[kgr]

Scoring: IMP

1H-(2D)-2S
4S-All Pass

---

LHO leads a D and you play small in N and RHO takes the Ace and returns D9 that you let run to dummy, but LHO ruffs and return a small H.
How do you plan your play?

[vuroth]

11 winners - 5 spades, 3 hearts, a diamond and 2 clubs. Alas, 3 losers - the two gone by and the ace of spades.

Win the Q♥. Play the KJ♠, then low to the queen if necessary. That eliminates trump, and i still have the ace of clubs entry to cash my heart winners.

Whatever I do, I'm not finessing clubs. That's really the only trick I can see with this hand.

V

[ArcLight]

>Win the Q♥. Play the KJ♠, then low to the queen if necessary. That eliminates trump, and i still have the ace of clubs entry to cash my heart winners.


Who do you think has the trump ace?
Hint - look at the bidding.
What happens if they win on the first round, what might they do?


Can you protect against that?

[vuroth]

Gah thank you. That was NOT a good problem to miss.



Q♥, A♣, K♥ discarding the K♦.

[AlternaG]

You still have to be careful.

As you said, you have 11 winners:

5 spades, 3 hearts, a diamond, and 2 clubs. But you have 3 losers, so you can afford to pitch away Kd on a winner.

As mentioned, Q♥, A♣, K♥ pitching K♦. Let's not forget that we still need to get to the board to cash A♥. So, we have to protect against ♠Axx on our right. This is easy: small to the K♠. If the ace pops, or if both show up with a spade, we're fine. Otherwise small to the T♠. Again, if the A♠ pops, we're fine. If T♠ holds, A♥, lest we never get the opportunity again.

Edit: Checking out the spots, obviously you could just play two rounds of spades off the board, ducking in hand, then A♥ if they are 3-0 and you haven't seen the A yet.

[kgr]

vuroth, on Sep 25 2008, 02:20 PM, said:

Gah thank you. That was NOT a good problem to miss.



Q♥, A♣, K♥ discarding the K♦.

Yes.
It wasn't necessary because ♠'s were 2-2, but that is what you have to do.