[Trumpace]

You are south and reach the contract of 5 spades.

West leads the heart King and you see.

Scoring: Rubber

Lead ♥K.

---

You win the heart Ace and play a spade to the King. East discards a heart.

Plan the play.


As usual, adv/+ please refrain from spoiling too early.

[BunnyGo]

I must be missing something more likely...maybe the bidding would make the line I found a higher percentage line. The idea is hidden:

Spoiler

If West has another heart, it seems to me that the contract is hopeless, there's no way of keeping West from getting a spade trick, at which point I must lose a heart--there's no possible pitch. I hope the bidding suggested East had 8 hearts so that West could find the stiff K lead.

I play a diamond to the A, if East shows out, I play the Jack of clubs to try and smother the ten. If East follows, I play for K doubleton onside. Strip the hand, and endplay West.

This seems too unlikely to be the correct answer, but I'm not sure what else there could be.---I just re-read the hand, and realized that I'm not in 6 spades--I guess the plan for 5 spades is similar in spirit, but not nearly as unlikely.

[vuroth]

I can endplay west in clubs, but I'll still need help to bring home 5.

[helene_t]

The endplay works if E has the king. If E has KT we always make it.

[kfay]

helene_t, on May 9 2010, 09:15 AM, said:

The endplay works

Spoiler

but we need East to have the K.

FYP!

Spoiler

Which is why we have to take a club finesse ourselves (by leading the Johnson) while we can still enjoy being in dummy, please note all the blockage issues!!!

[Trumpace]

Yup! You need East to hold the CK and you have to play the CJ when in dummy with the DA.

If you try the endplay (play diamonds and exit heart/spade) without taking the club finesse, opps can play a club. You will probably have to play LHO for the T (by playing low from dummy on LHOs club exit), as you don't have further entries to dummy to repeat the finesse.

If you play the CJ first (likely covered by RHO) and then exit after stripping hand of diamonds, you make irrespective of the position of the club T.

[minimonkey]

I also enjoyed this hand even though I misread the OP

I thought E had the QJx of spades.

In that case I will make you lead a club...and then make you lead a club too.

[pooltuna]

Trumpace, on May 10 2010, 11:12 AM, said:

Yup! You need East to hold the CK and you have to play the CJ when in dummy with the DA.

If you try the endplay (play diamonds and exit heart/spade) without taking the club finesse, opps can play a club. You will probably have to play LHO for the T (by playing low from dummy on LHOs club exit), as you don't have further entries to dummy to repeat the finesse.

If you play the CJ first (likely covered by RHO) and then exit after stripping hand of diamonds, you make irrespective of the position of the club T.

text follows

Spoiler

Does not endplaying W with the ♥J before playing ♦ allow us to endplay E with the last ♠ after now clearing ♦ and thus eliminate all blockage issues and allow us to avoid having to play LHO for ♣KTx. Alternatively we could lead the ♣J after clearing the ♦ and then endplay W with the ♥J perhaps that is what you had in mind?

[Trumpace]

pooltuna, on May 10 2010, 11:40 AM, said:

Trumpace, on May 10 2010, 11:12 AM, said:

Yup! You need East to hold the CK and you have to play the CJ when in dummy with the DA.

If you try the endplay (play diamonds and exit heart/spade) without taking the club finesse, opps can play a club. You will probably have to play LHO for the T (by playing low from dummy on LHOs club exit), as you don't have further entries to dummy to repeat the finesse.

If you play the CJ first (likely covered by RHO) and then exit after stripping hand of diamonds, you make irrespective of the position of the club T.

text follows

Spoiler

Does not endplaying W with the ♥J before playing ♦ allow us to endplay E with the last ♠ after now clearing ♦ and thus eliminate all blockage issues and allow us to avoid having to play LHO for ♣KTx. Alternatively we could lead the ♣J after clearing the ♦ and then endplay W with the ♥J perhaps that is what you had in mind?

West has the third trump.

And you need to play DA before touching DK and Q, as if you play DKQA intending to play CJ after stripping diamonds, you could go down if LHO has a doubleton diamond: he can ruff, cash the HQ and exit a club.

[Trumpace]

minimonkey, on May 10 2010, 11:18 AM, said:

I also enjoyed this hand even though I misread the OP

I thought E had the QJx of spades.

In that case I will make you lead a club...and then make you lead a club too.

Assume east has QJx. You intend to strip the hand of diamonds, exit hearts first and then trumps?

You have to play East for the CK and you might go down if East can ruff the second or third round of diamonds, play a heart to Q and LHO exits a club/diamond.

It might be better to play as the the other line: D to A, club J. Now strip diamonds and exit heart. If RHO manages to ruff 2nd or 3rd diamond and plays a club, you guess whether to play Q or finesse. It might be better to play Q, cash remaining diamonds and exit heart, hoping LHO held a doubleton club.

An even better line is to just exit a heart without even trying to strip diamonds, which is probably what you had in mind I suppose.

[gszeszycki]

♠ 65432
♥ A3
♦ A65
♣ J92

♠ AKT98
♥ J4
♦ KQ3
♣ AQ8

Unless you have strong reason to suspect LHO has an 8 card heart suit headed by the KQ you should DUCK trick one. This helps protect you against certain aggressive opening leads since there is nothing lho can do that will hurt you at trick 2. Assuming they continue the heart to the ace THEN you can lead a spade to the AK ♦ to ace and lead the CLUB J. Assuming it is covered play ♦ until done then exit with spade and await endplay. You cannot afford to wait until 2nd or 3rd round of dia to take A and follow the club finesse because the more rounds of DIA you play the greater the risk of a ruff and club exit.

[vuroth]

I don't get this. If spades are 2-1, ducking the first trick makes it hard to endplay anybody. If east has all 3 spades you've gone from slim hope to no hope.

[jdonn]

Edit: I said something wrong!

[Trumpace]

gszeszycki, on May 10 2010, 03:17 PM, said:

<snip>

Unless you have strong reason to suspect LHO has an 8 card heart suit headed by the KQ you should DUCK trick one. This helps protect you against certain aggressive opening leads since there is nothing lho can do that will hurt you at trick 2.
<snip>

You say there is no harm in ducking, but there is.

Imagine trumps 2-1, RHO holds a singleton diamond and LHO holds the Club King.

After winning trick 1, LHO switches to a diamond. Now you probably will go up with the DA and run the CJ, which loses and a diamond gets ruffed.

If you win DK play two rounds of trumps, you might find LHO with 3 trumps and singleton diamond (and Club King with RHO) and you go down again when you didn't have to.

I would say this is more likely than an aggressive opening lead of an unsupported K, but of course depends on your opponents.

[655321]

Trumpace, on May 12 2010, 01:04 PM, said:

You say there is no harm in ducking, but there is.

Imagine trumps 2-1, RHO holds a singleton diamond and LHO holds the Club King.

After winning trick 1, LHO switches to a diamond. Now you probably will go up with the DA and run the CJ

I don't think so!

Trumpace, on May 12 2010, 01:04 PM, said:

If you win DK play two rounds of trumps, you might find LHO with 3 trumps and singleton diamond (and Club King with RHO) and you go down again when you didn't have to.

If LHO has all 3 trumps then after AK of trumps you can cross to the heart and run the ♣J, basically this is exactly the same line as the winning trick 1 line. Or you can play ♦Q, ♦A and the ♥A is still in dummy. If the ♣K is onside, all you can ever lose is 1 trump and one heart.

[Trumpace]

655321, on May 12 2010, 06:12 PM, said:

Trumpace, on May 12 2010, 01:04 PM, said:

You say there is no harm in ducking, but there is.

Imagine trumps 2-1, RHO holds a singleton diamond and LHO holds the Club King.

After winning trick 1, LHO switches to a diamond. Now you probably will go up with the DA and run the CJ

I don't think so!

Trumpace, on May 12 2010, 01:04 PM, said:

If you win DK play two rounds of trumps, you might find LHO with 3 trumps and singleton diamond (and Club King with RHO) and you go down again when you didn't have to.

If LHO has all 3 trumps then after AK of trumps you can cross to the heart and run the ♣J, basically this is exactly the same line as the winning trick 1 line. Or you can play ♦Q, ♦A and the ♥A is still in dummy. If the ♣K is onside, all you can ever lose is 1 trump and one heart.

Oops yeah! Forgot about the Heart Ace