[oldman5757]

Scoring: IMP

P,P,4♣,Dbl
P,4♦,P, 4♥
all pass

---

LHO leads 10 ♣, RHO wins the ♣ A and returns the ♠ deuce. What's your plan?

[Fluffy]

We can play RHO for having 1228 with a dianmond honnor, the line that works then is ♥A+♥.

This line might work on some other lay outs as well.

[Apollo81]

Win ♠A, cash ♥A and lead small heart to dummy. We almost surely have a loser in ♥,♦,♣, so we cannot afford a spade ruff. We have to hope RHO started with 1228 or 1318 and the ♥K.

[oldman5757]

I started to put the hand in the B/I forum, but here's why I didn't. ♥ A and a ♥ and duck a ♦ to RHO works fine if trumps are 3-2, or if the ♥ K is stiff. If not, it doesn't work. A good LHO will win 3rd round of trumps and make you ruff a ♣ in hand, leaving you with one trump. Now you can't draw the last trump because RHO will run clubs when you duck a ♦. Or, if you don't draw the last trump, when you give up a ♦, another ♣ puts you in the same boat.

So, duck the ♦ first. RHO wins, and you're almost gin if RHO returns a ♦. But if RHO returns a ♣, which is what happened, you can pitch a spade, but you have to decide whether trumps are 4-1 or 3-2. if they're 3-2 you can ruff in either hand and play A and a ♥. If they're 4-1, ruff in dummy and force out the K. Either way, if you're wrong, you go down.

I decided LHO had 4 ♥, so I ruffed low in dummy, and led the ♥ J to LHO who gave P a ♠ ruff. Now I think ♥ A and a ♥ at any point is better because RHO with 1-2-2-8 is maybe just a little bit more likely than 1-1-3-8.

[pen_chef]

oldman5757, on Feb 24 2009, 05:20 PM, said:

I started to put the hand in the B/I forum, but here's why I didn't.  ♥ A and a ♥ and duck a ♦ to RHO works fine if trumps are 3-2, or if the ♥ K is stiff.  If not, it doesn't work.  A good LHO will win 3rd round of trumps and make you ruff a ♣ in hand, leaving you with one trump. Now you can't draw the last trump because RHO will run clubs when you duck a ♦.  Or, if you don't draw the last trump, when you give up a ♦, another ♣ puts you in the same boat.

So, duck the ♦ first.  RHO wins, and you're almost gin if RHO returns a ♦.  But if RHO returns a ♣, which is what happened, you can pitch a spade, but you have to decide whether trumps are 4-1 or 3-2.  if they're 3-2 you can ruff in either hand and play A and a ♥.  If they're 4-1, ruff in dummy and force out the K.  Either way, if you're wrong, you go down.

I decided LHO had 4 ♥, so I ruffed low in dummy, and led the ♥ J to LHO who gave P a ♠ ruff.  Now I think ♥ A and a ♥ at any point is better because RHO with 1-2-2-8 is maybe just a little bit more likely than 1-1-3-8.

I think I posted a coment on the case but something wrong with it I see. Anyway, the way I see it: I agree with the ducking in ♦ at trick two, but I do believe RHO must have ♥K, otherwise with only 10 points (presuming a singleton ♠) RHO'd have opened with 3 not 4♣. So, after bridging to dummy I'd go for a finesse. And still there are other important decisions to speculate...