[gnasher]

---

Feel free to comment on the bidding, if you think it interesting.

LHO leads ♠4 to the 9 and king, You play a heart to the jack, which holds, then the ace of hearts. The king doesn't drop, so you play a third heart, won by RHO as LHO throws a spade. RHO switches to ♦3 and you play low. LHO wins the jack and leads back the king. Opponents' leads are fourth-best.

Obviously you might have done something different earlier, but anyway here we are. Can you recover?

Edit: RHO follows to the second diamond with ♦2. 2♠ showed 8-12 with a six-card suit.

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2012-October-11, 08:42

[ahydra]

I assume in the hand diagram, North is West and South is East? This has already got me so confused I can't figure out who is LHO and who is RHO :/

The guy who opened 2S is on lead, correct?

ahydra

[gnasher]

ahydra, on 2012-October-11, 07:01, said:

I assume in the hand diagram, North is West and South is East? This has already got me so confused I can't figure out who is LHO and who is RHO :/

The guy who opened 2S is on lead, correct?

Yes, sorry, I've fixed it now.

[Codo]

gnasher, on 2012-October-11, 07:05, said:

Yes, sorry, I've fixed it now.

You called it a poor start, didn't you?

[PhilKing]

What card does East contribute on the second diamond?

And does West promise 6 spades?

[cloa513]

What is the problem? You have 9 tricks. 2 spades, 4 hearts, 1 diamonds, 2 clubs.

[PhilKing]

cloa513, on 2012-October-11, 08:16, said:

What is the problem? You have 9 tricks. 2 spades, 4 hearts, 1 diamonds, 2 clubs.

Had.

[mr1303]

You had 9 tricks at the beginning. How are you going to get back into your hand to win your second spade trick?

[gnasher]

PhilKing, on 2012-October-11, 08:08, said:

What card does East contribute on the second diamond?

And does West promise 6 spades?

I'll edit the original post.

[rhm]

cloa513, on 2012-October-11, 08:16, said:

What is the problem? You have 9 tricks. 2 spades, 4 hearts, 1 diamonds, 2 clubs.

Elementary:
The problem is that after the second diamond you have no communication to your second spade trick in hand.

Rainer Herrmann

[rhm]

gnasher, on 2012-October-11, 06:44, said:

---

Feel free to comment on the bidding, if you think it interesting.

LHO leads ♠4 to the 9 and king, You play a heart to the jack, which holds, then the ace of hearts. The king doesn't drop, so you play a third heart, won by RHO as LHO throws a spade. RHO switches to ♦3 and you play low. LHO wins the jack and leads back the king. Opponents' leads are fourth-best.

Obviously you might have done something different earlier, but anyway here we are. Can you recover?

Edit: RHO follows to the second diamond with ♦2. 2♠ showed 8-12 with a six-card suit.

I think I can recover if West has three clubs including ♣Q.
I win the second diamond and play a club. If the queen appears duck.
Otherwise win and cash hearts discarding diamonds.
Finally play a spade which West must win. West must switch to clubs.
Should he play the club queen duck or otherwise win and throw him in with another club.

Rainer Herrmann

[kenrexford]

You have lost twotricks and have a third ready to lose. If you win the diamond Ace, that sets up a fifth loser if the opponents can work out the transportation, which seems eventually inevitable. So, I will assume that ducking the diamond again is critical.

Sure -- that shuts down yet another trick temporarily, but it also stops the opponents from continuing diamonds.

If LHO, who is also out of hearts now, plays a club back, you could play him for only two clubs, stripping that suit, cashing the heart winners, and then playing a spade. Of course, this is now a problem because you did not play the spade Jack at trick one, so all that LHO needs to do is duck the Jack. But, maybe you catch RHO with 10-9 doubleton and can overtake?

LHO, however, can counter this by switching instead to the spade himself, cashing the Ace before leading a club. Now, the opponents have 4 tricks taken, and you are dead stuck in Dummy.

So, ducking the diamond again is out. You must instead hope that you can win the diamond and cause a transportation problem in diamonds and clubs both. For that to work, you need LHO to have 7-2-2-2 shape, I think. That seems unlikely, but it might be the only hope.

Now, what if RHO actually holds the spade Ace? That would be strange, but perhaps this is possible. LHO might have ♠xxxxxx ♥xx ♦KJx ♣QJ or ♠xxxxxx ♥xx ♦KJ ♣QJx? With the former, your club 10 just sets up magically, where the play for 7-2-2-2 shape actually works for an unexpected reason.

All in all, I wish I had played the spade Jack earlier, as this is much easier if I need only play for LHO to have 6-2-3-2 shape.

[PhilKing]

I play West for ATxxxx xx KJ Qxx.

Win the diamond and play a club. West cannot play the queen, since you just duck. Win the ace and exit a spade without cashing hearts.

Hang on that doesn't quite work. He exits a low club, and when I cash the hearts he jettisons. But I can cash the hearts first and West is sort of one suit squeezed in clubs. He has to keep them both and now I exit a spade. Then if he tries to get off play with the queen I duck. If he plays low, I play ace other and make the last trick with a spade.

Back to 9 tricks with only 9 on top.

[Phil]

If LHO has ATxxxx, xx, KJ, QJx I can make it. Win the diamond and play a spade. LHO wins and exits a high club which I can either duck or win.

I can't see a way to make it if RHO has a club honor unless I play for a misdefense.

[lalldonn]

I agree that it seems like we need west to be 6223 with the club queen. If he doesn't have the club queen we will just have to hope he errs and throws a club on one of the hearts, in which case I will strip west of his non-spades before playing a spade.

[gnasher]

rhm, on 2012-October-11, 08:55, said:

I think I can recover if West has three clubs including ♣Q.
I win the second diamond and play a club. If the queen appears duck.
Otherwise win and cash hearts discarding diamonds.
Finally play a spade which West must win. West must switch to clubs.
Should he play the club queen duck or otherwise win and throw him in with another club.

Yes, that's what would have worked. We endplay him to gain an entry for an avoidance.

[PhilKing]

The edit feature is a wonderful thing.

[kenrexford]

PhilKing, on 2012-October-11, 10:49, said:

The edit feature is a wonderful thing.

OK, so you have..., and the play goes...

Well, you actually had..., and the play actually went...

Wait, you really had..., and the play instead went...

[gszes]

it kind of avoides the question however I am wondering why we didnt start by playing the
spade J (to make a strong attempt to conceal our spade holding from rho and maybe keep
them from finding a dia shift if/when they win the heart K) and lead the heart J. I realize this
costs a trick when the stiff K is with W but we really only need 4h 2s 1d 2c and we can almost
always get these as long as communications are open btn the hands and lho has no more
than 2 dia (or if 3 dia rho has the 9). If the heart J holds continue with a small heart toward the Q.
The opps must win this or lose their heart trick (if lho ducked with Kx hearts I would not want to play
for money against that player) (5h 1s 1d 2c). No matter the switch we have time to establish our
spades and hearts as long as we win the 2nd dia if the opps switch to dia.



as to the original question PHILKING and echoed by RHM have a very nicely thought out and
feasible method of recovering given our present predicament.

[jallerton]

That was a great duck at trick 2 by RHO.