[phil_20686]

Not the real bidding but west opened 1H

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I got this hand wrong when I was first shown it, it is a nice counting problem.

EDIT: Lead is the ♥K

What is the best line in 6S after west opened 1H?
What is the best line with no opposition bidding?

Experts please give the I/A time to answer, or at least hide your answers with the [spoiler] tags.

[billw55]

Opening lead please? In both cases if they are different.

[ahydra]

Can I not be in this one? Looks rather thin. I want to ruff out clubs but on a trump lead and another trump when they're in with the CA, it's becoming rather horrible due to lack of entries to South.

ahydra

[phil_20686]

billw55, on 2012-November-20, 07:58, said:

Opening lead please? In both cases if they are different.

I put it in.

[Phil]

Did North ever show club shortness along the way? What methods do EW play? (4 or 5 card majors or Precision maybe?). Sorry to stall but these are relevant questions I would already know at the table.

[inquiry]

The heart king opening lead is odd enough to make the hand double dummy after West opens 1♣. With ♣AK and ♥KQ, it seems highly unlikely the ♥K would be the choice.

Spoiler

So one of the top clubs would be in East (and that one seems like it must be the king, to give west 11 hcp in the form of the ♥KQ, ♣A, ♦J, ♠J). Win the ♥A, ruff a heart. The idea is to drop the ♥KQ with two ruffs, or to find diamonds 3=3 and ruff three hearts. You are trying to win 4♠ in dummy, four hearts -- including two or thee ruffs in south, and 4♦.

play, ♥A, ♥ruff, ♠Q, ♦x to ace, ♥ruff... did the queen fall? If yes, ♦T playin low if not covered, then pull trumps. If not, ♦ to dummy (covered or not), ruff ♥, diamond to dummy (hoping for 3-3), pull trumps.

The play is similar if there was no opponents bidding, except no attempt to finesse in diamonds if the ♥Q falls in three rounds of hearts.

[ahydra]

inquiry - for the "W opened 1H" case:

Spoiler

Nice spot that the ♦J is on, but it seems impossible for the ♥KQ drop if W opened hearts? So how about ruffing 3 hearts and always taking the ♦ finesse. This seems to improve your line a little.

ahydra

[phil_20686]

Phil, on 2012-November-21, 09:03, said:

Did North ever show club shortness along the way? What methods do EW play? (4 or 5 card majors or Precision maybe?). Sorry to stall but these are relevant questions I would already know at the table.

North cuebid clubs, so if west has the AK, he knows north has shortage. 5cM, normal opening styles.

[phil_20686]

inquiry, on 2012-November-21, 09:50, said:

The heart king opening lead is odd enough to make the hand double dummy after West opens 1♣. With ♣AK and ♥KQ, it seems highly unlikely the ♥K would be the choice.

West opened 1H, not one club, not sure if that was a typo.

[SteveMoe]

Will try:
♥A then ♥ ruff small.
Play along dummy reversal lines using (small) ♦ to reach table for 2 more ♥ ruffs.
Avoid ♦ finesse - ♦J falling in 3 rounds is 54+%.
Play for Trumps to be 3-2.

[gszes]

trick 1 heart A
trick 2 ruff a heart
trick 3 club Q (pretty much forcing lho to play the A or K)
trick 4 win whatever lho returns
go about your business ruffing out the last heart and taking the
dia finesse. The reason for playing a club at trick 3 is that we need
another entry back to the dummy and we cannot play dia first since
we open up extra ruff chances for the opps.

[phil_20686]

SO kind of the "point" of this hand, is that you place west with the KQH and the AKC.

The natural line feels like ruffing three hearts and relying on spades 3-2 and diamonds 3-3. However, if you give lho two spades and three diamonds to go with his five hearts, then you can always set the club suit up.

SUppose instead that you play a club at trick two (ducked), lho basically has to return a diamond. Now you could take the spade finesse and ruff a club high and then take the spade finesse and ruff a third club high, and then ruff a heart, draw the last trump. The first line makes on west being 2533 or 3532, this line makes when lho has 2533, 3523, 3523, 3532, 2542, etc, admittedly, it makes only when the spade finesse is making, but since it makes roughly half the time on more than twice as many layouts, it seems to be better.