[EarlPurple]

Scoring: IMP

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Hand rotated to make South declarer.

6♥ would probably be made easily enough but declarer finds himself declaring 6NT.

Should declarer make this, and can it be made double-dummy? I am putting the solution below in hidden text. If you receive the ♦10 lead does it change your line of play (now you know the finesse is right) from, say, a passive heart lead.

Spoiler

Double-dummy this contract can always be made, but I don't think it's necessarily the best percentage line.

At the table the lead was Di-10 and so you have the finesse in this suit already taken for you.

Now you play off the Cl-AQ and 5 rounds of hearts throwing Cl-2. West must find 3 discards:

- Clearly West cannot discard any clubs

- If West discards 3 spades we can now make this by crossing to Di-A and leading Sp-Q from dummy, pinning his jack.

- If West has discarded at least one diamond we can play off our last club, and assuming East has kept 2 diamonds and 2 spades we now play ace and another diamond and East must lead away from his Sp-K

[Free]

I think you should recalibrate your meanings of "south" and "declarer". If South is declarer, ♦J can't be lead at trick 1

Nice hand, standard squeeze possibilities.

[EarlPurple]

yes sorry ♦10 lead. I will edit my post.

[EarlPurple]

I was watching the USA vs Norway match. The Norwegian N/S played in 6♥ for an easy 12 tricks.

The US pair did play this in 6NT by South (as the hands are shown) and did get the ♦10 lead, so there was no problem of the diamond finesse.

I thought declarer might try a spade to the queen and if it loses to the king, hope clubs are 3-3. Declarer however found a completely different line of running the ♠9, which on this case was also inadequate - a big 16 imps to Norway.

If clubs are 3-3 we will always make on any line, so I guess the question is who is more likely to hold the king of spades, and whether there's any justification for playing the line that actually works. Maybe play a few rounds of hearts and see what they actually throw on them?

[inquiry]

You have two lines of play (forgetting that if clubs are 3-3 you always make). You can go for a three suit squeeze on EAST playing him for ♠JT and west for the king where you squeeze him down to 1♠ or one ♦ so you can either pin his doubleton middle honor or throw WEST in with the third round of diamonds. Or you can just lead low towards the spade queen. Which one of these lines seems best odds to gain one trick?

No one, would find the three suit squeeze on EAST. To pin the stiff spade honor if that is the defense taken. The odds are just oo long. There is a possiblility, you might play to run out clubs, and if that doesn't work, throw the person with the long club in for a spade endplay, but here that fails.

[EarlPurple]

I agree, but why run the ♠9 ? Why not low to the queen?

[inquiry]

EarlPurple, on Oct 28 2004, 01:17 PM, said:

I agree, but why run the ♠9 ? Why not low to the queen?

I meant run the nine upto the queen.. playing the queen if RHO plays low....

[EarlPurple]

You meant that, but not the player at the table.