[plaur]

Scoring: IMP

1♥ - 1♠
2♣ - 4♥
6♥
lead ♥6

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1♥ was 4-card major
What is the best plan and how good is this slam?

[ONEferBRID]

Need the Cl hook to work and Cl no worse than 5-2.

I would have bid it differently ( 2D! instead of 4H ), but the 50% slam looks good.

[vuroth]

Slam is around 50%.

I wish I could establish the 5th ♠, but I lack entries to dummy. So I'll draw trump and try the ♣ finesse. (EDIT: they have 6♠s, not 7. Never try to solve problems while eating lunch I guess....)

If it fails, and they don't return a ♠, I can try to drop the king.

The other option is to start with a low ♠ towards the Q, but this never works in slam, does it?

[jdonn]

I want to try for either black suit working but if spades are 4-2 there are risks. I won't give up on spades though since the trump lead implies the club being offside. I will win the trump in hand and lead a low spade toward the queen. Who has the king and what do they return?

[plaur]

vuroth, on Mar 4 2010, 11:50 AM, said:

The other option is to start with a low ♠ towards the Q, but this never works in slam, does it?

I did not work for me I actually started with ♠A and low ♠ to Q.

[plaur]

jdonn, on Mar 4 2010, 11:55 AM, said:

I want to try for either black suit working but if spades are 4-2 there are risks. I won't give up on spades though since the trump lead implies the club being offside. I will win the trump in hand and lead a low spade toward the queen. Who has the king and what do they return?

Both kings were offside and you get a club return

[kenrexford]

This seems a tad more complicated, because RHO can have Kxxx in clubs. It seems like you start out hoping for hearts to split 3-2 and pull trumps, ending in dummy, to finesse the clubs. After two rounds, you have to decide which way to go in the end position. If you play RHO for the spade King, you play two top diamonds, ending in hand, and try the club Ace. If that fails to drop the King, you run down all of the hearts, planning on throwing RHO in with a club to break spades. RHO can counter by saving down to the stiff spade King and a diamond, if he has one, so watching carefully and making an educated guess may be critical.

There may be other end positions that are possible, I suppose.

[jdonn]

plaur, on Mar 4 2010, 11:57 AM, said:

jdonn, on Mar 4 2010, 11:55 AM, said:

I want to try for either black suit working but if spades are 4-2 there are risks. I won't give up on spades though since the trump lead implies the club being offside. I will win the trump in hand and lead a low spade toward the queen. Who has the king and what do they return?

Both kings were offside and you get a club return

Well both kings offside seems like a problem for most lines! If this was a fancy squeeze involving diamonds as well then I'm not up to it.

[plaur]

jdonn, on Mar 4 2010, 12:06 PM, said:

If this was a fancy squeeze involving diamonds as well then I'm not up to it.

No trickery. Just me beeing on the wrong side of 3 slam swings in one 32 board match last night and trying to learn from my mistakes... Appreciate all input!

[kenrexford]

The spade Ace and up in not hopeless. If LHO has the spade King, and they split 3-3, then you don't need the club finesse. You lose the squeeze option when the club finesse works, though. Maybe attacking spades is actually right.