[jonottawa]

IMPs - Swiss

AT5 / A5 / AKQ3 / AQ76

RHO opens 1 Spade. You double. The auction proceeds:

1S - Dbl - P - 2D
2H - 2S - P - 3D
P - 3NT - Float

LHO (Hamman, fwiw) leads the 8 of Hearts. Plan the play.

Q3 / T32 / J9872 / T42

AT5 / A5 / AKQ3 / AQ76

Edit: Response to below. RHO shows out on 2nd ♦ pitching ♠ If you cash 5 ♦ RHO pitches 4 ♠

Spoiler below (invisible ink)

Spoiler

Ben's 'alternative' line is correct. RHO (Petra) held KJ9842 / KQJ97 / T / 9

Spoiler

I guess you can still recover if you win the first Heart and play 5 ♦ but I think you get a deduction for style points and give yourself more losing options that way (on other layouts. For instance KJ9842 / KQ764 / T / 9)

[pclayton]

I start with the ♥10. Maybe I'll block the suit if the great one lead from ♥KJ8 (probably dreaming, but it can't hurt).

What does RHO play on the ♦AK(Q)?

[inquiry]

Simple play looks like hook club, but i am not doing that, unless RHO is void in diamonds. The defense has a chance if WEST has one of the top four hearts, othewise i should prevail, even if the club king is onside.

Win !HA, take 5♦, throw a spade or a club (not the heart). Club to ACE, exit a heart. Of course, if there is some funny business in discards, I might change horses and play spade ACE to drop a stiff king with RHO who keeps hearts and throws spades, but he would almost have to have a diamond void for that, and throw 5 spades, or a stiff diamond and throw four.

Alternatively, duck first heart, win second, cash club ace.. follow line above with heart ten from dummy as exit card... this is probably better way to do the same thing, so duck first round and cash club ACE before running diamonds is how i will play it.

[kenrexford]

Gotta take out insurance, I suppose. But, thinking out loud...

The opponents have 14 HCP. Opener might be missing one of the minor Kings, but not both. I don't think I can sever communications in hearts, so I'll just win the first heart and start running off the diamonds, pitching one club. I'm fairly certain where the spade King is located (as Responder would presumably raise to 2♠ with the spade King). So, the problem seems to be that LHO may well have the club King.

Ugh. If LHO ever gets in, he will exit a spade, very likely through KJ. If I exit a heart, RHO can exit a club. I could clear his club exit, but that's rather unilaterally assunming a stiff. Obviously, though, if RHO follows to three diamonds, that line is fairly assured.

I want to wait on my decision. What happens after five diamonds are played, and I ditch a club?

[gnasher]

pclayton, on Jul 7 2008, 04:17 PM, said:

I start with the ♥10. Maybe I'll block the suit if the great one lead from ♥KJ8 (probably dreaming, but it can't hurt).

Are you sure about that?

[inquiry]

This thread has seemed to die, here is the line I was playing for...

Duck first heart, win next heart, cash club ACE... then run diamonds... Imagine EAST with Kx of clubs instead of x (say no diamonds), then cashing club still doesn't hurt.. endings will be something like this with last diamond to be played...

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Duck first heart, win next heart, cash club ACE... then run diamonds... Imagine EAST with Kx of clubs instead of x (say no diamonds), then cashing club still doesn't hurt.. endings will be something like this with last diamond to be played...

---

or if RHO had the club king after all....

Duck first heart, win next heart, cash club ACE... then run diamonds... Imagine EAST with Kx of clubs instead of x (say no diamonds), then cashing club still doesn't hurt.. endings will be something like this with last diamond to be played...

---

It seems if the club finessee wins, you don't need to take it.....

[nige1]

inquiry, on Jul 7 2008, 10:17 AM, said:

Alternatively, duck first heart, win second, cash club ace.. follow line above with heart ten from dummy as exit card... this is probably better way to do the same thing, so duck first round and cash club ACE before running diamonds is how i will play it.

Clever stuff Inquiry and pretty

[kgr]

inquiry, on Jul 8 2008, 05:27 AM, said:

or if RHO had the club king after all....

Dealer: ????? Vul: ???? Scoring: Unknown

♠ Qx ♥ T ♦ J ♣ Tx ♠ xx ♥ x ♦   ♣ xxx ♠ KJ ♥ Qxx ♦   ♣ K ♠ ATx ♥   ♦   ♣ Qxx

East can decide to keep the king of clubs, but no matter, he has teh same problem, discard a heart, you exit heart ten, discard a spade, you win 2 spade tricks. The heart exit endplays RHO so that eventually a spade lead away from the king comes.. you win 2S, 5D, 1H, 1C.

It is always down if RHO started with 2 small ♣'s and keeps one in the ending, but then you can probably never make?

[inquiry]

kgr, on Jul 9 2008, 04:52 PM, said:

It is always down if RHO started with 2 small ♣'s and keeps one in the ending, but then you can probably never make?

Assuming LHO holds three hearts, that is correct... when the club hook loses, they rip you in hearts. Even if hearts are 4-4 (which realistically they can not be), you end up one trick short.

[gnasher]

kgr, on Jul 9 2008, 10:52 PM, said:

It is always down if RHO started with 2 small ♣'s and keeps one in the ending, but then you can probably never make?

You could cope with that layout as long as West had ♥4, by winning the first heart and running the diamonds, coming down to:

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On the last diamond, East has to discard a club (otherwise you just set up a spade trick). Then you play a club to the ace and run the heart 5, finessing against West's 7 to keep him off lead.

I'm not recommending this line - it loses when East has a small singleton club and West has better hearts. It also makes it harder to read the ending.