[Siegmund]

Fun hand from a sectional this weekend.

NS vul, East deals.

---

Whether East opens 1S or passes, South will come in with 3C. After that you are left in peace.

[JLOGIC]

1S-(3C)-4C
4S-4N
5S-6D
7S

(4C because 4N first would be natural and you might gain some info anyways, 6D third round control ask).

[ahydra]

1S-(3C)-4NT (nothing else available to me... 4C should be shortage, 3NT would be to play, 3S NF, 4S pathetic... perhaps 3D but then partner might never think you have 4 spades)
5S - 6D (3rd round control ask)
6H (yes and useful stuff in hearts) - 7S

So suppose South leads the CK, you play dummy's Ace and North doesn't ruff (if he does, you call the TD and say that you didn't pay your entry fee so that the first trick in your grand slam could be ruffed ). My idea is to dummy-reverse, ruffing two diamonds to establish the 8 (the 6 and the CJ are discarded on hearts). Cash the SK (if trumps are 4-0 then you call the TD again), SQ, HK, DA and ruff a diamond. Draw the (possibly imaginary) last trump with the SA and ruff another diamond. Finally ruff a club to enjoy the diamonds.

If someone showed out on the 2nd diamond but wasn't able to ruff, you switch to plan B which is to try to drop the Jack of hearts after the 2nd diamond ruff. Bribe oppo if necessary to get them to throw the HJ under the Q.

ahydra

[JLOGIC]

How could 1S-(3C)-4C be defined as shortage? What do you do with a strong hand without club shortage that has spade support? You won't always have enough to bid keycard!

[ahydra]

Yes, I guess after a 3-level overcall or higher a cuebid must simply be "a GF raise".

ahydra

[Siegmund]

As it happens we did reach 7S. One of I think 3 pairs in a 26-table field to do so.

Sadly, NOBODY in the room made 13 tricks, despite the fact that I don't think the winning line is all that odd or hard to find, and my partner felt quite bad about not spotting it in time.

[Zelandakh]

ahydra, on 2011-April-17, 14:46, said:

1S-(3C)-4NT (nothing else available to me... 4C should be shortage, 3NT would be to play, 3S NF, 4S pathetic... perhaps 3D but then partner might never think you have 4 spades)

For me the West hand qualifies for both 4C (which is simply a good raise after a wjo) or 4D (fit jump). I think you are giving up too much not to have a simple way to raise spades strongly here.

[gnasher]

Siegmund, on 2011-April-18, 19:22, said:

As it happens we did reach 7S. One of I think 3 pairs in a 26-table field to do so.

Sadly, NOBODY in the room made 13 tricks, despite the fact that I don't think the winning line is all that odd or hard to find, and my partner felt quite bad about not spotting it in time.

What did they lead?

[rhm]

-----1♠-(3♣)
3♦--3♥
3♠--4♠ East would not bid 4♠ over 3♠ with 3 cards in ♦s.
4NT-5♠
7♠

Assuming you survive the ♣ opening lead, South 3♣ bid with very little HCP strength at unfavorable vulnerability must be based on a bit more than just a seven card suit.
If South is void in ♠, you can survive if ♦ break. If ♦ do not break you would need a first round finesse against North ♠J to survive, but this of course looses when South has this card. I think the first round finesse in trumps is too big a position to take. (even though you got no trump lead)
However, you can guard against North being 3♠-4♥-5♦-1♣. In this case a sort of dummy reversal looks best.

T1: ♣A
T2: ♠K

If South shows out, hope ♦s are 3-3:

T3: ♦A
T4:♠10 does not matter, whether covered
T5:♥K
T6: ♦ruff
T7:♥A, ♣discard
Draw trumps ending in dummy and run ♦

If South follows to the first trump at trick 2:

T3: ♠Q.
If both follow, claim. If North unexpectedly shows out, draw trumps and try to establish ♦, which will work, unless they are 5-1.
Assume South shows out.
T4,5: ♦A,K
If both follow draw trumps and claim. Assume South again shows out on the second ♦.
T6: ♦ruff
T7: ♥K
T8: ♦ruff
T9,10,11: ♥A,Q,♥ruff
T12:♦ruff
T13:♠A

Rainer Herrmann

[Siegmund]

They did lead a club (sorry for forgetting to mention that) and rainer's last line above does work. No unusual breaks - 7-1 clubs 3-1 spades 4-2 diamonds - but on the opening club lead, an awful lot of people had an instinctive reaction "must eliminate the club loser", and only realized after taking HK SK HA that, oops, now they need 3-3 diamonds or a miracle because the HK was a key entry to the dummy.