[Trumpace]

Rubber Bridge. You (South) are vul (not that it matters) and reach a small slam in Hearts, having shown 5-5 in majors.

LHO leads the spade J. You see

Scoring: Rubber

Contract 6♥.

Lead ♠J

---

The play goes as follows

=======

♠J ♠2 ♠4 ♠A

♥K ♥5 ♥2 ♥9

♥3 ♥8 ♥A ♥4

♥T ♥J ♥Q ♦2

♣8 ♣2 ♣J ♣Q

♦5 ♦K ♦6 ♦3

♦4 ♦7 ♦J ♦8

Claim 12 tricks.

======

How would you have played?

As usual Adv+ please refrain from posting too soon.

[vuroth]

Declarer's mistake would be playing the K♦ when there was a free finesse.

As for how I would play it, well I can either try for spades being 3-2 (fallback on a finesse) or I can try the two finesses for the 12th trick. Mark me down for the 2 finesses. However, I will cash the K♦ then run the ♦ finesse first, to try to improve my odds by 1%.

[Mbodell]

There are a lot of possible lines. Seems like I'd like East on lead to give free finesses. But also seems like spades set up well thanks to the opening lead. If I can count on hearts no worse than 3-2 then the line I like is win A♠, draw three trump ending in dummy, lead T♠ playing low if East doesn't cover, covering if East covers. Now, unless West is tricky and lead J♠ from Q♠ and J♠ I'm good in spades. If East covers then there is some time we trap the 9♠ if West lead from J9. Seems like it is more likely West lead from singleton or Jx than from QJ. If West lead from QJ we do have finesse chances in diamonds or clubs (I guess we could probably cash AK♣ hoping for Q to fall and then take the ♦ finesse).

I'm pretty sure this line is non-optimal though.

[Trumpace]

vuroth, on Sep 28 2007, 04:27 PM, said:

Declarer's mistake would be playing the K♦ when there was a free finesse.

Given the first 5 tricks as they went, playing the ♦K was right. Can you tell why?

[skjaeran]

I'd have claimed after trick 3, since no layout can beat me from there. (I'll draw the last trump.)

[matmat]

I *think* (and i am often wrong) once trump prove to be 3-2 the right play is to lead a spade up to the Tx remaining in dummy. I think that picks up the suit for one loser, which is all we care about in the slam. this caters to shfity left having led the J from QJ9x and also maintains a finesse position against the ♠9 wiith RHO if they're the ones to have started with Q9xx.
(I am guessing this is what harald hand in mind with his cryptic comment)

had the trump not been 3-2 we need to discard or ruff some spades. at that point it's a whole new kettle of fish and we need to get some finesses working in our favor.

[skjaeran]

matmat, on Sep 29 2007, 02:04 PM, said:

I *think* (and i am often wrong) once trump prove to be 3-2 the right play is to lead a spade up to the Tx remaining in dummy. I think that picks up the suit for one loser, which is all we care about in the slam. this caters to shfity left having led the J from QJ9x and also maintains a finesse position against the ♠9 wiith RHO if they're the ones to have started with Q9xx.
(I am guessing this is what harald hand in mind with his cryptic comment)

Exactly.

[Trumpace]

Yes, playing a spade to T once trumps prove 3-2 is 100% play.

Still, I was expecting there to be some discussion around

1) Play in spades (which people got)
2) Play in trump suit. Once RHO plays 9 on the first trick, which is better? Finesse for the J or drop?
3) If RHO did have the ♠Q, declarer should actually have cashed the ♦K before taking the club finesse. This throws RHO in, and any return then gives declarer the contract.

There might be more (for instance declarer could have played for a squeeze instead of playing a ♦ to J)

Anyway, I guess the problem was too open ended.

[vuroth]

Trumpace, on Sep 28 2007, 05:13 PM, said:

vuroth, on Sep 28 2007, 04:27 PM, said:

Declarer's mistake would be playing the K♦ when there was a free finesse.

Given the first 5 tricks as they went, playing the ♦K was right. Can you tell why?

You're right, of course, I always see these things half a trick too late.