[Trumpace]

Playing Rubber you reach 5S and West leads the ♣2.

You see:

Scoring: Rubber

Lead ♣2, East plays the 7.

---

You play a low ♣ from dummy and East plays the ♣7 and you win the K.

Plan the play.

As usual Adv/Exp please refrain from posting too early.

[effervesce]

Text hidden:

Spoiler

The contract is only at risk if the lead was a singleton (or from Txxx), and either east or west has the singleton ace of trumps, in which case if a club gets ruffed, you may lose a diamond as well.

If west holds T982 of clubs (unlikely, as the normal lead from that holding is the T), guarded king of diamonds and singleton ace of spades, there is nothing you can do, but if the lead is (as is most likely) a singleton club, you can make your contract by first playing off the A and K of hearts to strip his exit cards. After ruffing a club, he must then either concede the diamonds, or give a ruff/sluff, solving the diamond problem.

[HeavyDluxe]

I think I'm only worried *if* the ♣2 is a singleton, then I'm worried about losing the ♠A, a ♦, and a ♣ ruff.

I think I can solve one of these last two problems by playing two rounds of ♥s then leading a ♠ towards dummy. If E has the ace, they may get their ruff, but W is stuck leading back into me and I've got a pitch somewhere.

[Quantumcat]

West has a singleton club for there to be a problem ... if he has the ace of spades, he can't hurt you (he can give you a free D finesse, or lead a H and let you draw trumps peacefully) But if east has it, he will give W a club ruff and if D finesse doesn't work they may get 3 tricks. But if you have no hearts when West gets his club ruff you can discard a losing D if he plays one.

My plan: Win club, play AK hearts. Play spade. If east wins and gives west club ruff, west has to give you D finesse or H ruff/sluff. (He has followed once, ruffed once, east has won AS & you started with 10 so west cant exit one). This looks set up like a textbook problem hand where you learn about throw-ins!

[Trumpace]

Well done. I think all of you have it.

Here is another 5S contract.

You reach 5S after West overcalled in Diamonds.

West leads ♦Q and you see:

Scoring: Rubber

Lead ♦Q.

---

Plan the play.

[Quantumcat]

If you lose both the A and Q, you have 10 tricks, or 11, if the heart finesse wins, or you manage to lose only 1 spade.

Simplest thing seems to be: no way is any one going to open 2D with a singleton ace of spades, and most people don't pre-empt with voids as a rule. Therefore, finesse the spade and if you see the queen, play the king (obviously) if you see the ace, play low (obviously) if you see neither, you put up the king, expecting to see the queen from west. Putting up the king doesn't work if he has A singleton, cause then you lose to the queen too. But we are pretty certain he doesn't have it. Running the jack works if he is void, but we don't expect that, either.

If there is some throw-in solution where it doesn't matter who has what spades, I couldn't see it.

[effervesce]

Quantumcat, on Jul 22 2008, 05:26 AM, said:

If you lose both the A and Q, you have 10 tricks, or 11, if the heart finesse wins, or you manage to lose only 1 spade.

Simplest thing seems to be: no way is any one going to open 2D with a singleton ace of spades, and most people don't pre-empt with voids as a rule. Therefore, finesse the spade and if you see the queen, play the king (obviously) if you see the ace, play low (obviously) if you see neither, you put up the king, expecting to see the queen from west. Putting up the king doesn't work if he has A singleton, cause then you lose to the queen too. But we are pretty certain he doesn't have it. Running the jack works if he is void, but we don't expect that, either.

If there is some throw-in solution where it doesn't matter who has what spades, I couldn't see it.

Yes, the theme is similar to the first. Maybe look at it again?

[vuroth]

These hands are causing me far more problems than I'd like.

On the second hand, I'm worried about a 3-0 trump split, and I'm worried about RHO having less than 3 diamonds.

That said, why not eliminate both minors?
A♦
K♦, throw 6♥
3♦, overruff if I can*
A♣
K♣
3♣, ruff

I kept rejecting this on the basis that I'm now in hand and can't play low to the king, but what's so bad about just throwing them in in spades? It's an inferior line if RHO has the singleton queen, but I pick up singleton aces nicely, and if LHO has the singleton queen then either RHO has to overtake, or LHO will be forced to lead hearts or give me a ruff and sluff. This line also handles all 3 spades being in LHO's hand, which isn't all that unlikely.

*If LHO ruffs with the 2, no problem. If LHO ruffs with the queen, great. If LHO ruffs with the ace, I can still play for the queen to drop if need be.


...


In general, it's not seeing the various lines that gives me trouble, it's trying to figure out which line is better. Do I just need to get real cozy with Pascal's triangle? Is there some literature I should be reading/memorizing?

V

[FrancesHinden]

vuroth, on Jul 23 2008, 01:47 PM, said:

I kept rejecting this on the basis that I'm now in hand and can't play low to the king, but what's so bad about just throwing them in in spades? It's an inferior line if RHO has the singleton queen, but I pick up singleton aces nicely, and if LHO has the singleton queen then either RHO has to overtake, or LHO will be forced to lead hearts or give me a ruff and sluff. This line also handles all 3 spades being in LHO's hand, which isn't all that unlikely.

Which spade are you going to throw them in with?

p.s. if LHO has all three spades you are stuffed (or rather you will need the heart finesse) as LHO always has a spade exit

[vuroth]

Sorry, you're right. I saw that 3-0 was fatal because LHO could exit with the 2♠. I saw this YESTERDAY. Guess it's a good thing I can't take 24 hours at the table to plan my play.

I was going to play low to the jack, but that was without giving it any thought.

Upon reflection, plunking down the king wins when the queen is single, and playing low wins when the ace is single. I don't see a big difference between the two, so I'll play low to the jack.

[Quantumcat]

My problem was, eliminating the minors and throwing him in with a spade hoping he doesn't have all three doesn't really help, if he gives you a minor ruff/discard you are only ruffing in the long hand, and not gaining yourself any tricks?

[Trumpace]

Quantumcat, on Jul 28 2008, 07:48 PM, said:

My problem was, eliminating the minors and throwing him in with a spade hoping he doesn't have all three doesn't really help, if he gives you a minor ruff/discard you are only ruffing in the long hand, and not gaining yourself any tricks?

Can't you ruff in dummy and throw a heart?