[H_KARLUK]

Scoring: MP

1♠,north's 2♣,your side landed 4♠. Trumps 3-2, as expected ♣K lead appeared.

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♣ A then ruff ruins your plans or not?

How do you retain control?

Please comment.

[han]

I think I'd play AK of spades. I can claim if they split.

[pclayton]

H_Karluk, some friendly advice:

This is a probably a book hand. If it is, I consider the appropriate approach to be:

"Here's a neat hand I found in Ewart Kempson's great book "____"" Perhaps many of you haven't seen it before, but I thought I'd share it with you here. You play 4♠...bla...bla...bla".

If you are posting book hands (and I'm not saying you are, but the fact you posted the Robinson/Jordan hand leads me to believe you have a library), then you should make the reference. If this hand happened by chance in the main bridge club, or at a tournament, or in real life, then you might want to mention that instead.

There are at least two reasonable lines here, by the way.

[jdonn]

pclayton, on Nov 7 2008, 01:21 PM, said:

There are at least two reasonable lines here, by the way.

Not when he tells us trumps are 3-2. Play AK of trumps and claim?

[jtfanclub]

Given that it's MPs, is it worth playing for an overtrick (2 club ruffs)?

[FrancesHinden]

jdonn, on Nov 7 2008, 07:24 PM, said:

pclayton, on Nov 7 2008, 01:21 PM, said:

There are at least two reasonable lines here, by the way.

Not when he tells us trumps are 3-2. Play AK of trumps and claim?

That doesn't look like a very good line to me.

p.s. I agree with pclayton, it looks like a book hand (and there is a book answer, if you are prepared to assume trumps are 3-2).

[FrancesHinden]

han, on Nov 7 2008, 07:21 PM, said:

I think I'd play AK of spades. I can claim if they split.

I'm surprised at you too.

I've deliberately not posted the answer, because it is a well-known text-book play hand and you and jdonn would usually get it right without thinking, you are going to be embarrassed.

[jdonn]

FrancesHinden, on Nov 7 2008, 03:01 PM, said:

jdonn, on Nov 7 2008, 07:24 PM, said:

pclayton, on Nov 7 2008, 01:21 PM, said:

There are at least two reasonable lines here, by the way.

Not when he tells us trumps are 3-2. Play AK of trumps and claim?

That doesn't look like a very good line to me.

I'm not sure what you don't like about a 100% line? I wasn't explicit about the followup but it's extremely simple and I'm sure you can see it...

[dburn]

Not quite sure what this is about. Certainly if spades are 3-2 one can play two top trumps and claim (if no one ruffs any round of diamonds, declarer pitches a heart, ruffs a heart and ruffs a club).

At matchpoints, one might be tempted to ruff a club, cash ♠K, cross to a diamond, ruff another club, cross to a diamond and cash ♠A, making an overtrick if all goes well. But if South has, say:

♠Q98 ♥ KJ109 ♦8765 ♣75

he will overruff the third club and play a heart to North, who will cash a club and play another, ruffed by South to promote a trump for North. How one would play would thus depend on how likely one considered it that North would have six or seven clubs for his overcall. The size of South's card on the first round of the suit might assist with that decision, but this datum is not vouchsafed by the original poster.

[FrancesHinden]

The original post specified we started with Ace of clubs and a ruff, and I think the point he was making is that you are supposed to say that isn't the right start.

On reflection I realise that every poster except me missed that start to the play (or you were by inference saying that your play to trick two is a trump), either that or you are all very ploppy declarer players.

The standard textbook hand is where you have to duck the opening lead, but there's no need for that here.

But it's quite an interesting play problem if you aren't given advance notice of the 3-2 spade break. Suppose RHO is, say, 4-3-4-2 . Now you make via ace of clubs, club ruff, king of spades, four rounds of diamonds discarding a heart, heart ruff, club ruff. But if he's 4-3-3-3 you play ace of clubs, club ruff, diamond to hand, club ruff, king of spades, four rounds of diamonds. These lines all look a bit silly if trumps are 3-2. Mind you, as David says, you might get a count signal at trick 1 on the clubs, which might help decide whether to try and ruff two clubs in dummy.