[paulg]

Scoring: IMP

Spingold Final - Board 27

Quote

                                               
West  North  East  South
-        -        -      Pass
Pass  1♦      2♠    Dbl
4♠    4NT    Pass    5♦
Pass  6♦  All pass

---

Nickell was sitting North with Spector sitting West.

The lead was the ♠7 which was ruffed by North. North has two club losers, one of which will go on the ♠A and the other will need to go on a heart. In addition the ♦Q has to be found.

The bidding suggests bad breaks and, in isolation, it would be normal to finesse West for the ♦Q. However there are entry problems which could make this difficult.

So North decided to play the ♥K first, planning to discard a club on the ♠A, then finesse in diamonds and play for the heart finesse or squeeze chances later.

However, when West won the ♥A he returned a heart!

Now North has to make a decision immediately, so Spector has clearly done very well with this return.

North actually cashed the top two diamonds and went down when the ♦Q did not drop. But is this the best line? He could still finesse the diamond on the first round, return to the ♦K and cash the heart winner, winning when diamonds are 3-1 and hearts 3-3 or 4-2 with the long diamonds, but losing when diamonds are 2-2 or 3-1 with the ♦Q offside.

Any thoughts?

[luke warm]

i might not understand your line... are you saying win the first spade, tossing a club, finesse the diamond, play king of hearts? if that's it, west wins and leads a club.. you win in hand and lead what? a heart i guess, but do you finesse the 10? if no, no discard... the way the cards lie, that's correct... play ♥10, ♦K, ♥Q sluffing last losing club

[paulg]

My line was:

1. Ruff spade lead, to preserve squeeze chances if possible
2. Play ♥K
3. Win heart return
4. Play ♦2 to the ♦J
5. Return to the ♦K
6. Cash ♠A discarding club
7. Cash ♥ winner discarding club
8. Ruff spade and draw last trump

Cheers

Paull

[luke warm]

ok, yes that works on that sequence... i really don't know why west won the first heart tho.. why not win the 2nd and exit a club?

[paulhar]

luke warm, on Jul 21 2004, 06:45 PM, said:

ok, yes that works on that sequence... i really don't know why west won the first heart tho.. why not win the 2nd and exit a club?

would be nice if you got a chance to win a second heart, but the King of hearts wins, declarer goes to dummy with the DK and plays ace of spades throwing the other heart. Takes the diamond finesse, and when clubs luckily split 3-3, the slam comes rolling home.

[luke warm]

true