[mikeh]

Scoring: IMP

RHO passes, and, playing a weak notrump style, you open 1♥. Partner bids 1N, forcing and an artificial 2♦ over your 2♣. 2♦ is a puppet to 2♥, either weak, as here, or various hand-types. I mention this because RHO doubles 2♦. The opening lead is the ♦ A followed by the Q, which RHO overtakes to lead the J. You ruff with the 7 and cash the top trump. Both opps follow low. How do you continue, and why. Experts/advanced, hide answers please

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I meant they followed to the Ace of trump.... sorry to be unclear, but they couldn't both have followed low to two rounds of trump Edited

[vuroth]

By top trump, you mean they followed suit to the A, or to the AK?

[han]

Ah, I misread. Now the problem makes more sense too!

[mikeh]

I have edited the problem to specify they followed low to one round of trump, and it is at that point that you are asked to explain your next play

[skjaeran]

Nice instructive problem where the safety play cannot lose a trick, thus being the correct play at any scoring.

[vuroth]

We've lost 2♦. We will lose 1♣, 1♥ and 1♠ for certain. There may be a second ♥ loser if ♥ are 4-1 and neither honour is isolated.

If ♥ are 3-2, there's a danger in having the short suit ruff a black card, creating a second trump loser we never had. Spades 5-2 or Clubs 4-2 are possible.

Playing the K♥ loses immediately on the 4-1 trump splits, unless an honour falls.

I'll play low to the 10♥. This costs me nothing. If both follow, I make. If LHO shows out, the finesse is marked, and I still have the A♣to get to the board to do it.

If RHO shows out, well yuck. I'll try to run out the black cards, spades then clubs, and hope that LHO ends up on lead with Qx against my K9.

V

[frouu]

I don't think know if I'm right but here's my thought.
assuming 4-3 spades and 4-2 or 3-3 clubs , I think this hand is about counting winners. our goal is to win 4 hearts 2 clubs 2 spades, so don't touch trumps, just drive out ace of spades, none of the opps can play diamonds (ruff and sluff), if RHO wins ace and plays small trump, play 9 of hearts, you're guaranteed for 4th heart trick. assume plays spade or club, finish spades then clubs, and if LHO wins third club, he is endplayed, why? , at this point we're at 11th trick, and we have 3 trumps (K97) we have won 6 tricks ( diamond ruff , heart ace, 2 spades 2 clubs) , we'll certainly get one with K, now if LHO has 3 hearts (started with 4), he'll have to waste Q or J, otherwise we'll win with 10 at dummy. if RHO has 3 hearts left, he'll have to waste one of his J or Q to whatever LHO returns, if hearts are 2-1 , no problem, if RHO wins last club, we'll play small heart to whatever he leads, if LHO wins with J or Q of hearts, he's endplayed again. This way caters to 4-1 trump distributions.

if spades are 5-2, this way may lose a spade trick since we didnt pull trumps. in that case we need to hope 3-2 hearts with 3 with short spade.

[FrancesHinden]

skaeran, on Feb 29 2008, 07:47 PM, said:

Nice instructive problem where the safety play cannot lose a trick, thus being the correct play at any scoring.

Hidden text follows:

Spoiler

If RHO has QJxx in hearts we need to play a low heart towards the 10 now, win a club return in hand and knock out the SK before taking the marked heart finesse. If RHO is 2443 without the ace of spades we will go off, but there is nothing we can do about that.

This line looks dangerous, because suppose RHO has

Axx
xx
KJ10xx
xxx

now LHO wins the second heart, plays a spade to partner's ace and another diamond is played. But we are still OK because we can discard our club loser on this while LHO ruffs; we have simply switched a club loser for a trump loser.

Here's another question for you: why were we right to ruff the third round of diamonds in hand rather than discarding a club on it?

[y66]

Like vuroth's line. Thanks for the problem.

re: FH's question, why were we right to ruff the third round of diamonds in hand rather than discarding a club on it?

I don't think it can ever cost to ruff the 3rd diamond.

If LHO has an honor and 1, 2 or 3 small hearts, we don't mind if he over-ruffs the 3rd diamond. We were going to lose a heart anyway.

If LHO has QJx of hearts, we'll lose 2 hearts if RHO has SA and 1 heart if LHO has SA, no matter what we play (if we pitch a club, RHO will continue diamonds).

If LHO has QJxx of hearts, we'll lose 2 hearts no matter what we play.