[pclayton]

Scoring: IMP

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You play in 4♥. RHO opens 1♣ and LHO raises to 2♣ over your overcall.

LHO leads the ♥8 and RHO shows out pitching an encouraging club.

Plan the play.

[han]

I won't respond yet, but I think there's more to it than meets the eye.

[cnszsun]

It seems the key is how to guess ♠. if rho holds both ♠A and J, we have no chance.
Trump lead is strange, maybe lho has ♣A.
I will clear trumps, duck ♦J, and later ♦A, and ruff one ♦, then ♠K, and ruff 4th♦s.
By gathering more information in ♦ and ♣s, then i make final ♠ guess at the end.

[Echognome]

han, on Feb 18 2008, 08:20 PM, said:

I won't respond yet, but I think there's more to it than meets the eye.

. o O (Does the hand transform into some kind of car?)

[cjames]

This is a nice hand, which I kibitzed yesterday so I can't say anything, except that you still got chances even if RHO should hold both ♠A and ♠J.

[Mbodell]

cjames, on Feb 19 2008, 05:19 AM, said:

This is a nice hand, which I kibitzed yesterday so I can't say anything, except that you still got chances even if RHO should hold both ♠A and ♠J.

Indeed, the hand seems to be a case of set up a pitch/ruff or force RHO to lead away from the AJ.

RHO is marked with more of the points and the problem is only interesting if RHO has A♠ anyways. So may as well assume AJ on the right.

I want to get rid of my minor cards losing to RHO. I also want to cash my A♦ before LHO is out. I want to keep the key T♥ on the board to over ruff LHO and want to ruff high when needed.

I think my line is win A♥. Low ♦ covering. Assuming this loses to RHO then lose club return and ruff high on the 2nd club. Now lead ♦ to the A and then ruff ♦ high again. Now cross to the K♠. If this loses to the A♠ then RHO can only lead ♦ if he started with 4 of them (in which case you ruff high, pull trump ending in hand and finesse for the J♠). If he had 3 or less he needs to lead a club (pitch ♠ from hand ruff on board safe since the T♥ is still there, pull trump and claim) or the spade (duck it to board and claim if no trump).

This gives us lots of chances to win.

[Simplicity]

Might be interesting to see all of the auction since the oppos seem to have only competed to the 2 level in their 10 card fit. I would initially expect LHO to have the ♣A and RHO to be 4045.

I would lead a club from hand immediately - this will preserve my tump entry should i need to ruff some diamonds. There are a few chances of making this besides a favorable spade position:

- diamonds may yield 2 tricks particularly if the defence attack them
- there will be a strip squeeze against RHO when he holds ♦KQ

Anyways i'd start with a club up, what do i get back?

[cnszsun]

Mbodell, on Feb 19 2008, 07:49 PM, said:

I think my line is win A♥.  Low ♦ covering.  Assuming this loses to RHO then lose club return and ruff high on the 2nd club.  Now lead ♦ to the A and then ruff ♦ high again.  Now cross to the K♠.  If this loses to the A♠ then RHO can only lead ♦ if he started with 4 of them (in which case you ruff high, pull trump ending in hand and finesse for the J♠).  If he had 3 or less he needs to lead a club (pitch ♠ from hand ruff on board safe since the T♥ is still there, pull trump and claim) or the spade (duck it to board and claim if no trump).

This gives us lots of chances to win.

Rho would simply duck your ♠K to avoid being endplayed if he had less than 4♦s.

[rogerclee]

Hmm. Is this really a B/I problem? I think this deal is pretty complicated.

Spoiler

If LHO has ♠Jx, I can't mess this up. I think the more likely holding to worry about is RHO's ♠AJxx.

It seems reasonable to play him for 4045. I'll draw trumps and lead a club from my hand. If RHO has all the spades and diamonds, the defensive continuations won't really matter. RHO will be either strip-squeezed or forced to unguard spades while I still have the ♦A as an entry. In fact, the opponents cannot even successfully attack my diamond entry, since I have the 98 (doing so would just set up a diamond trick for me, while I still have a spade entry.)

This line will fail fantastically when LHO shows up with the ♠A.

[y66]

Don’t think we’re making if RHO has ace and jack of spades. If spade honors are split and we play spade to king and ace does not appear, then what?

Will eliminate clubs then play 3 rounds of diamonds before trying spades. Maybe KQT of diamonds will fall along the way.

[pclayton]

Quote

This problem is deeper than it looks; will reply later.

Quote

I won't respond yet, but I think there's more to it than meets the eye.

Everyone's a f(*&^ing comedian aren't they?

[Simplicity]

Win the heart in hand and play a club.

If the defnence play diamonds i should be able to establish 2 tricks in the suit. Otherwise win the return and use the ♥T as an entry to ruff out the remaining club and play a diamond towards the 9, RHO now has a choice of poisons: ruff and discard or endplay in either pointed suit.

[pclayton]

Simplicity, on Feb 20 2008, 06:44 AM, said:

Win the heart in hand and play a club.

If the defnence play diamonds i should be able to establish 2 tricks in the suit. Otherwise win the return and use the ♥T as an entry to ruff out the remaining club and play a diamond towards the 9, RHO now has a choice of poisons: ruff and discard or endplay in either pointed suit.

Good! This is the basic idea although I think running the J is a little better.

You have some legitimate chances in the diamond suit like ruffing out ♦KQT. On the actual hand RHO has ♦KQTx and will be endplayed when winning the diamond. Note there's a little guessing involved here.

The ♠ hook can wait, unless you think the opponents are too dense to find the diamond shift.

[han]

Beginner's should be able to find the club at trick 2?

[655321]

han, on Feb 20 2008, 05:39 PM, said:

Beginner's should be able to find the club at trick 2?

Apostrophe man strikes again

[pclayton]

han, on Feb 20 2008, 02:39 PM, said:

Beginner's should be able to find the club at trick 2?

One would think so. Sigh...

[cherdano]

pclayton, on Feb 20 2008, 05:09 PM, said:

han, on Feb 20 2008, 02:39 PM, said:

Beginner's should be able to find the club at trick 2?

One would think so. Sigh...

Phil, I really don't know why you are constantly completely misjudging the difficulty of plays like this. Remember Larry Cohen's recent LMP report where he described how many in the final session of LMP missed an elimination play that was a lot more obvious than the one you posted here.

[jdonn]

I think this play would be found by no beginners, no intermediates, almost no advanced players, maybe half of all experts, and most world class players.

[pclayton]

cherdano, on Feb 20 2008, 05:42 PM, said:

pclayton, on Feb 20 2008, 05:09 PM, said:

han, on Feb 20 2008, 02:39 PM, said:

Beginner's should be able to find the club at trick 2?

One would think so. Sigh...

Phil, I really don't know why you are constantly completely misjudging the difficulty of plays like this. Remember Larry Cohen's recent LMP report where he described how many in the final session of LMP missed an elimination play that was a lot more obvious than the one you posted here.

Yes I know, sorry.

I need to post more transfer squeezes in the BI section.