[pclayton]

IMPs, long matches

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You play in 3N. Opening lead: ♣5. You win the Q, RHO plays the 4. Standard signals and 4th best leads by the bad guys.

Now what?

(Sorry its late)

This post has been edited by pclayton: 2004-October-15, 04:27

[Flame]

The 5 of club is lead both its also in your hand.

[whereagles]

humm... gonna play LHO for Kxx xxx xx AKxxx. Cash hearts, cash diams, lead club. Not consistent with the 4 by RHO 1st trick, so I'm not sure I'm playing it right lol. But I take it RHO discouraged instead of showing count

[Fluffy]

Also is possile that RHO has ♣A42.

In wich case I prefer to play ♠ to the ♠Q.

[luke warm]

if this is as you say on the leads, etc, your rho can only have 3 clubs to the A or K... that means you have time to try for your 9th... it can only come from spades or diamonds, and to give myself the most chances i'm with fluffy... lead a spade right away toward the Q

[Free]

I see 3 possibilities:
1 ) small ♠ to the Q, hope ♠K is in my RHO's hand and ♣s are no worse than 4-3 split
2 ) give away a small ♦, hope ♦s are split 3-3, and ♣s no worse than 4-3
3 ) eliminate ♥s and ♦s from West and play small ♣, hope ♠K is in LHO's hand, as the big ♣s, and that he doesn't have a 3rd ♦.

Dangers:
1 ) we always have 8 tricks
2 ) we always have 8 tricks
3 ) danger is we will have even less than 8 tricks if West has another ♦

Percentages:
1 ) about 50%
2 ) about 43% if I remember correct
3 ) a lot less I think

So the small ♠ looks best.
Extra possibility you have after small ♠ to the Q is you might be heading for a squeeze if someone has 5 ♠s and 4 ♦s.

My choice: small ♠!

[pclayton]

I played this hand. Right or wrong, my table feel told me clubs were 5-2. Two choices seem to present themselves:

1. Cash AK♦, ♥'s and try to endplay LHO.
2. If RHO has the diamond length and the K♠, I have her in a fratricide squeeze.

So, clever me thinks LHO has the club length and therefore play for #2.

But there's a wrinkle here. Because of the blocked spade position, the ending is a criss-cross of sorts:

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On the last club, I pitch a spade off dummy and diamond in hand. However, East ditches a diamond and West simply plays a spade which ruins the transportation. For the squeeze nuts, the criss-cross fratricide needs a double entry to both hands, so the transportation stays clear.

FWIW, the endplay against LHO does work. Didn't find it at the other table - they just played the spade toward the Q.

[mila85]

pclayton, on Oct 18 2004, 08:31 PM, said:

I played this hand. Right or wrong, my table feel told me clubs were 5-2. Two choices seem to present themselves:

1. Cash AK♦, ♥'s and try to endplay LHO.
2. If RHO has the diamond length and the K♠, I have her in a fratricide squeeze.

So, clever me thinks LHO has the club length and therefore play for #2.

But there's a wrinkle here. Because of the blocked spade position, the ending is a criss-cross of sorts:

---

On the last club, I pitch a spade off dummy and diamond in hand. However, East ditches a diamond and West simply plays a spade which ruins the transportation. For the squeeze nuts, the criss-cross fratricide needs a double entry to both hands, so the transportation stays clear.

FWIW, the endplay against LHO does work. Didn't find it at the other table - they just played the spade toward the Q.

"On the last club, I pitch a spade off dummy and diamond in hand. However, East pitches a diamond and West simply plays a spade which ruins the transportation"

You can pitch a diamond from dummy and west is squeezed.
Just discard from your hand what he holds...

[Free]

♠ discard is A LOT safer I think...

[inquiry]

pclayton, on Oct 18 2004, 09:31 PM, said:

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For the squeeze nuts, the criss-cross fratricide needs a double entry to both hands, so the transportation stays clear.

Type 0 positional losing card squeeze... bridge 101 ending... mila85 is 100% accurate (and fast)... just throw diamond off dummy, and EAST is dead.... double entries not necessary.

[pclayton]

Yeah I guess so; LHO has to ditch one of the pointed suits earlier in the play. Didn't see it. Q♠ is an irrelevant card.

[inquiry]

pclayton, on Oct 19 2004, 10:36 AM, said:

Yeah I guess so; LHO has to ditch one of the pointed suits earlier in the play. Didn't see it. Q♠ is an irrelevant card.

Depending upon the size of LHO's spade X, the spade queen might be very relevant... if RHO pitchs a spade, you pitch a diamond.. if he pitches a diamond, you pitch a spade... if LHO's spades are 32... of course, you can pitch any old spade from your hand. It is the value of the spade queen that made me say this was a type 0 positional squeeze... if dummy's low spade is larger than WEST, this is jsut a normal losing card squeeze, not a positional one.

Ben