[fred]

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The exact bidding is not important, but West has suggested 6 hearts and at least 4 clubs (including the King).

He leads the King of hearts against 6S.

Plan the play.

Thanks to Curtis Cheek who showed me this hand and found the winning line of play at the table.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[han]

Seems like you should play for LHO to have Hx or QJ in diamonds, and thus a stiff spade. Ruff the heart lead, play king of spades and finesse the spade. Now Ace of diamonds and a diamond to the 10. If LHO wins they are endplayed. If RHO turns up with Qx of spades then you'll have to hope LHO has a stiff honor in diamonds.

[fred]

han, on Oct 25 2008, 03:53 PM, said:

Seems like you should play for LHO to have Hx or QJ in diamonds, and thus a stiff spade. Ruff the heart lead, play king of spades and finesse the spade. Now Ace of diamonds and a diamond to the 10. If LHO wins they are endplayed. If RHO turns up with Qx of spades then you'll have to hope LHO has a stiff honor in diamonds.

Not bad, but what if spades are 4-0?

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[mikeh]

If LHO is 0=6=3=4, I don't think you can make it (unless his diamonds are xxx). Even if you win the heart, ruff a heart, spade K, spade 10...if they duck, intending to play 3 rounds of diamonds, rho can ruff his partner's winner and lead a club.

Bu if LHO is 0=6=2=5, with a diamond honour, heart Ace (pitching a club), heart ruff, spade K and spade 10... regardless of what rho plays, your next play is in diamonds: A and low to the 10 (unless rho plays an honour on the second round, which he cannot afford to do from Hxx... if he has QJx, you weren't making anyway.

If he plays an honour, you have to win K and exit and hope LHO wins and rho forgets to ruff.

If spades are not 4-0, adopt Han's line (I think he forgot to specify cashing the heart ace before throwing lho in, but that was implicit in his line

[TimG]

han, on Oct 25 2008, 10:53 AM, said:

Seems like you should play for LHO to have Hx or QJ in diamonds, and thus a stiff spade. Ruff the heart lead, play king of spades and finesse the spade. Now Ace of diamonds and a diamond to the 10. If LHO wins they are endplayed. If RHO turns up with Qx of spades then you'll have to hope LHO has a stiff honor in diamonds.

Don't you need to cash the ♥A before throwing LHO in?

I think you should lead the ♠10 on the second round of the suit so that you can repeat the finesse.

If LHO is 0634 you can't make because RHO will get a 3rd round diamond ruff (either as the setting trick or to take partner off the endplay). But, this line makes when LHO is 0625.

[han]

mikeh, on Oct 25 2008, 11:45 AM, said:

But if LHO is 0=6=2=5, with a diamond honour, heart Ace (pitching a club), heart ruff, spade K and spade 10... regardless of what rho plays, your next play is in diamonds: A and low to the 10 (unless rho plays an honour on the second round, which he cannot afford to do from Hxx... if he has QJx, you weren't making anyway.

I think you need to play another round of spades. Otherwise LHO can exit a club and you can't get to dummy for the spade finesse. If you have played 3 rounds of spades already you don't need to.

[nige1]

fred, on Oct 25 2008, 10:32 AM, said:

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

♠ K109x ♥ Ax ♦ Axx ♣ xxxx ♠ AJ8xx ♥   ♦ K10xxx ♣ AQx

The exact bidding is not important, but West has suggested 6 hearts and at least 4 clubs (including the King). He leads the King of hearts against 6S. Plan the play. Thanks to Curtis Cheek who showed me this hand and found the winning line of play at the table.

Agree with everybody: ♥A chucking a ♣, ♥ ruff. ♠K, run ♠T ♠9, ♦A. ♦ to ♦T. End-playing LHO when he has, for example
♠- ♥ KQJxxxx ♦ Hx ♣ Kxxx

[fred]

nige1, on Oct 25 2008, 11:45 PM, said:

fred, on Oct 25 2008, 10:32 AM, said:

<!-- NORTHSOUTH begin --><table border=1> <tr> <td> <table> <tr> <td>Dealer:</td> <td> ????? </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Vul:</td> <td> ???? </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Scoring:</td> <td> Unknown </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td> <table border='1'> <tr> <th> <table> <tr> <th class='spades'>♠</th> <td> K109x </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='hearts'>♥</th> <td> Ax </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='diamonds'>♦</th> <td> Axx </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='clubs'>♣</th> <td> xxxx </td> </tr> </table> </th> </tr> <tr> <th> <table> <tr> <th class='spades'>♠</th> <td> AJ8xx </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='hearts'>♥</th> <td>  </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='diamonds'>♦</th> <td> K10xxx </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='clubs'>♣</th> <td> AQx </td> </tr> </table> </th> </tr> </table> </td> <td> The exact bidding is not important, but West has suggested 6 hearts and at least 4 clubs (including the King).
He leads the King of hearts against 6S.
Plan the play.
Thanks to Curtis Cheek who showed me this hand and found the winning line of play at the table.
</td> </tr> </table><!-- NORTHSOUTH end -->

Agree with everybody: ♥A chucking a ♣, ♥ ruff. ♠K, run ♠T ♠9, ♦A. ♦ to ♦T. End-playing LHO when he has, for example
♠- ♥ KQJxxxx ♦ Hx ♣ Kxxx

Correct and well done!

Apparently people are finding the cool 4S to be much harder than this problem (not sure why). I will post what I think is the right answer to that problem tomorrow.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[eyhung]

han, on Oct 25 2008, 03:53 PM, said:

Seems like you should play for LHO to have Hx or QJ in diamonds, and thus a stiff spade. Ruff the heart lead, play king of spades and finesse the spade. Now Ace of diamonds and a diamond to the 10. If LHO wins they are endplayed. If RHO turns up with Qx of spades then you'll have to hope LHO has a stiff honor in diamonds.

I think the timing can be improved. Heart ace pitching club, heart ruff, spade to king. If West shows out, adopt the line Fred indicated (ST, S9, DA, DT playing West for doubleton diamond quack). However, if West follows, cash the diamond ace next, then finesse spade ten, planning to finesse the diamond ten later in the play (you can guarantee another dummy entry with spades at worst 3-1). This gains on the recommended line when west was dealt doubleton SQ and singleton diamond quack and doesn't seem to lose anything as you can try one round of spades before cashing the diamond ace.

Eugene