[sathyab]

Scoring: IMP

2♦ (Flannery) - 3♣ (Slam try in ♥)
4♦ (Splinter) - 4♠ (RKC) - 4NT[0 or 3]- 6♥

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A small trump is led. To all those who say "I don't do Flannery" here's one for you, it helped avoid a Spade lead. Now all you have to do is make it.
Diamonds need to behave obviously. If trumps are 2-2, you can play it on auto-lines, giving up a Spade trick at some point before claiming.
A 3-1 trump trump break will need the club King on-side and some careful handling. How best to combine the two chances ? I'd like to hear if there're some other chances besides the ones mentioned.

[Fluffy]

Oh my god, the F word!. Prepare for criticism for reaching this slam.

Given that we don't have any trump intermediates, I think we have very slim chances when trumps break 3-1, there will be possble auto promotions around.

So keep it simple, ♥A, ♦A, ♦ruff, ♥Q, ♦ ruff, if ♥ and diamonds breack then claim, if not, then I think you have still a small chance playing ♣A+♣ to the queen.

[gnasher]

I'd like to be able to make with any two out of:
- Trumps 2-2
- Diamonds 4-3
- ♣K onside
but I haven't yet found a way to do all of that. My best effort so far is ♥A, ♦A, ♦ ruff, ♥Q, and then:
(1) If trumps are 2-2, cash ♦A. If LHO shows out, throw a spade and try for ♣K onside. If LHO follows to the third diamond, throw a club and play for diamonds 4-3.
(2) If trumps are 3-1, ruff another diamond, draw the last trump, play a club to hand, cash the two diamond winners, and lead a club towards the queen.

I make with:
- Trumps 2-2 and diamonds 4-3
- Trumps 2-2, diamonds 2=5, and ♣K onside
- Trumps 3-1, diamonds 4-3 and ♣K onside

I go off when LHO is x=2=2=x without ♣K.

[sathyab]

Fluffy, on Feb 18 2009, 07:06 AM, said:

Oh my god, the F word!. Prepare for criticism for reaching this slam.

Given that we don't have any trump intermediates, I think we have very slim chances when trumps break 3-1, there will be possble auto promotions around.

So keep it simple, ♥A, ♦A, ♦ruff, ♥Q, ♦ ruff, if ♥ and diamonds breack then claim, if not, then I think you have still a small chance playing ♣A+♣ to the queen.

Swiss Teams. That's the problem with hand-dealt deals with no hand records. Dummy's trumps spots are pretty good, the Ten and Nine as it turns out.

[JanM]

I was given this hand by the person who played it , so:

Dummy actually had the 109 of hearts and declarer the 8, so there were lots of intermediates. The first trick went low heart, 10, x, x.

No one has suggested the line taken at the table:

After winning the heart ten, play Ace and ruff a diamond (the spots played looked as if the diamonds were 4-3; Chip thought he might get a sense of whether the diamonds split from the spots), then duck a spade.

If whoever wins this has the club king, they probably won't lead a club; LHO can't and RHO may not be sure he wants to. Even if they don't have the club king, it's not clear to shift to a club, particularly for LHO, who's leading through dummy's Q9x, and may hope that his trump lead was good, so will often continue them. LHO is slightly more likely to win the spade, since if LHO has the King and RHO the Queen, it's almost certain that RHO will duck. Even if RHO has the spade King and LHO the Queen, there are some hands where RHO might duck (K without the ten for instance - ducking would be right if declarer had Q10). And of course if LHO has both the K an Q (he did lead a trump knowing dummy would have 4 spades), he's sure to win the spade.

If the person who wins the spade returns a trump or a diamond, you'll make any time diamonds are 4-3 (ruff out the diamonds, if necessary pull the last trump, use the club A as an entry to cash the good diamond). If RHO wins the spade returns a club, it's probably right to rise A and hope for 2-2 trumps so the second spade ruff can be used as the entry to the good diamonds. Of course if LHO wins the spade and returns a club and it goes Q-K-A, you need diamonds 4-3 and trumps 2-2, but that was always true if the club K was offside.

[awm]

gnasher, on Feb 18 2009, 07:30 AM, said:

I'd like to be able to make with any two out of:
- Trumps 2-2
- Diamonds 4-3
- ♣K onside

How about:

Win the ♥A. Diamond to the ace and ruff a diamond. Heart to queen. Now:

(1) If the hearts have broken 2-2, ruff a diamond.

(1-1) If the diamonds just broke also, play club to ace, cash ♦K and the last diamond pitching two clubs, play ♠A and concede a spade then cross-ruff the rest.

(1-2) If the diamonds just failed to break, play club to ace. Cash the ♦K pitching a spade. Play a club towards the queen. If ♣K hops onside, win the return in hand and discard dummy's losing spade on the queen of clubs. If ♣Q holds the trick, then ruff the last club, play ♠A and concede a spade, and cross-ruff the last two.

(2) If the hearts have broken 3-1, then ruff a diamond. We need them to break now so suppose this works. Now cash ♥K and play to ♣A. Cash ♦K and the last diamond pitching two spades from hand. Lead ♣ towards the queen. If the king is onside, we can win the return in hand and discard south's losing spade on the club queen.

In any case, after five tricks:

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We have drawn two rounds of trump and ruffed two diamonds and are in the north hand. If trumps are out and diamonds have broken, we're cold by pitching clubs on diamonds and ruffing south's club loser away. If trumps broke but diamonds didn't, we play a club to ace, pitch a spade on the diamond king, and try club finesse. If diamonds broke and trumps didn't, we pull last trump, play club to ace, pitch two spades on diamonds and take club finesse (with ♠A as hand entry to discard south's spade loser).