[pclayton]

Here's a hand Sathya played in 4S yesterday:

IMPs.

LHO makes a 2♥ overcall over your 1♠.

Scoring: IMP

---

LHO leads the ♥K. You win and RHO plays the ♥2 (1 or 2 but not 3).

Now what?

[sathyab]

Phil and I discussed this a fair amount when we met on BBO since. It turns out that there're quite a few alternative lines of play each with their own failure scenarios, not that I thought of as many alternatives at the table.

To have any chance you need to find the ♠K on-side and trumps breaking 3-2.

1) If you win T1 with the Ace of hearts, play a spade to the Ace and a spade toward the Queen, it's instant death whenever it's Kx on your left for RHO scores a trump trick in addition to a heart and a Diamond However if you find Kxx on your left, this line is fairly solid. No matter what the defense does you can pull trumps and club King is entry to your good Diamonds after you knock out the Ace.

2) To avoid RHO's possible trump trick you might think of playing a club to the King and then a spade toward the Queen w/o releasing the Ace. The defense wins and forces you in hearts once. Now they hold up Diamonds once and you're down one losing a heart, a trump, a Diamond and a club !

3) Another possibility is to win the King and hook the Jack immediately before playing trumps. Assuming clubs are Qxx(x) with LHO, you now play trumps. They force you in hearts once. Now you make if RHO has the Ace of Diamonds as he doesn't have any more hearts. All he can do is cash a club trick before being forced to yield to your Diamonds. If the club finesse loses and it was Kxx of trumps on your left to start with, your partner will definitely be wondering how you found this superior line of play to go down so swiftly.

[gnasher]

sathyab, on Apr 30 2008, 08:37 AM, said:

2) To avoid RHO's possible trump trick you might think of playing a club to the King and then  a spade toward the Queen w/o releasing the Ace. The defense wins and forces you in hearts once. Now they hold up Diamonds once and you're down one losing a heart, a trump, a Diamond and a club !

Why? Before playing diamonds I cash the queen of trumps, leaving one outstanding. When they win the diamond, they might be able to promote a trump by playing a third round of diamonds, but if they can't do that I'm making.

This line would lose to West's 2=6=3=2 with ♦A, or 3=x=2=x without ♦A, but make on most other layouts.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2008-April-30, 08:01

[CSGibson]

I was debating with myself whether there was any merit to playing LHO for the king of spades (intra-finnesse). The bidding says no, but the spade length is likely on the right given that hearts are probably 6-2.

[jtfanclub]

Hmmm...

If the club finesse works, do you need to touch trumps? Play 3 rounds of clubs, sluffing a heart, and run diamonds. You intend to get 3 diamonds (overruffing as necessary), one heart, three clubs, two heart ruffs, and only one spade trick. You lose a diamond, a spade, and one other trick, a club overruff or a second spade trick, same difference.

[mikeh]

It seems to me that the trump suit affords far more possibilities than merely 3-2 with the K onside.

You do seem to need 3-2 trump.. I'll go that far. You cannot afford to play A and a trump, since LHO can then play 2 more rounds of heart at you, and rho will score a trick with his now stiff 10 or J, after LHO cashes his diamond Ace.

If we place LHO with short trumps, we can cross to our hand to lead a low spade immediately, preserving the A9x to prevent the trump promotion, or we can play LHO for Jx or 10x by leading low to the 8. Then we will get back to dummy in due course and lead the Queen.

Note that many opps would have a difficult time playing low, smoothly, with Kx in trump.

If he does play low, then against a non-expert, the intra-finesse becomes, in my book, clear. If he is an expert and/or is capable of the smooth duck, I still take the intra finesse, because it is the sexy play.

BTW, if rho wins his 10 or Jack, and returns a heart, I am going to have to drive out the diamond Ace before pulling the last trump. But, if the spade K is on my left, diamonds should not be a problem.

Further BTW, why wasn't this line an option? I assume that this line failed, of course, because it wasn't an option and Sathyab didn't discuss it...but it's still the line I prefer