[Trumpace]

Playing an IMP team game, with a little behind, you hold QT543, 2, 6432, QJT when you hear LHO (dealer) open 1H.

Partner bids 1NT (16-18). RHO bids 2H and you bid 2S which shows 6-9 points and 5+ spades in your system.

LHO bids 3D, partner bids 4S and RHO doubles (likely based on the missing trumps) and all pass.

LHO leads the Heart K and you see.

Lead heart King.

---

Plan the play.

As usual Adv/+ please refrain from spoiling too early.

[ahydra]

I'm gonna cash the SA here I think. If W has singleton K, that's great, otherwise you finesse East who almost certainly has the trumps.

Wonder if there'll be issues with diamond overruffs though - but if so, there's not much you can do about it.

ahydra

[quiddity]

ahydra, on 2011-March-22, 15:58, said:

Wonder if there'll be issues with diamond overruffs though - but if so, there's not much you can do about it.

If only dummy held a trump card which couldn't be overruffed..

[mike777]

AH
2S

[Quantumcat]

I guess we are worried that at some point West will play ♦AK and play a diamond through the small trumps, so East can make his 9 or jack as well as his king.

So ... ruff a heart, cash the ♠A (now if West wins a spade he can't give his parter a diamond through your small trumps), play a spade covering if East plays the jack, use a club to get to dummy, ruff another heart, cash the two clubs and if East started with three you make an overtrick cause he ruffs his partner's diamond at the end! or else they take two diamonds and East makes his king of spades when he ruffs one of your club winners.

[mike777]

Quantumcat, on 2011-March-22, 23:24, said:

I guess we are worried that at some point West will play ♦AK and play a diamond through the small trumps, so East can make his 9 or jack as well as his king.

So ... ruff a heart, cash the ♠A (now if West wins a spade he can't give his parter a diamond through your small trumps), play a spade covering if East plays the jack, use a club to get to dummy, ruff another heart, cash the two clubs and if East started with three you make an overtrick cause he ruffs his partner's diamond at the end! or else they take two diamonds and East makes his king of spades when he ruffs one of your club winners.

what if east wins a spade?

KJ9

I dont really get any of these comments


aH
2s

[pio_magic]

Quantumcat, on 2011-March-22, 23:24, said:

I guess we are worried that at some point West will play ♦AK and play a diamond through the small trumps,

So ... ruff a heart, <snip> play a spade covering if East plays the jack,

Now what if East plays the king, a ♦ and ruffs the third ♦ with his J...

So I'd rather play a low ♠ to the Q, if this looses to the K (either with W or with E), it doesn't hurt since E can't overruff my Ace and I have my 10 tricks....

Peter

[Trumpace]

I believe low spade (without cashing the A) is the correct play.

If you do decide to play a low spade, what spade do you play from hand when the 9 appears on your right?

[wyman]

Trumpace, on 2011-March-23, 10:37, said:

I believe low spade (without cashing the A) is the correct play.

If you do decide to play a low spade, what spade do you play from hand when the 9 appears on your right?

Spoiler

The Q. If the 10 loses to the J, you're in trouble! It's safer to assume RHO has the K on the auction; if they are 3-0, you can play a spade to the ace and still only lose 1 spade

[Trumpace]

wyman, on 2011-March-23, 11:16, said:

Spoiler

The Q. If the 10 loses to the J, you're in trouble! It's safer to assume RHO has the K on the auction; if they are 3-0, you can play a spade to the ace and still only lose 1 spade

I think T is correct, not Q.

Spoiler

From K9, do you really expect RHO to follow with the 9?

Once you see the 9, it is likely that RHO has KJ9 (in which case T or Q does not matter) or J9, in which case you need to play the T.

If you play the Q, and it loses to the singleton K, the J can be promoted into the setting trick.

[Quantumcat]

Ok I'll amend my plan.

Ruff a heart, club, small spade and cover whatever East plays (if he doesn't play the king), spade to ace and ruff another heart, try some clubs and see if we get an overtrick.
If East played the king then switched to king and another diamond, ruff West's third diamond with the ace, then finesse East's jack. We should have one more small trump left for the last heart.

The above presumes East has all three trumps, if he doesn't:

-If West has singleton jack: He will win it, switch to diamonds, then East's king will win a trick (is it called en passant?). We will go down (losing two spades and two diamonds).
-If West has singleton king: He will win it, but after ruffing with the ace, East's jack will fall under the queen.

The opposite will happen if we decide to play the queen when East follows with the 9. The jack will get promoted with West has singleton king and the jack would fall if West had singleton jack.

After reading the spoilers it doesn't seem like anyone else has an answer either. I guess the only thing to do is figure that East, with K9, is not brilliant enough to play small, and if we see the 9, we hope he has KJ9. If he does play small, we tell a bridge column editor about the hand!

[Trumpace]

Quantumcat, on 2011-March-23, 18:40, said:

After reading the spoilers it doesn't seem like anyone else has an answer either. I guess the only thing to do is figure that East, with K9, is not brilliant enough to play small, and if we see the 9, we hope he has KJ9. If he does play small, we tell a bridge column editor about the hand!

Well I did mention it :-)