[Wackojack]

Scoring: MP

Not sure you would approve of the bidding:
p 2♣
3♣3♥
3NT 6♣
p p
J♣ lead

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Possible lines of play occurred to me:

1. Take club lead with King. AK♦, ruff diamond with 9. Assuming all follow, 5♣ to Ace. If all follow, contract assured. If South shows out, play ♥AKQ discarding 2 spades from dummy, then 4th heart. If South shows out, ruff, draw North's penultimate trump with ♣Q, then spade to Ace and discard dummy's diamond on established heart and claim. If South has the 4th heart, ruff and North over ruffs and plays a spade you rely on the spade finesse to discard dummy's losing diamond.

2. Take club lead with King. AK♦, ruff diamond with 5. Assuming all follow, AKQ♥, discarding 2 spades, A♠, ruff a spade. Then play last diamond from dummy. Whether they use 10♣ or not you can claim. If only hearts break badly, you can fall back on the spade finesse

Which is the greater threat to making the contract? Trumps breaking badly or one or both of red suits breaking badly? Which line would you vote for, or have I missed a better line?

Thanks

[FrancesHinden]

The CJ lead tends to imply that clubs are breaking, as very few people would lead a trump either from singleton J or from J10xx. If clubs are 3-2 I don't need to run the risk of an early round of diamonds being ruffed (or over-ruffed): I can draw trumps in 3 rounds then run the 10 of hearts.

So I think the best line for 12 tricks, given the lead, is probably to win the CK and play a second club at once. If someone blows I take my diamond ruff, and probably try to set up hearts by playing them from the top (subject to learning things about how the red suits break that might result in a heart finesse or an endplay instead e.g. if South has KJxxx xx xx J10xx he's going to find himself on play at an inconvenient moment).

Life is made more complicated by the fact this is matchpoints, for two reasons.
1. If clubs break, 6NT by the strong hand is making
2. If clubs break, I have a better chance for an overtrick in 6C.

At matchpoints I quite fancy this line, though I'm not certain it's best for 12 tricks: take a diamond ruff at once, then a second club. This puts me in the right hand if everyone follows. Now I draw a third trump (discarding a spade) and continue AKQ of hearts (discarding a 2 spades from hand), heart ruff. If all follow I have 13 tricks. If South blows I have this ending:

AQ
x
-
-

10
-
x
x

and if RHO has the diamonds guarded I make 13. If LHO has both reds I shouldn't have touched hearts, but should have cashed the SA earlier.

[Chamaco]

What about win clubs in dummy and run the HJ ?
Or testing the trump suit and only then running HT if they break ?

Keeps spades protected and if it wins, it is likely to bring 13 tricks home, if it loses, the contract should be safe unless bad club break: 50% chances of overtrick with virtually no risk of going down.

[Fluffy]

♣K, ruff a ♦ with 9, draw trumps, test ♥ while discarding ♦ and try ♠ finese if everything fails.

[Wackojack]

Thanks for your replies. For those of you from the UK, this hand came up in the British Spring Simultaneous pairs and I was playing at my local club.

The play of the hand seemed initially to me to depend on what you make of the J club lead. Is a singleton so unlikely? After all, if you don't want opps to know that your jack is a singleton then it must be a good idea to lead it. These were the full hands:

Scoring: MP

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Say, I was playing in 6NT. Then say I got a diamond lead instead of a club. Then when I came to lead a small club to dummy, and South's jack appeared I would put my faith in the rule of restricted choice and finesse the 9 on the way back.

I am ashamed to say that I went down in 6♣. I took the club lead with J♣ lead with ♣K and remember thinking that it could be a singleton. I played ♦AK and ruffed a diamond with the 5!! Then I couldn't be bothered with thinking too deeply and played another trump, finding the bad break. So instead of drawing a 3rd trump leaving North with the master 10, I went straight to playing ♥AKQ discarding a diamond and a spade. On the 4th heart, I ruffed, North overuffed and played a spade. Then I couln't get back to dummy to draw North's last trump and still enjoy the long heart. Needless to say, I paid the price of my negligence when the spade finesse failed.

The interesting thing about this hand for me is that an opening lead of a singleton Jack of trumps might sometimes gain a trick in trumps rather than lose one.

[Fluffy]

Wackojack, on Apr 16 2005, 05:19 PM, said:

Then when I came to lead a small club to dummy, and South's jack appeared I would put my faith in the rule of restricted choice and finesse the 9 on the way back.

Restricted choicee doesn't apply normally on this suit, since experts should play ♣J with ♣J10x.

J or
10

is more like than

J10 as restrticted choice says.

but much less likelly than

J10 or
J10x.