[dburn]

Scoring: Chicago

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You are South. There are three passes to North, who opens 1♣ (don't ask me why; the system was four-card majors, strong no trump). RHO bids 2♦ (he could not open a weak 2♦ at rubber bridge, but he could and would open 3♦ on a six-card suit if he felt that he had no good reason not to). You bid 2♠ (fit-showing jumps are not allowed, even if you would make one). LHO bids 3♦, North bids 4♠, RHO and you pass in tempo, LHO passes slowly.

The lead is ♦Q. RHO is Zia, LHO is Artur Malinowski. The stakes are £30 a hundred. Now that you're not feeling any undue pressure, plan the play.

Advanced and expert players quite welcome to join in - hide your answers or not as you please. If you want to know what happens at various stages in your plan, I will tell you.

[karaprens]

Eliminate dias and trump cash 2 rounds of clubs and exit with a club.

[y66]

Will try diamond ace, ruff diamond, spade queen. Do they both follow?

Is a groom a jack?

[dburn]

karaprens, on Jan 16 2008, 07:05 PM, said:

Eliminate dias and trump cash 2 rounds of clubs and exit with a club.

Replies to those who have contributed so far are in what I hope is hidden text.

Spoiler

Trumps divide 2-2. West wins the third round of clubs with the jack (East having started with Qx) and plays the queen of hearts. Back to you.

[dburn]

y66, on Jan 16 2008, 07:55 PM, said:

Will try diamond ace, ruff diamond, spade queen. Do they both follow?

Is a groom a jack?

Spoiler

If you're worried about 4-0 trumps, you should not ruff a diamond before playing a spade to the queen. But both follow to the queen of spades, as it happens.

A groom in this context is not a jack. But the title of this thread is not wholly irrelevant. Brush up your Shakespeare...

[zasanya]

♦Q denies K or confirms K?

[Codo]

1. I had played a club to my ace, spade to the ace, ruffed a Diamond, and played the second spade.

Spoiler

Getting the pleasant news, I had played a club up to the king, seeing the queen from Zia.
If it had been a lesser mortal, I had just ducked the trick, hoping that this had been a forced card. This had been right today and my contract won.

But lets assume that he had thrown his queen under my ace, because he foresaw the endplay or that I had been unsure and won the trick and played the last Club to West. Now I must try to get the hearts right.
I cover the queen, Zia takes his ace and returns a heart. If this is the 9 or jack, I am home for free.
But of course he returns a mean and meaningless small card, so I try to stay low, hoping that the jack is with West. Not because he played the queen, he had done so from any given heart holding. It is just because he had shown 6 HCPS so far and Zia 9.

[Simplicity]

I think these grooms faces would show little guilt when a second club comes from the board and the queen is played. Crash the Jack or play the endplay? Given that on this occasion our RHO is almost a cert to play the Queen from Qxx i think its best to rise with the ace as even if im wrong (as the case here) the defence will be forced to open the heart suit.

When the ♥Q is returned im fairly certain the A is on the right ( xx AQxxx QJxx Jxx looks like a 3rd seat favorable opener to me). I'll guess the J to be in LHOs hand - ducking the Q and letting a small continuation run around to my T. Covering with the K will cause me to lose out to QJ9xx on my left. Of course i'll have egg on my face it LHo had the ace all along

[FrancesHinden]

I think you should start queen of spades, ace of clubs, spade to dummy, diamond ruff....

Even Zia is less likely to unblock from Qx the earlier you do it.

[skjaeran]

Artur is certainly a player I'd expect to switch ♥Q from AQx, QJ9, QJx Q9x and Qxx. So this is about guessing and table feeling.

[Codo]

Simplicity, on Jan 17 2008, 10:08 PM, said:

Covering with the K will cause me to lose out to QJ9xx on my left.

This holding is more or less impossible. You know Zia has 4 black cards, if he has just 2 Hearts too, he has 7 Diamonds and he had bidden 3 diamond in first hand.

The setting was: "(he could not open a weak 2♦ at rubber bridge, but he could and would open 3♦ on a six-card suit if he felt that he had no good reason not to)."

[helene_t]

After eliminating ♦ and trumps I lead a club from dummy, if E does not play the queen I step up and repeat the club play. If/when E plays ♣Q I let him keep it. He might be endplayed.

Just wondering what E's strategy should be with Qxx. If he plays the Queen at first or second chance, my strategy breaks down, but for all E knows I might also chose to cover ♣Q hoping for ♣J to fall. This seems complex since E's knowledge about my situation (e.g., does he know that I don't want to lose the lead to West?) depends on his own hand.

[vuroth]

Potential losers:
1♠ (if 4-0 either way)
3♥
2♣

To make, I need to limit my heart losers to 2 and my club losers to 1.

Win diamond. Ruff a diamond in hand, cash the Q♠, cross to the A♠.

Low club to A♣. Low spade to K♠. Low club, covering if needed, playing the 2 otherwise. (if E is out, I think I'm cooked). I *think* that line is my best play for 1 club loser.

If the club holds, lose my club loser. Either way, hopefully RHO is on lead and has no more spades or clubs, and must lead to my Kxx of hearts or give me a ruff-and-sluff in diamonds.

Otherwise, hopefully LHO has the A♥.

V

[y66]

Maybe Zia didn't open 3D because he has a 4-card heart suit to the ace, something like x A?xx KT9xxx ??

In Richard II, the groom says

I was a poor groom of thy stable, King,
When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York,
With much ado at length have gotten leave
To look upon my sometimes royal master's face.
O, how it ern'd my heart, when I beheld,
In London streets, that coronation-day,
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary-
That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,
That horse that I so carefully have dress'd!

If this is the clue, I am not able to see how pitching a heart on a diamond ever helps.

Besides, I never get Shakespeare right at the table. Is there more in it?

p.s. I think Zia will find the right play in clubs.

[y66]

Are we supposed to give up on the end play in clubs because (1) Zia will always pitch the queen from Qx (because he's Zia) and (2) if he has 1+ spades, 6 diamonds and 3 clubs, he might've opened 3D?

Okay, not pinning hopes on club end play.

Does the opening lead of the diamond queen promise the jack?

If not, and I haven't blown my spade entries to dummy, maybe I can throw Zia in with a diamond.

DA, club to ace, SQ, spade to ace, club to king (unless Zia plays the queen), spade to king, D3 pitching heart. Not optimistic about this. Won't Zia duck this? If he does, I guess I can still play for HA onside.

[y66]

Take 4 ...

Zia didn't open 3D because he has ace empty 4th in hearts.

DA, ruff diamond, SQ, spade to ace, club to ace, spade to king, club to ace (Zia does not play SQ here), then club.

If Zia wins, I am home. If Artur wins, will play him for QJx of hearts. He'll try HQ. I'll duck. Then he has to lead small heart which I'll duck also, forcing Zia's king.

If that works, I've erned a heart!

[dburn]

zasanya, on Jan 17 2008, 02:22 AM, said:

♦Q denies K or confirms K?

The lead of ♦Q denies the king (and promises the jack).

[Simplicity]

Codo, on Jan 17 2008, 09:52 AM, said:

Simplicity, on Jan 17 2008, 10:08 PM, said:

Covering with the K will cause me to lose out to QJ9xx on my left.

This holding is more or less impossible. You know Zia has 4 black cards, if he has just 2 Hearts too, he has 7 Diamonds and he had bidden 3 diamond in first hand.

The setting was: "(he could not open a weak 2♦ at rubber bridge, but he could and would open 3♦ on a six-card suit if he felt that he had no good reason not to)."

Sorry i went a bit x happy and gave LHO 14 cards, i meant QJ9x

I'm placing Zia with xx Axx Kxxxxx Qx

[dburn]

FrancesHinden, on Jan 17 2008, 08:14 AM, said:

I think you should start queen of spades, ace of clubs, spade to dummy, diamond ruff....

Even Zia is less likely to unblock from Qx the earlier you do it.

Indeed he is. Maybe, then, you should play a club from dummy at trick two (after all, how much earlier can you get?). That was what I did, and the great man played low. Winning with the ace, I played queen of spades, spade to the king (Zia turning up with ♠10x), diamond ruff, spade to the nine and a club, Zia playing the queen. Et maintenant?