[inquiry]

Three hearts looks like a good contract, FOR NS!!... South felt he could not double because he lacked support for spades, so East got away with a horrible vulnerable 3H overcall. With misho we play a thrump kind of double here, so south would double and East would be sorry he bid ths way. as his playing 3Hx vul would be very painful.

Scoring: IMP

West North East South

 Pass  1♦    3♥    4♣
 Pass  4NT   Pass  5♠
 Pass  5NT   Pass  6♣
 Dbl   6NT   Pass  Pass
 Pass  

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The double of 6♣ showed clubs, so East started the club 6. In whatever line you choose, should you play the heart king, EAST will think a little while and play low, west will follow suit to the first round of hearts.

[paulhar]

Isn't East on lead?

[inquiry]

paulhar, on Sep 25 2004, 05:00 PM, said:

Isn't East on lead?

Yes, i meant to rotate the hand using cascade's wonderful linconverter..but forgot....

[Fluffy]

No squeeze is working here because of lack of transportation, and even then it would be impossible to cash 4♠ without destroying the ♦ holding to get a the count of the hand.

So the question here is after winning ♥K do you play directly over ♦ or you give a try on the ♣ 4-2?

Regardless of the ♣ position the 6♣ double is a bad bid so there is not much to deduce here, but I think anyway East if very favourite for ♦Q because of the vulnerable bid, so I play ♦ to the ♦J At trick 3 and test ♣.

[cnszsun]

I believe East has a hand like 3-6-3-1 or 2-6-4-1 and ♦Q in his hand. So i will play basically the same with Fluffy, but with a little change.
Cash ♠A,Q before play ♥K, then cash two other ♠ winners, finesse ♦J, finally cash ♣A,Q and ♦A, if West has ♦Tx, at the last trick East will be squeezed, he has to be left with ♥A, ♦Qx, just throw him in.
This line works when West has ♦xxx or ♦Tx, but you have to give up the chance of ♣4-2, i don't know if this is reasonable.

[inquiry]

Ok.. this one is an extra chance kind of thing. It looks like you will need to find diamonds behaving for the slam. But this is not a rush to hook the diamond suit, not yet at least. Win the club, and cash two spades, all follow.

The diamond hook is still availabe.

Cash the club ACE, discard a heart, and to your utter surprise, EAST discards a heart too. So west had five clubs, but EAST who jumped vulnerable in hearts, has five spades. Could he totally have psyched a heart preempt and be short in hearts? No West, would have lots of hearts and have raised. How many hearts might EAST have? Six or seven seems likely. Leave the last top club, and play a heart to your King, when WEST follows to the heart, East ducks. No matter, You are certain (as can be, but sometimes people lie) that EAST was 5-6-1-1. You have to hope the diamond is the Ten or Queen. When you lead a diamond, East plays the ten, you jump the ace, and due ot your ♦K98, are able to win 3 ♦ tricks.

Note, the ♦ hook was there as long as you needed it... also don't forget to take the last club for a ♥ discard when you win the ♦ ace.

The declarers didn't give this hand the best play. Now if EAST had not bid, it would be harder.. but if EAST wins the heart and continues a spade, you can cash your heart and spade winners to find the same information. The hand was...

Scoring: IMP

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[cnszsun]

Although it's hard to imagine East had such a hand to bid 3H, why not 2D if he really wanted to bid something. My line will work at this situation because i cash 4 ♠s before trying ♦. When East's ♠ holding is disclosed, the rest play is almost automatic, but i missed to cash one more ♣ when returning to hand in ♠.

[inquiry]

cnszsun, on Sep 27 2004, 08:27 PM, said:

Although it's hard to imagine East had such a hand to bid 3H, why not 2D if he really wanted to bid something.

You know, I wondered too why bid just hearts. But, what can I say, this is a real wrold hand. Maybe he was hopeing bidding hearts would get his opponent in an ackward 4-3 spade fit? Maybe he didn't want to give away his distribtuion. MAybe he deosn't play michaels cue-bid (found on myhand site). But does still make for interesting problem I think.

Ben