[oldman5757]

Scoring: IMP

P, 3♥,X,4 ♥
all pass

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Who knows why P decided to bid 4 ♥, you can ask him later, but your job now is to make it. LHO leads ♦ A and continues with the K. What is your plan? If at some point you take a ♥ finesse, you will eventually learn that RHO started with ♥ Q832

[ASkolnick]

I don't take the finesse. You will have re-entry problems if you do. Cash AH,KH and play a low club to the eight. If clubs are 3-3 with the 9 onside, you can make it.

[jdaming]

If I am correct you need the 9 + K or Q of ♣ onside.

We also need to consider that if RHO has 4♥ how are we clearing ♥ without them clearing out A♠. Meaning if we are to take the second ♣ finesse losing we will be stranded from the dummy. So hoping they don't clear the A this is fine if they do I might consider damage control here for p's bad bid.

[quiddity]

I think if you want to play for 3-3 clubs with the 9 onside, you definitely want to lead the CT on the first round. Otherwise, West can hop with his honor and you won't be able to finesse on the second round.
If West covers the T, you have the option of playing West for KQx (by ducking) or for K9x or Q9x (by winning the A and later leading to the 8). I don't know which is the percentage play, given West's double.

[eyhung]

You're going to need 3-3 clubs and you also want to play 3 rounds of hearts before running clubs so that East will ruff in with his master trump on the 4th club. You can use the club ace as a second entry to the board as long as you lose the first club trick. You also need to guess whether West has C KQx or R9x (R = royal, king or queen). Against an "intermediate" or even an "advanced", leading the C4 at trick 3 will tell you -- intermediates will split with KQx and play low with R9x. Against a world-class player, you have to lead the ten, because then West can play Royal from R9x to prevent you from winning and then finessing the 8 on second round.

In all cases after the first spade is led, you must win ace immediately and finesse HJ to strip LHO of his trump and RHO of his trump guard. You then need to reach hand (usually with d ruff) and then cash your AK of hearts, setting up RHO's Queen. Finally, you then play up to 4 clubs, pitching 2 spades -- RHO can ruff the 4th club, but then he loses his natural trump trick.

So the line against a normal West defender is:

Ruff trick 2
C4 --
I: If West plays low, finesse the 8, playing West for R9x (so East wins Royal)
1) On a spade return, win, finesse HJ, ruff diamond, cash AK of H, finesse CJ, cash CA pitching spade, cash 4th club pitching spade as East ruffs in with master trump. Losing 1 trump, 0 spades, 1 diamond, and 1 club.
2) On a diamond return, ruff, finesse CJ, finesse HJ, club ace pitching spade, 4th club ruffed and overruffed, draw trump with AK, and use SA to cash 5th club, to lose just 1 diamond and 1 club.

II: West plays Royal, you duck, playing West for KQx. Then execute a
similar line as above, making sure to finesse HJ before cashing clubs.


Against strong West defender, you lead CT, win if West covers, hook HJ, ruff diamond to hand, and lead club up to the J8, guessing whether West covered from R9x or KQx.

[oldman5757]

Eugene's line looks exactly right to me. There is a variation if RHO leads a 3d ♦ after winning a ♣. Now we immediately take the 2d ♣ finesse, and run the ♥ J. After it wins, we leave the ♣ A in dummy and ruff a low ♣ in hand. Since the A ♠ is still in dummy, we can drive out the ♥ Q. In this one case we could succeed even if ♣s were 4-2 to start, altho a ♠ shift by RHO is certainly much more likely than a 3d round of ♦s.

I just thought this was a neat little hand. Nothing clever, just recognizing what you need and playing for it. Not too hard to see that success is possible if LHO holds ♣ KQx, but you must look a little deeper to succeed against R9x with LHO.

[y66]

Nice problem & solution.