[fred]

Jlall, on Sep 11 2008, 09:24 PM, said:

Thought this was kind of a cool hand:

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East is in 6H. Play or defend?

What I think is the right answer is hidden below.

Spoiler

On a club lead you can make it by winning the Ace, Ace of spades, spade discarding a club from dummy, and later executing a double squeeze.

On a spade lead it is similar (and there are probably other lines that work too).

On a low diamond lead you can strip squeeze North.

A high diamond lead will create a finessing position against South.

So unless I am missing something, the answer is "Play!".

Agree - cool hand

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Echognome]

fred, on Sep 11 2008, 01:37 PM, said:

So unless I am missing something...

Not to give anything away with the rest of your answer, East is declaring.

[TimG]

fred, on Sep 11 2008, 04:37 PM, said:

Spoiler

So unless I am missing something, the answer is "Play!".

Spoiler

East is declarer.

[fred]

I somehow got my directions mixed up and thought North was on opening lead.

Trying again...

Spoiler

A low diamond lead from South appears to be best. Otherwise the analysis in my previous post applies...

Now there won't be any double squeezes (defense can continue diamonds if you try to rectify the count)....

I can't see any way to make it now so the answer appears to be: Defend!

I think that is right

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[nige1]

Jlall, on Sep 11 2008, 04:24 PM, said:

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

♠ 642 ♥   ♦ J753 ♣ KQJ532 ♠ AT75 ♥ Q85 ♦ AKT ♣ AT7 ♠ 3 ♥ AKJT974 ♦ 64 ♣ 984 ♠ KQJ98 ♥ 632 ♦ Q982 ♣ 6

Thought This was kind of a cool hand. East is in 6H. Play or defend?

In a way, it is a pity that double-dummy programs are so good. I used to struggle for ages with such problems. Often, Hugh Darwen's problems defeated all but a handful of people. Double dummy programs now reveal that many of George Coffin's and Hugh Darwen's problems had flaws undetected by humans .

6N by East needs a slightly more precise defence.

[pclayton]

Noteworthy that 6♥ by West is cold (as Fred pointed out).

Nice hand - keep em' coming.

[fred]

nige1, on Sep 12 2008, 12:33 AM, said:

In a way, it is a pity that double-dummy programs are so good. I used to struggle for ages with such problems.

Are you saying you now tend to give up and ask a program thereby ruining the satisfaction that comes from eventually figuring it out for yourself?

If yes, I don't think you can blame that on the existence of these programs

I do think these fast double dummy solving programs are amazing, but I also think that today's bridge students often develop bad habits by letting these programs do the "thinking" for them. Having the discipline and the developing analytical ability to figure out these problems in your head will make a positive difference to your results at the table IMO.

For me one interesting consequences of double dummy programs is the large number of bridge journalists these days who are capable of writing accurately about really complicated hands. It used to be that those journalists who could do this were few and far between (and assuming you are right about Darwen and Coffin, apparently they were fewer and further between than I had thought!).

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[nige1]

Scoring: IMP

Bridgify, a super double dummy program, shows that small changes allow 6♥ or 6N by South to make.

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