦
7. Ruff ♠
8. Ruff ♦
9. Ruff last ♠

The lead is NOW in dummy, and the position could be like this:

---

Lead a ♦. RHO must ruff high and you pitch. RHO is now endplayed in trump. If RHO held: 5=3=3=2, this works equally well, but you have to guess the end position.

[pclayton]

cherdano, on Aug 13 2007, 07:42 AM, said:

pclayton, on Aug 13 2007, 09:31 AM, said:

Can pitching a club at T1 be right? Come to think of it, this really simplifies things for us. A spade shift or a club shift are obviously beneficial. Even a diamond helps, because it gives us an entry to ruff the 4th diamond that we otherwise wouldn't have had. A trump shift really doesn't hurt us either, since it helps neutralize JTxx in RHO's hand.

On a trump shift I think you have to play high in dummy since you want to take your spade ruff with the ♥3?

Maybe not. This forces RHO to split with JTx / JTxx. I'm ruffing spades with the high trump anyway, so I'm only concerned with using my 987 later to push the (reamining) heart honor.

[kenrexford]

I'm not sure where this is going in the end position, but somehow it seems right for me to have a somewhat strange-looking start, or something similar.

I think that I am going to win the spade with the Ace in hand and then play one heart to dummy's Queen, ruff one diamond, and then lead a second heart to dummy's Ace, and then stop playing hearts, hopefully leaving exactly one heart outstanding.

I will then lead a small club and stick in the Jack, specifically.

I'm playing for some sort of combination of cards where my LHO has 4243 pattern and my RHO, therefore, 5332 pattern. I'm also splitting diamond honors 2:1 or 1:2 between my opponents and splitting the club honors.

This seems to set up a second club entry to dummy and seems to create some sort of problem for LHO, but I have not yet figured this out precisely. The diamond suit seems to come into play as a threat suit. I may not be analyzing this deeply enough, but the idea keeps calling to me.

[skjaeran]

kenrexford, on Aug 13 2007, 06:37 PM, said:

I'm not sure where this is going in the end position, but somehow it seems right for me to have a somewhat strange-looking start, or something similar.

I think that I am going to win the spade with the Ace in hand and then play one heart to dummy's Queen, ruff one diamond, and then lead a second heart to dummy's Ace, and then stop playing hearts, hopefully leaving exactly one heart outstanding.

I will then lead a small club and stick in the Jack, specifically.

I'm playing for some sort of combination of cards where my LHO has 4243 pattern and my RHO, therefore, 5332 pattern. I'm also splitting diamond honors 2:1 or 1:2 between my opponents and splitting the club honors.

If you're going to play for such a layout, why don't you take the absolutely straightforward line Justin suggested, and shortly lean back to claim ten tricks (if you've guessed the layout right)?

You're making 5♥s, 3♣s ♠A and a ruff.

[kenrexford]

skaeran, on Aug 13 2007, 11:59 AM, said:

If you're going to play for such a layout, why don't you take the absolutely straightforward line Justin suggested, and shortly lean back to claim ten tricks (if you've guessed the layout right)?

Because I do not get a write-up for a straight-forward line in the Daily Bulletin, of course.

[Halo]

Ruff the spade lead, cash AQ of hearts and play a small club, finessing.

I'm not planning to take a second club finesse. I'll drop an honour on the first or second round, so I don't want the trumps blocked.

[hrothgar]

For what its worth, here's the complete set of hands. (BTW, I don't understand why West chose a takeout double rather than a 1♠ overcall. There wasn't any alert at the table and the bid seems incomprehensible to me)

---

Does anyone see a good double dummy line to make 4♥? The hand records indicated that it could be made.