[GijsH]

Scoring: IMPs

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Bidding:
1♥ p 3♥ dbl
4♥ 4♠ dbl a.p.

You lead your singleton ♦, to the ten, queen and ace.
Declarer leads a ♠ to the jack and continues with the queen.
How do you plan the defense?

[whereagles]

Get it right I don't know, but I'm going to duck the spade again

[Chamaco]

Ducking seems right, leaving dummy on lead.
If spades are continued, I'll take and play the club K.

[GijsH]

Ducking the ♠ a 2nd time is the right start, on this hand from BBO:

Scoring: IMP

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The play:
♦ lead to Q and A, ♠ to J, ♠ Q ducked.

Now that you see all hands, plan the rest of the defense assuming declarer continues with a 3rd round of spades?
Double dummy it is not "advanced" anymore

[whereagles]

Now it's very simple, yes. Especially if pard discards his ace of hearts... lol. We take the spade ace and force declarer with a heart. Ruff the diam and cash the remaining hearts.

Then you realize pard's flamboyant discard of the ace actually cost a trick.. LOL.

[Chamaco]

How do you plan the defense if declarer never draws a 3rd round of trumps, but plays for the club finesse onside conceding 2 trump tricks (not bothering about ruffs) ?

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E.g.: after the 2nd round of trumps ducked, declarer crosses to hand with a diamond planning to lead the club Q.
If you do not ruff he will run the club Queen, and cash all his winners (ruff whenever you like), conceding only 2 trumps (Ace and a ruff).

If you do ruff the diamond trick, declarer will play the same way, ruffing the heart return and never touching trumps.
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What am I missing ?

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Uh oh, now I see the diamonds are blocjked and declarer cannot cross to hand with diamonds.
However, declarare can simply run the diamonds, forcing south to discard (maybe 3H and a club), since if S ruffs, declalrer wins any return in the right hand for the club finesse.

In any case, even if he cannot cross back to hand, declarer can afford to lose 2 trumps and a club, so it is not vital to cross to hand.
The club finesse is needed only for a potential overtrick.

To make the contract, he can simply playoff his minors in no particular order: after losing the club K, the defense will score the spade ace and a ruff.

[GijsH]

Indeed Chamaco, the ♦ are blocked.
I also thought declarer should not play a 3rd round, but play ♦ instead.
However: does S not score ♣ K, ♠ A, ♥ and a ruff?
Declarer cannot get rid of his small ♥ on the diamonds!

S is left with:
A6
98
-
Kx
After the diamonds, declarer has to play ♣ A and ♣ to K, S cashes the ♠ A, and exits with ♥, still scoring his small trump.

An other variation I thought of is:
Take 2nd round of ♠, play small ♥ to invite ♥ return.
But now declarer can throw a small ♦! on the 2nd ♥ round and ruff in dummy, ruff dummy's last ♦ and take the ♣ finesse.

Intriguing hand isn't it?

[Fluffy]

Nice problem, one of the first things to deduce in defence would be that declarer has 4♠ and 5♦, partner wouldn't cover ♦10 if he had more than 2.

[Chamaco]

GijsH, on Apr 28 2005, 12:43 PM, said:

Indeed Chamaco, the ♦ are blocked.
I also thought declarer should not play a 3rd round, but play ♦ instead.
However: does S not score ♣ K, ♠ A, ♥ and a ruff?
Declarer cannot get rid of his small ♥ on the diamonds!

S is left with:
A6
98
-
Kx
After the diamonds, declarer has to play ♣ A and ♣ to K, S cashes the ♠ A, and exits with ♥, still scoring his small trump.

An other variation I thought of is:
Take 2nd round of ♠, play small ♥ to invite ♥ return.
But now declarer can throw a small ♦! on the 2nd ♥ round and ruff in dummy, ruff dummy's last ♦ and take the ♣ finesse.

Intriguing hand isn't it?

Oh yes I forgot about the heart trick !! :-)

So, what about this line ?
(a sort of strip-throw-in)

South ducks 2nd round of trumps.
Now declarer plays from dummy 4 diamonds, and S has to discard (ruffing any round of diamonds would leave S with a hopeless return): he discards 3 hearts and a club.

Now declarer leads a heart.
Whoever wins the heart, declaler ruffs the return in dummy and takes the club finesse.

He loses a heart, the spade Ace and another trump.
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No this line does not work :-(
If declarer ruffs the heart return in hand, h shortens his trumps and later S will ruff, draw the last trump and lead a heart to N's suit.
If he ruffs in dummy, he keeps trump control, but cannot cross to hand for the club finesse....

This, double dummy, seems to suggest that the only way to make was to play immediately on clubs, using the only entry to hand.

[HeartA]

Jlall, on Apr 28 2005, 09:20 AM, said:

its more interesting if you lead a heart like you should, and pard gives ruff sluffs

That would set the good start for real defeat of 4♠. The actual lead of ♦ was bad and would give away of 4♠ had declarer played it right.

[GijsH]

Thanks for your replies.

The hand is very intriguing: I suspect it actualy makes on a H lead and H continuation!

1: H to ace
2: H ruffed in dummy
3: D ace
4: C queen
5: C jack, king, ace
6: C 10
7: D king (South cannot ruff)
8: D jack, ruffed by N
9: H back (best) ruffed in dummy
10: S queen

whatever South does, declarer always scores 3S, 2H ruffs, 2D and 3C
Note that S98 drop so declarer's 7 becomes a trick.
What a hand! Maybe I am missing something?

[TheoKole]

Can't declarer make with by playing 2 rounds of trumps (Run the Queen of spades and small to King of spades, 4 rounds of clubs finessing the King and discarding the small heart from his hand)

From the double, the declarer should place you with 4 spades to the Ace, especially when the 8 and 9 of spades falls from partners hand.

If you trump and play a heart, he trumps and plays diamonds forever making +1.

If you trump and play Ace of spades and a heart he trumps with his last spade and makes all his diamonds for a similar result.

The key play seems to have been on the third trick when he didn't cross over to his hand.

Is there a defense to my line of play by declarer?

Cheers