[y66]

Here's a fun play problem from Krzysztof Martens' book Virtual European Championship part 1. This book was favorably reviewed on the book review thread.

Contract 4♥ by West. Lead ♦K.

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If it's not clear from the diagram, declarer is the guy with the singleton ♦3.

Many intermediates who have been working on their play will probably get this one. One has so far.

Will post Mr. Marten's comments in a day or two.

[pclayton]

Good problem and a theme that is important to know.

[vuroth]

Spoiler

Duck the first trick?

[maggieb]

Well done vuroth!

[fan13027]

When posed here as a question/problem, the answer is obvious ... even to me. But the logic of HOW this is clearly helpful to me in this scenario escapes me. I assume you pitch a Spade on any ensuing Diamond return.

But, if my nightmare scenario occurs, which has North holding Spade A63 and South holding Spade QJT and Club Kxx, I still don't see how this is helpful.

[gwnn]

♣ ruffing finesse, you can't lose more than 1♠ 1♣ 1♦.

I hope I'd find at the table!

[vuroth]

Assuming my answer is correct...

The main idea is to NEVER lose to a K♣ in south's hand. Therefore, you really do not want to take the club finesse.

Quote

I assume you pitch a Spade on any ensuing Diamond return.

Why not do it one trick sooner? That way, you can throw the T♣ under the diamond ace. Now, you can have something like:

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Now when you play clubs, you can toss spades if south does not cover with the king. Of course, if north wins the king, he can't hurt you in spades.

(Naturally, you draw trump first).

V

[fan13027]

Brilliant! I clearly have a long way to go in my bridge education

[vuroth]

fan13027, on Nov 17 2008, 01:51 PM, said:

Brilliant! I clearly have a long way to go in my bridge education

Don't we all.

Never hurts to ask questions, though.

[y66]

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Contract 4♥ by W. Lead ♦K.

Krzysztof Martens' comments:

The main point – Keep the dangerous opponent off lead.

With the intention of keeping South off lead, and preventing a lead through the king of spades, you should allow the king of diamonds to win the first trick. You can then pitch a club on the ace of diamonds and, after drawing trumps, take a ruffing club finesse into the safe hand.

Closed room – Contract 4♥, +620 for EW.
You conceded the king of diamonds – no swing.
You took the first trick with the ace of diamonds: –100 = –12 IMP.

[neilkaz]

Nice problem here. I got it correct. But that's not too hard to do when you've read quite a bit on declarer play and since it is presented as a problem you know to look for a problem and solve it.

The real trick is catching this at the table while playing in a long tough game. I'd like to think that I'd be equal to the task, but to be honest I doubt it

[Lobowolf]

I thought the point was to lead the T♦, permitting partner to overtake if the trick is ducked in dummy.

[EricK]

Lobowolf said:

I thought the point was to lead the T♦, permitting partner to overtake if the trick is ducked in dummy. wink.gif

And perhaps in that scenario, the point is to go up with the ♦A, cash the ♣A playing the ♣J from hand and then lead the ♣9 from dummy, trying to persuade South that you had a singleton ♣ and so not rise with his K on the second round.

[Echognome]

EricK, on Nov 17 2008, 09:57 PM, said:

Lobowolf said:

I thought the point was to lead the T♦, permitting partner to overtake if the trick is ducked in dummy. wink.gif

And perhaps in that scenario, the point is to go up with the ♦A, cash the ♣A playing the ♣J from hand and then lead the ♣9 from dummy, trying to persuade South that you had a singleton ♣ and so not rise with his K on the second round.

Why not first try winning the ♦A and playing back the ♦8? A lazy south might not cover and you can throw a club.

[rogerclee]

EricK, on Nov 17 2008, 10:57 PM, said:

Lobowolf said:

I thought the point was to lead the T♦, permitting partner to overtake if the trick is ducked in dummy. wink.gif

And perhaps in that scenario, the point is to go up with the ♦A, cash the ♣A playing the ♣J from hand and then lead the ♣9 from dummy, trying to persuade South that you had a singleton ♣ and so not rise with his K on the second round.

Calling for the 9 of clubs from dummy would be super awkward and unnatural/fishy unless you always call for 9s when dummy has 98. It would be better just to play ace of clubs, club. If you were going to do this, but better still is Matt's suggestion I think (and if that fails, revert to jack of clubs to the ace, club).

[ArcLight]

This is a nice problem. This theme does come up occasionally.

Victor Mollo has a whole book of similar problems titled
"Victor Mollo's Bridge Quiz Book"

[EricK]

rogerclee said:

Calling for the 9 of clubs from dummy would be super awkward and unnatural/fishy unless you always call for 9s when dummy has 98. It would be better just to play ace of clubs, club. If you were going to do this, but better still is Matt's suggestion I think (and if that fails, revert to jack of clubs to the ace, club).

I thought about this line, but figured that from declarer's point of view, South is a. almost certain to go up with an honour on the second round of diamond (declarer can't possibly foresee that North has devilishly underled ♦KQ) and b. less likely to believe that declarer has two singletons, so is less likely to fall for the ruse in ♣ once you have shown your singleton in ♦ by ruffing the second ♦.

[pretzalz]

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