[inquiry]

Scoring: IMP

West North East South

    -     1♦    Pass  2♣
 Pass  2NT   Pass  3♦
 Pass  3NT   Pass  4NT
 Pass  6NT   Pass  Pass
 Pass  

Openng lead Heart Ten to your JAck, East does not play the QUEEN you suspect he holds

---

An interesting hand from today. Someone asked me about the declearer's line, which I thought was fine. After a few votes, we can discuss the various options. I think this one is interesting.

[Free]

Euhm, I think there's something wrong here... First option says we can cash ♣AKQ, but I don't see the Q anywhere.

I go for the ♠. It's a 50% line (ok, around 50%), much better than the ♣s (if we don't have ♣Q). We have 10 tricks, ♠ can give us 11 & 12. Playing on ♣ NEEDS a 3-3 split. If we lose the ♠ hook, our only backup is ♥ 3-3.
Where do we put the ♠Q? We can choose both sides, but putting it in East makes it easier for us. Otherwise we'll lack entries if someone has Qxxx.
So I'll play ♠K and let the J run.

Another option is to endplay West, and let him play ♠, but that's too much wasted energy imo, doesn't make much difference, is probably anti-percentage, and is way more dangerous.

[jtfanclub]

inquiry, on Aug 30 2004, 04:05 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP

West  North East  South

    -     1♦    Pass  2♣
 Pass  2NT   Pass  3♦
 Pass  3NT   Pass  4NT
 Pass  6NT   Pass  Pass
 Pass  

Openng lead Heart Ten to your JAck, East does not play the QUEEN you suspect he holds

---

An interesting hand from today. Someone asked me about the declearer's line, which I thought was fine. After a few votes, we can discuss the various options. I think this one is interesting.

Hmmm...once again, I don't see a problem, so I'm missing something.

My next card is a low club, ducked around.

It's IMPs, so I don't care about the overtrick. Win any return. EDITED: Cash the AK of hearts, if it works wonderful, if not cash 3 rounds of diamonds, discarding the JS, then clubs AK. That should be a slightly better squeeze than clubs-then-hearts-then-diamonds, because I don't have to discard from my hand early. Still about the same, though.

Once again, what am I missing?

[the hog]

Duck a C at trick 2. Win return, cash 2 rounds of D, test C test H, try to guess S Q based on any info I may have gained to date.

[luke warm]

inquiry, on Aug 30 2004, 11:05 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP

West  North East  South

    -     1♦    Pass  2♣
 Pass  2NT   Pass  3♦
 Pass  3NT   Pass  4NT
 Pass  6NT   Pass  Pass
 Pass  

Openng lead Heart Ten to your JAck, East does not play the QUEEN you suspect he holds

---

i pretty much agree with ron.. duck a club, win H return with K, play A,K clubs(1).. if they don't split, play diamonds then A hearts.. if *they* don't split, small spade to the K and run the J

[paulhar]

The_Hog, on Aug 30 2004, 05:45 PM, said:

Duck a C at trick 2. Win return, cash 2 rounds of D, test C test H, try to guess S Q based on any info I may have gained to date.

With all this 'testing', haven't you given up playing West for the queen of spades (if he holds 4+?) - if clubs don't split, you need all four spade tricks (or 3-3 hearts PLUS the spade hook.) I wuold guess that this line would be slightly improved by NOT testing diamonds, but rather leaving it as an entry to get your fourth spade.

Another interesting line is to finesse the spade immediately giving you trick 11 if it loses, and then play for 3-3 hearts or a heart/club squeeze if you misguess the spade.

So, which suit is more likely to split 3-3? The club duck wins on clubs but not hearts, the immediate spade finesse wins on hearts but not clubs. However, the spade finesse also gives me the chance of a squeeze, while the club duck, if unsuccessful, leaves me with one too many losers for a squeeze.

By a wierd version of restricted choice, I choose to finesse West for the spade. West was looking for a safe lead. Sometimes when he didn't hold the spade queen, he would have led spades. So, at trick 2, I lead the spade ten to ride.

If it loses, win the return, and play spades, diamonds, and hearts in that order, and if my fourth heart isn't good, hope that smoebody with four hearts had to discard clubs to hold onto the heart guard.

[inquiry]

This is an interesting hand. The "obvious" line is duck a club. If clubs prove to be 3-3 you have your tricks. If clubs are 4-2, you only need to find hearts 3-3 or the spade queen. This seems deceptively easy and obvious.

However, if clubs are not 3-3 (and the odds are markedly against this), the play becomes somewhat convoluted. For one thing, if hearts are 3-3, you have 12 tricks any way (3S, 3D, 4H, 2C) by just giving up a spade. But 3-3 hearts with 5-1 clubs after a club duck means your 100% line now has come a little troubled. And losing a spade hook is a sure way to set up the 11th trick. So if you duck a club, you are back to trying to find the spade Queen if clubs are not 3-3 (since other line is 100% if hearts are 3-3, but duck a club is not 100% with 3-3 hearts).

What alternative to duck a club do you have? There is one. The correct play (I think), is win the heart and play a heart to the king (east plays the queen), and another heart. If hearts are 3-3, hook someone for the spade and take your 12 tricks, 13 if you guess spades right. If someone shows out on the third round of hearts (presumably EAST), then it is probably too late to duck a club (because if WEST can win, you are out of luck). But you can "safely" lead the spade TEN and hook west in spades. The reason for the hook is somewhat two fold. This allows you to win four spades if the hook wins (with the diamond transportation paulher correctly noted). Also, should the spade hook lose, you have just set up your 11th trick (3S, 3H, 3D, 2C). So while you were unlucky in the spade hook, it is possible the heart-club squeeze will crucify WEST if he is 4-4 in hearts and clubs. In fact, on the actual hand (first example below), the spade hook won, and the club-heart simple squeeze eeked out an overtrick (something that is never possible if you duck a club, btw).

HAND ONE

Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♦
 Pass  2♣    Pass  2NT
 Pass  3♦    Pass  3NT
 Pass  4NT   Pass  6NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

---

Here, as paulher showed, you simply hook the spade through WEST. If instead you had played for clubs to be 3-3 by ducking, imagine the play. Back comes a diamond. Now you cash your three hearts, no luck, you cash your top clubs, no luck. Now what? It is true, however, that you can still make here due to the 3-3 spade split if you guess where the spade queen is.

HAND TWO

Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♦
 Pass  2♣    Pass  2NT
 Pass  3♦    Pass  3NT
 Pass  4NT   Pass  6NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

---

Here is hand two, it is the same as hand one, except we moved the spade queen between the two hands. After ducking a club, you eventually (on club back), will ahve to guess the spade queen. On this one, you had better play EAST for the queen, no the first one WEST. However, if you had hooked WEST for the spade queen on both instead of ducking a club, you would have made. On the first with an overtrick on the club-heart squeeze, on this one just making on the same squeeze.

Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♦
 Pass  2♣    Pass  2NT
 Pass  3♦    Pass  3NT
 Pass  4NT   Pass  6NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

---

Ok.. this is the hand that makes if you duck a club. with clubs 3-3, the hand rolls home. And with spade Queen offside, hooking the spade leads to down one (well, hooking the wrong way).

Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♦
 Pass  2♣    Pass  2NT
 Pass  3♦    Pass  3NT
 Pass  4NT   Pass  6NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

---

To see what Paulher was talking about... imagine you were playing this hand. You duck a club, back comes a club, and, in a hurry to test if clubs are 3-3, you you lead the last top club from dummy. East follows suit, what do you discard? If a heart, you just screwed up if hearts are 3-3, if a spade, you just lost out if you need four tricks (as you do on this hand). Of course, you would cash two hearts PRIOR to leading the last spade. But... .

Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♦
 Pass  2♣    Pass  2NT
 Pass  3♦    Pass  3NT
 Pass  4NT   Pass  6NT
 Pass  Pass  Pass  

---

on this hand you see the fallicy of ducking a club and then cashing two hearts ending in dummy. Now you can't guess spades correctly (diamond, diamond to hand, and spade T hook is not good enough, as you will enjoy only 3 spades when you need four).

Of course, we can add the hands where hearts are 3-3 to start off.. if you duck a club, you can go down when game is making easily by giving a spade. If you duck a club, and clubs are 5-1, now you still have to find the spade to make (when you had it easy otherwise).

So all in all, the line I like is three hearts, then hook the person with four hearts (if hearts 3-3 no problem). This way, you score 4S if hook is right, and you have potential club-heart squeeze if the spade hook goes sour. All in all, I think this is the superior line. What do you think?

Ben

[Free]

I think it doesn't matter much weither you finesse ♠ first, or try the ♥ first. The possible squeeze doesn't go anywhere (it's an automatic squeeze so at the table I'll make my contract, now I forgot to mention it), and in both your and my line (immediate ♠ finesse) you keep control of the other suits. Playing ♠ first gives you the possibility to hook anyone, playing ♥ first only gives you the opportunity to hook 1 person.

Technically it might be a superior line to try the ♥ first, but I'm not sure about that...