[FrancesHinden]

A topic in the B/I forum has started me thinking about another suit combination.

10xxx
AKx
A1087
Qx


KQxxx
xxx
Q642
A

You play in 4S. The defence leads a heart. You win and play a trump, then cash the ace of clubs and play another trump, LHO having singleton Jack. RHO wins and plays a heart. You draw the last trump and exit in hearts, RHO discarding a club. LHO concedes ruff-discard in clubs.

How do you play the diamonds?
What if you feel you can assume that LHO would have led a singleton diamond if he had one?

Does it make a difference if trumps were 2-2?

[Phil]

This doesn't make sense. When did you ruff the ♣ in hand?

Can I assume:

1. ♥ won
2. ♠ to K
3. ♣ A
4. ♠ exited
5. ♥exited and won
6. ♣ruffed
7. last ♠ drawn
8. Exit a heart
9. ruff/sluff conceded

[FrancesHinden]

Yes, sorry.

[Trumpace]

I would probably just play ♦A and ♦ to Q, even if trumps are 2-2.

Only difference would be that if trumps are 2-2, the chances of making increase.

[Phil]

Typed a long message this morning and connection crashed.

In a nutshell for reasons that I'm too lazy to retype, West appears to have at least three diamonds.

At T9, ruff the club in dummy and pitch the diamond. Diamond to Q and finesse the 10 later looks best.

[hanp]

So Phil loses when Rho has Jx (3 holdings) or LHO has the stiff king.

Trumpace loses when RHO has - (1 holding), x (3 holdings) or xx (3 holdings).

If spades did split 2-2 then ace and low to the queen would win if LHO had Kx (3 holdings) which would make trumpace the slight winner since the holdings for which he loses are slightly less likely. Unless we think it is reasonable for LHO to lead the stiff king, that would probably make Phil the winner again. Well, I would have to look up how likely the holdings are, and I might need to know what heart spots were played.

But they were 3-1, right?

[benlessard]

LHO has a complete count of the hand so he can afford to give a sluff n ruff with no worry. So low the the Q is best. followed by low to T

LHO doesnt have a Stiff. So its will only fail

Kx+++Jxx
or
Kxx+++ Jx

West has 8 known card and east 7

will work about 77-78%

[gnasher]

What was the early bidding, what was the vulnerability, and what honours were played in hearts and clubs?

Presumably I either opened 1♠ or responded 1♠ to 1♦, and West didn't bid over that. Suppose that I knew West had ♥QJ, and suspected that he had ♣K. With J QJxxx KJx Kxxx or J QJxxx Kx Kxxxx he might have bid over 1♠, so ace and another diamond would be best.

We might make similar inferences about some of the other layouts that have been mentioned:
- If West has a singleton diamond, that would give him 11 round-suit cards, on which he might have bid. A void would give him a 5-7 shape.
- If West has five diamonds, that gives East eight clubs. If that were the layout, I think we'd probably know.

[FrancesHinden]

It's here

If trumps were 2-2, this is the end position when they concede R&D

xx
-
A1087
-

xx
-
Q642

If trumps were 3-1, this is the end position
x
-
A1087
-

x
-
Q642
-

I believe the two positions are qualitatively different, but I haven't worked out what the right answer is yet...

[y66]

Hidden:

Spoiler

LHO is 15?3+ and he conceded ruff/sluff rather than play diamonds. Maybe he's hoping we'll play DA then small to queen. So I'll play him for the DK and try a double finesse in diamonds starting with the queen in case RHO has singleton jack. If LHO is 25?3+, RHO can't have a singleton so now I'll finesse the ten first.

[Hanoi5]

I'd be in dummy in this position:

♠---
♥---
♦AT87
♣---

♠x
♥---
♦Q64
♣

I'm gonna play a 'low' diamond from the table, and hopefully let it get to LHO, whom I deem as the holder of the ♦K. If RHO plays the ♦9 I'll have to play the ♦Q and then decide whether he had ♦J9 or ♦9x or ♦9.