[rhm]

Yesterday the following hand came up in a club game.

Swiss team, short matches

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West leads a spade to East ace
East returns the queen, West following

Plan the play and be specific. Opponents are experienced but no experts. Their bidding is close to SAYC.

Rainer Herrmann

[Codo]

I would try jack of hearts, covered, take on more high heart, cross in spades and play a heart. I play East for 9x or 8x in hearts and one minorsuit ace and some minor club cards, so something like AQ,9x,ATxxx,Qxxx looks fine. That leaves West with xx,K8xx,xx,AJxxx.

Of course there are some problems with this layout: West has no penalty double- and he may have lead a small diamond with this holding. But anyway, these hands fit the opening, Easts pass and the first double from West.

[32519]

rhm, on 2012-November-27, 06:18, said:

West leads a spade to East ace
East returns the queen, West following

Plan the play and be specific. Opponents are experienced but no experts. Their bidding is close to SAYC.

Rainer Herrmann

Quote: Their bidding is close to SAYC.
In that case East opened a 13 count. South has 5, West at least 6 for the negative double and North has 15, accounting for 39 of the available 40 HCP. So we’re looking for a Jack in the E/W hand.

West has already shown the ♠AQ for 6 of the 13 count. To set the contract, the ♣AQ need to both be in the East hand. Conversely, to make the contract the ♥K needs to be in the West hand. At all costs I must keep West off lead (the danger hand). West’s negative double increases the probability that the ♥K is with him.

My line of play is to make 4-tricks in the ♥ suit, discarding a ♣ in hand on dummy’s 4th heart. Then all I surrender to the opponents are the 3 Aces. I will probably start off with the ♥2 to the ♥10, finessing West for the king, carefully watching the pip cards from the East hand. Cross back to hand with a ♠ and lead another ♥.

[Phil]

Codo, on 2012-November-27, 07:04, said:

I would try jack of hearts, covered, take on more high heart, cross in spades and play a heart. I play East for 9x or 8x in hearts and one minorsuit ace and some minor club cards, so something like AQ,9x,ATxxx,Qxxx looks fine. That leaves West with xx,K8xx,xx,AJxxx.

You are pretty much cold with this layout since the ♣A is onside. The relevant hand is when East has AQ x(?) xxxxx AQxx(?) and West has xx Kxxx(?) Ax Jxxx(?). Not much of a double of 4♠, but maybe they've seen my overcalls before. In this circumstance, I have to figure out if LHO has K98x(x) or K9/8xx(x). Since I can still make with the ♣A, it seems right not to deep finesse hearts and fall back on the ♣A on (which seems likely anyway).

If this is indeed the layout they have defended poorly, since a diamond back, club through looks obvious. Furthermore, that isn't much of a double for LHO.

Another possibility is that the ♥K is offside stiff, leaving RHO with AQ, K, Txxxx, QJxxx and RHO with xx, 98xxx, Ax, Axxx. This is a much more reasonable double for LHO. With this layout, I would practically fall into the right line if RHO got out with the diamond at T2.

Against very good opponents I'd like to think this would be my line, assuming they are awake and playing well. Against 'experienced' but not 'expert' club opponents I'd just take the straightforward line.

Edit - I've found a way to go down on a totally normal layout (♣A + ♥K on). WD me.

[y66]

I'll play diamonds to find out who has the ace. If it's LHO, I'll play him for xx K984 Ax Jxxxx and take a deep finesse on the first round of hearts if he doesn't find the club switch. If not, I'll play him for xx Kxxx xx Axxxx.

[nige1]

Codo, on 2012-November-27, 07:04, said:

I would try jack of hearts, covered, take on more high heart, cross in spades and play a heart. I play East for 9x or 8x in hearts and one minorsuit ace and some minor club cards, so something like AQ,9x,ATxxx,Qxxx looks fine. That leaves West with xx,K8xx,xx,AJxxx.

The danger is that West has ♦A and East ♣A. But, assuming that West has 4+♥ for his negative double. Codo's line caters for that eventuality. Codo also wins when West has all six ♥.

[rhm]

Codo, on 2012-November-27, 07:04, said:

I would try jack of hearts, covered, take on more high heart, cross in spades and play a heart. I play East for 9x or 8x in hearts and one minorsuit ace and some minor club cards, so something like AQ,9x,ATxxx,Qxxx looks fine. That leaves West with xx,K8xx,xx,AJxxx.

Of course there are some problems with this layout: West has no penalty double- and he may have lead a small diamond with this holding. But anyway, these hands fit the opening, Easts pass and the first double from West.

Seeing the ♥7 in dummy I played for this line only to find that East held ♥98x and West of course the ♣A.
He had negative doubled with only three hearts and two small spades and no convenient bid.
At the table I shrugged my shoulders and thought bad luck.
Afterwards I was not so sure any more. That's why I posed the problem here.

rhm, on 2012-November-27, 06:18, said:

Swiss team, short matches

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West leads a spade to East ace
East returns the queen, West following

You play the ♥J covered and another top heart from dummy, East playing the ♥8.

At this point you have a lot of information:

From the bidding you know the minor suit aces must be split. Otherwise either East would not have an opening bid or West no penalty double.
Spades are 2-2.
Assume hearts break 4-2.
Nobody has bid clubs which seem to indicate that West has 5 clubs and East 4 clubs.
West cannot have 6 clubs or he would have led his singleton diamond
East cannot have 5 clubs since he opened 1♦ and has 4 cards in the majors.
If West is 2=4=2=5 why did he not lead a diamond, his partner's bid suit?
Anyway if West is 2=4=2=5 the odds are at least 5/7 or over 70% that his minor suit ace is in clubs.

In fact West was 2=3=3=5 and East 2=3=4=4, where a trump lead makes much more sense.

Rainer Herrmann