[inquiry]

The double of 7♠ asked for an unusual lead. You decided that West must be void in hearts and were afraid of a heart ruff, so you pulled to 7NT. West lead a spade which you won in hand with the Ten. You test hearts at trick two with a low heart to the queen, West shows out pitching a low diamond. You can see the first two tricks by pressing the NEXT button.

Plan your play. Again a step up in difficulty, harder than Play 010-016, most would say we left intermediate behind.

---

[ahydra]

Spoiler

Only hope is to squeeze West - he clearly has both minor-suit kings - but it looks rather difficult given he's discarding after South (you have to pick which minor to discard from South). Basically he can hang on to ♦Kx ♣Kx and discard whichever minor South discards.

Ah, if I cash CA first (Vienna coup)? On the hearts throw one club and one diamond, then run spades. South is left with ♦AJ ♣3 at trick 11 when I lead last spade from dummy. I discard C3, lead still in dummy, if West decides to discard his CK from ♦K10 ♣K then the Q will be high. Otherwise I make two diamond tricks.

There may be some issues in guessing whether West is 5-6 or 6-5 though...

[gszes]

trick 1 win spade
trick 2 win heart
we can now count 5 spades 5 hearts and 2 aces and we have a
diamond finesse available for trick 13 BUT can we do better.

Spoiler

The x by lho was has made this hand much more interesting. There
was no void that we can determine or even expect at this point
so how likely is x going to come from lho with 1 lousy minor suit
king and nothing else?? but twooooo lousy minor suit kings hmmmm
against 7n that might actually look like something since the
bidding has revealed our hand has 3 of the 5 key cards. I would
avoid the dia finesse and play for a variation of a Vienna coupe
where we force lho to hold the setting trick but while doing that
they are foeced to give us our grand slam in another suit (is it magic
or just plain stupid since the dia finesse is at least something you
can hang your hat on)?
trick 3 heart
trick 4 heart
trick 5 heart pitch club
trick 6 heart pitch dia Q (in case you panic late in the hand and decide to take
the dia finesee (wimp)
trick 7 magic step 1 club ace (assuming the K does not fall)*
trick 8 spade
trick 9 spade
trick 10 spade (ending in dummy)
trick 11 spade pitching a club

this will reduce your hands to the following
void
void
x
Q

void
void
AJ
void

NOW we have reached decision time LHO can see the club Q in
dummy and they know they cannot pitch the club K and the neat part
is so does RHO so if EITHER opp started with both kings they face
the same problem they must now bare down to the two singleton kings.
This is a rare case since you do not even need to count the suits you
are only looking for the minor suit kings.

Since the club King has not shown up
trick 12 lead the dia from dummy if:
rho
plays the dia K (unlikely) the hand is over
pitches a club (meaning lho has all the remaining diamonds) play the A the
king will either drop or not since only lho can hold the dia K.
plays a small diamond
You can wimp out now and take the finesse (risking down 2 instead of 1 which
would be a larger concern at MP) OR play according to your convictions and
rise with the A dropping the dia K and winning the last trick with the J
hoping to teach at least this one intrepid defender to not count their tricks
before they are hatched. I would rise with the dia ace mainly because making 7
on a mere finesse is dull and making it on a squeeze just feels better. You
decide

* go all the way back to trick 7 if perchance rho shows out of clubs and the
count of the majors reveals rho must hold the dia K we still have the dia finesse
to fall back on. since we no longer have the entries to play the dia Q and come
back to our hand later. Pitching the dia Q under the club A will allow us to play
the rest of the hand normally (ie run the spades) and come down to the same ending
but this time instead of rising with the A we take the marked dia finesse. Which
means the original x from lho was indeed lightner and the reason for it was hoping
p would lead a dia. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO what do you all think should we
just take the boring dia finesse anyway no matter how the play goes assuming a
lightner??? Just thought id have some fun with you all you decide and good luck

[Cyberyeti]

Gszes, try reading the OP carefully.

Quote

There was no void that we can determine or even expect at this point

Quote

You test hearts at trick two with a low heart to the queen, West shows out pitching a low diamond.

[sfi]

Spoiler

LHO took 2 calls in a strong auction, so there's no practical way that East has either king. So cash the CA and claim on the squeeze.

If West is not 9 - KT9xxx KJTxxx I'm going to be astonished. But I don't care what the distribution is.

[kenberg]

Spoiler

All is well. Cash tha ♣ A, play the hearts pitching a small club and a diamond.run spades ending on the board, the squeeze works as advertised.

You are on the board after 11 tricks, ♣ Q and one ♦ on the board, ]Di] AJ in hand. If W still has the ♣K then his ♦ K drops.

[neilkaz]

West's bidding this hand might be a good start to a bridge murder novel although if east shot him after this hand, I'd consider the homicide justifiable.

[gszes]

Cyberyeti, on 2014-May-21, 12:24, said:

Gszes, try reading the OP carefully.

rats didn't see that but fortunately the suggested lop still stands:) more
luck than knowledge:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))