[rbforster]

South to play 4♥XX after a lively auction.

East Opens:
(2♦)-2♥-(3♣)-3♦
(P)-3N-(X)-4♥
(P)-P-(X)-P
(P)-XX-AP

Opening Lead A♣

---

You can think about how you would play the hand, given the auction. Several interesting positions arose in the middle of the hand.

Here are the first several tricks from the table, once you've picked your line:

Spoiler

T1:ruff the club
T2:run the JH, winning
T3,4: cash AK spades
now what?

[PhantomSac]

Assuming you mean this to be a double dummy problem:

I'm sure you remembered to ruff trick one with the 7 not the 2 if you started the play as you described. After that just play 3 trumps and then play a spade, then put LHO in with a trump. They will be forced to give you a club trick and that's your entry for the long spade.

If you forgot to keep the heart 2 however, west could unblock his trumps (!) sacrificing a trump trick, but gaining 2 extra tricks.

[PhantomSac]

Just noticed another cool variation.

Say you forgot to ruff with the 2 at trick 1 (oops!). You can still recover. Play three rounds of trumps, if west doesnt unblock then we just endplay him (unblocking our spades via a pitch on the clubs). So say west unblocks. We pull the last trump.

Now we play a spade up. If west doesn't unblock we can go ace and a small spade endplaying him. So again he unblocks the SQ. Now we cash the AK of spades, and lead a diamond up.

East must split, and we simply duck. If east plays a diamond we hook for +1, if he plays a club we pitch a diamond, and west is endplayed, again for +1.

We are ok doing this if we play only one round of spades, but we are not ok if we play 2 rounds of spades because we don't have the entry to play a diamond up anymore.

[rbforster]

PhantomSac, on Jan 31 2010, 02:44 AM, said:

Assuming you mean this to be a double dummy problem

Well, sortof. It's also worth thinking about the situation where after cashing 3 rounds of trumps & 2 spades, you play the A♦ attempting to strip West's exit card in advance of the trump endplay. (obviously DD you don't need to cash the AD early)

[PhantomSac]

Rob F, on Jan 31 2010, 03:16 AM, said:

PhantomSac, on Jan 31 2010, 02:44 AM, said:

Assuming you mean this to be a double dummy problem

Well, sortof. It's also worth thinking about the situation where after cashing 3 rounds of trumps & 2 spades, you play the A♦ attempting to strip West's exit card in advance of the trump endplay. (obviously DD you don't need to cash the AD early)

Yeah I was just thinking of this as a double dummy problem heh.

[gnasher]

PhantomSac, on Jan 31 2010, 08:52 AM, said:

Just noticed another cool variation.

Say you forgot to ruff with the 2 at trick 1 (oops!). You can still recover. Play three rounds of trumps, if west doesnt unblock then we just endplay him (unblocking our spades via a pitch on the clubs). So say west unblocks. We pull the last trump.

Now we play a spade up. If west doesn't unblock we can go ace and a small spade endplaying him. So again he unblocks the SQ. Now we cash the AK of spades, and lead a diamond up.

East must split, and we simply duck. If east plays a diamond we hook for +1, if he plays a club we pitch a diamond, and west is endplayed, again for +1.

We are ok doing this if we play only one round of spades, but we are not ok if we play 2 rounds of spades because we don't have the entry to play a diamond up anymore.

Sorry if I'm being a bit dense, but if West unblocks in trumps and I cash ♠AK, don't I have five hearts, four spades and an ace?

[PhantomSac]

gnasher, on Jan 31 2010, 04:58 AM, said:

PhantomSac, on Jan 31 2010, 08:52 AM, said:

Just noticed another cool variation.

Say you forgot to ruff with the 2 at trick 1 (oops!). You can still recover. Play three rounds of trumps, if west doesnt unblock then we just endplay him (unblocking our spades via a pitch on the clubs). So say west unblocks. We pull the last trump.

Now we play a spade up. If west doesn't unblock we can go ace and a small spade endplaying him. So again he unblocks the SQ. Now we cash the AK of spades, and lead a diamond up.

East must split, and we simply duck. If east plays a diamond we hook for +1, if he plays a club we pitch a diamond, and west is endplayed, again for +1.

We are ok doing this if we play only one round of spades, but we are not ok if we play 2 rounds of spades because we don't have the entry to play a diamond up anymore.

Sorry if I'm being a bit dense, but if West unblocks in trumps and I cash ♠AK, don't I have five hearts, four spades and an ace?

Note the title of the thread heh

[rbforster]

PhantomSac, on Jan 31 2010, 03:18 AM, said:

Rob F, on Jan 31 2010, 03:16 AM, said:

PhantomSac, on Jan 31 2010, 02:44 AM, said:

Assuming you mean this to be a double dummy problem

It's also worth thinking about the situation where after cashing 3 rounds of trumps & 2 spades, you play the A♦ attempting to strip West's exit card in advance of the trump endplay. (obviously DD you don't need to cash the AD early)

Yeah I was just thinking of this as a double dummy problem heh.

On this hand, cashing spades and hearts and then trying to cash the A♦ (catering to the expected 6-1 diamond break, given the preempt) leads to an interesting defense that holds the contract to 4. West must ruff the A♦ with his last heart, and then lead a low club. Trying to cash the KC first allows a double unblock/sluff in the spade suit.