[inquiry]

Scoring: IMP


West North East South
--     -     Pass  1NT
 Pass  2♣    Pass  2♠
 Pass  4♣    Dbl   4♦
 Pass  4♥    Pass  5♣
 Pass  5NT   Pass  7♠
 Pass  Pass  Dbl   Pass
 Pass  Pass  

Opening lead: CLUB THREE (third/fifth leads)

---

You have finally made it. You have been invited to play on a team of with players who are at least as good as you think you are yourself. The match has been nip-and-tuck when this, the final hand shows up. You feel like, for sure the outcome of the match will depend on if you make this. Make it, and you will surely be invited back again, go down, and they may not ask you back.

Ok, trick one is easy, you ruff in dummy. Plan and EXPLAIN your play. Yes, one of our regular posters did play this and go down, but I suspect he will be invited back anyway… :-) . But you and me, we have to make it because our reputation is not nearly as high.

Ben

[Fluffy]

Ruff in dummy or ruff in hand?

Ruffing in dummy is safer at start, but will create some problems if ♦4-1.

Ruffing in hand is better in the end, ,since the ♣-♦ squeeze can be executed against both players & can capture ♦JXXX onside, but seems to fail to ♥6-1/1-6/2-5. last only when west has 3♠

So the differences come IMO when west has ♦Jxxx wich you cannot capture ruffing in dummy since you will squeeze dummy before opponents AND when west has 3 spades & the ♥ are 2-5 or wen ♥ are 6-1

I think the first one is more likelly than the second one so I´ll try dummy reversal:

2:♠3-♠K (if 4-0 forget about dummy reversal)
3:♠Q-♠4
4:♥K-♥3
5:♥4-♥A
6:♥6-♠6 This is the dangerous spot.
7:♦2-♦K
8:♥9-♠J
9:♣7-♠7
Leaving:

♠A
♥-
♦Q104
♣-

♠-
♥-
♦A63
♣K

10:♠A-♦3 (squeezing while drawing last trump hopefully )

[bridgeboy]

Interesting hand

My line will be:

T1: Ruff club
T2: trump to K, I think it will not be 4-0 (if so see below)
T3: ruff another club
T4: trump to Q
T5: ruff last club high
T6: Heart to K
T7: remaining trump discard D from dummy.
T8-9: Ace and K of D

I hope West shows out on the D then you can get his partner on a trump squeeze.

I play East for something like x QJxx J9xx AQxx

No doubt, I will not get an invitation back


If trumps are 4-0, you have to get back to hand with a D and a H to ruff the clubs. There will be no trump squeeze then, have to rely on a simple squeeze or the D breaking.

I know my line is not ideal, an ideal one will be to be able to test if D are breaking before falling back on the trump squeeze. Cannot figure this out though

[luke warm]

was the 2nd double alerted, or did anyone ask about it? for some reason (must be too late) i couldn't follow the other two lines posted... i'd ruff the club, spade A, spade to hand, ruff club, heart to hand, ruff club, diamond to hand, draw trumps

seems to be ok if clubs not 7/3 or diamonds not 5/0 OR if hand with 3 (or 4) trumps isn't the club or diamond short hand

oops, it is late...for some reason i thought the ♦10 was the ♦J... hmmm

whew, remind me not to do this when i shd be sleeping... i guess the simplest line is to ruff the club, lead a heart to hand, ruff a club, lead a spade to hand, ruff a club with the ace, lead last trump to hand, then play the last trump... try for ♥/♦ on west

[cherdano]

I also think Fluffy's line is the best (1-6/6-1 ♥ or 2-5♥ with West having additionally three spades seems about 8.6% risk -- check RP's dual suit break calculator at http://www.rpbridge.net/xds1.htm).

But there is a line that takes care of Jxxx onside (with West) with some additional chances against Jxxx offside: Ruff three clubs in dummy, getting back to hand once with a trump and once with ♥K, play second round of spades. Now if spades are 2-2, you can test diamonds with ♦KA (ending in hand), and if you find Jxxx offside you can still hope for a trump squeeze against East in case he is 4-4 in the red suits:
Play last spade throwing a diamond, and ruff out hearts in case they get down to 3-3.
This line doesn't give up picking up Jxxx just on a finesse.

But since this additional chance is so small, Fluffy's line still seems better as I said above.

Btw, I suppose the final double was just a "if he makes this we lost the match anyway"-double?

[Fluffy]

cherdano, on Sep 5 2004, 09:40 AM, said:

But there is a line that takes care of Jxxx onside (with West) with some additional chances against Jxxx offside: Ruff three clubs in dummy, getting back to hand once with a trump and once with ♥K, play second round of spades. Now if spades are 2-2, you can test diamonds with ♦KA (ending in hand), and if you find Jxxx offside you can still hope for a trump squeeze against East in case he is 4-4 in the red suits:
Play last spade throwing a diamond, and ruff out hearts in case they get down to 3-3.
This line doesn't give up picking up Jxxx just on a finesse.

That´s right, I was doomed trying to ruff third ♥ before playing trumps, so I needed ♦A in hand to make the squeeze to work against east (it would work always against west), the trump squeeze solves that matter when trumps are 2-2 making it even closer .

[laughter]

If I try to ruff in hand, I have to ruff twice to bring the total to 13 (5 trumps, 2 heart ruffs, 4 diamonds, 2 hearts). I also need to return to table after ruff and play out my high trumps (assuming 3-1 breaks in trump). Therefore, I need 3 table entries, 1 is HA, the other 2 must be diamonds. The risks of being ruffed in diamonds (4-1 breaks, or the one with short H can pitch D and ruff later) is quite high.
How about ruffing in table?
I need 3 ruff in table, one is given by the lead. I just have to cross to HK, take another ruff, DA and the third ruff. Then draw trumps, play DK, if LHO starts with 4D, I can still ruff H to enter hand to take the D finesse.
Seems to me a very reasonable line.
The only worry is the double by RHO. Is he void in D?

[Free]

This really looks like a hand from the book "Kelsey on squeeze play". As Fluffy mentioned, squeeze gives you more chances to deal with 4 ♦s on your right side. Since he Doubled, I think he needs ♣A, so this squeeze is good enough imo

[Free]

laughter, on Sep 8 2004, 08:48 AM, said:

~snip~
The only worry is the double by RHO. Is he void in D?

I don't think so. Your LHO would probably lead ♦ if he has a 5 card, even Ben knows that and the players are better than him

[inquiry]

Free, on Sep 8 2004, 03:58 AM, said:

laughter, on Sep 8 2004, 08:48 AM, said:

~snip~
The only worry is the double by RHO. Is he void in D?

I don't think so. Your LHO would probably lead ♦ if he has a 5 card, even Ben knows that and the players are better than him

Ben knows so little. But RHO is probalby not void in diamonds, least he make a lightner double. After all, RHO probably expected a trump lead without a lignther duuble.

And, this is just a hand I kibiitzed, real world kind of thing, contract, opening lead, and all.

Ben