[pclayton]

♦Wow - what a night. We bid 6 slams our direction (even missed one). But - sorry - the ones I'm presenting aren't cold. You get to play them:

1.

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Our auction: 2♣ - 2♦ (negative) - 2♥ - 2♠ - 5♠ - 6♠. Opening lead: ♦K. Plan the play.

2.

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(red on white) 3♦ on right, 4♠ by you, 5♦ on left, 6♠ by pard (!!!). Brian says" sorry, I only have a 4 count". Well, as long as its the RIGHT 4 count".

Opening lead: ♦2.

Oh, and something happened that I've never seen before. Your side ends up playing 24 of the 26 hands! 14 by Brian, 10 by you. Unreal. Still only 57% though -maybe we were a little too active.

[FrancesHinden]

1.
I'm not at all sure this is right, but one possible line is
- ruff the diamond
- AKQ of clubs discarding 2 diamonds
- AK of hearts discarding a diamond
- heart ruff to hand
- diamond ruff
- Ace of trumps
- guess how to get back to hand

The argument for leaving the ace of trumps in dummy is if North ruffs in early on a rounded suit I have a re-entry back to dummy (and depending on what North ruffs in with, I may be taking 3 diamond ruffs).

If I knew which rounded suit North was short in I would be a bit better off. For example, if I knew North had only 3 clubs I quite like diamond ruff, CA, C ruff, diamond ruff, KQ of clubs and see what happens.

2. Looks a little simpler
Diamond ruff
King of clubs
Diamond ruff
Ace of clubs ditching a heart
Trump and hope

Anything else looks pretty obscure. Clubs might be 6-1, but I don't see what I'm supposed to do about it without going off on more obvious layouts.

[Fluffy]

ruffing twice in hand will work only when you find 4-3 and 4-3, and ♠ are 2-2, and either ♠K is at your right or you guess wich suit South doesn't ruff.

An improvement should be to cash ♥AK, if ♥Q drops at north second or bare you are nearly home.

Another line similar is to make the ♥ finese, this line will require that North has ♠K thrid (or second with 3♥), ♥Q and again both suits divided 4-3.

♥AK, ♥J covered and ruffed.
♠A
♣AKQ
♥10, if ruffed you ruff last diamond and are in the original line with only 1♠ remaining.

I dunno if it is better than the previous one.


For hand 2, ruffing first ♦ might be a mistake, discarding a ♣ from dummy to get info about the ♦ honnors might help you on the final decision when playing ♠ from dummy.

But it will allow the trump promotion when South has ♠A bare, and ♦ are 7-3.

given that they are non vul, I beleive the 6-4 ♦ distribution is more likelly and would discard a ♣ to get some info.

[Rebound]

On the first one, I'm going to ruff the first trick, then play A of ♥, then ruffing a ♥, I then lead the ♠ Q. How's that work out?

Second one, I agree with Frances Hinden. Dunno if either of these are correct but it's what I would try at the table anyway.

[pclayton]

The 2nd one is rather easy. All you have to do is avoid cashing the A♦ early and ruff 2 diamonds in dummy. When you lead a trump off the board, RHO has the stiff A.

The 1st one is a bear. Brian ruffed the diamond in dummy, and played ♥AK, and ♥ overruffed by LHO with the J, down 1.

It looks like the right play is to ruff and play the ♠A, ♥AK and ♣AKQ dumping 3 of the ♦'s. You have to guess which round suit to ruff to get back to your hand to ruff the last diamond, ruff the last diamond and have to guess for the last time how to get back to your hand.

It may be right or wrong, but when you take that last ruff back to your hand, its a 2-way finesse for the King! You have the option of ruffing with the 9 or Q. Odd.

LHO had J8 and RHO had Kx. Even with this layout, RHO can ruff high and play the heart to promote the J.

Another oddity of the hand is the falsecard of the Jack(!) on the play of the Ace. This will certainly lead declarer down the wrong path.

Rebound, leading the Q♠ probably isn't a good idea. Even if it gets covered and you win, you have to leave the ♠J - 8 outstanding. You can't ruff 2 ♦'s in dummy now and have to rely on a 3rd ♥ or a 4th ♣ for your 12th trick.

Even then its a complex hand, and I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be the best play, with all of the trump promotion issues with the crossruff.

Hands like this are a sheer headache!