[Winstonm]

KJ75

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Imps. All vul. Opening lead club 3. What is the safest line?

[FelicityR]

May I ask does the ♣J get covered by the Q or not?

[Winstonm]

FelicityR, on 2018-April-02, 15:21, said:

May I ask does the ♣J get covered by the Q or not?

If you choose to play the J, it wins.

[gszes]

trick 1 win the club in dummy and play dia AK and ruff a dia with ace pitch last dia on heart ace club to hand laying down spade Q hoping to pull trumps w/o an uppercut ruining my day.

[Winstonm]

gszes, on 2018-April-02, 18:40, said:

trick 1 win the club in dummy and play dia AK and ruff a dia with ace pitch last dia on heart ace club to hand laying down spade Q hoping to pull trumps w/o an uppercut ruining my day.

That was almost my line but I chose to ruff a heart back to hand. I'm curious, though, what is best.

[foobar]

Winstonm, on 2018-April-02, 19:27, said:

That was almost my line but I chose to ruff a heart back to hand. I'm curious, though, what is best.

IMO, ♥ ruff to hand is superior to ♣ ruff because:

1) LHO might have led from Q...5th or even Q...6th of ♣. In the latter case, the ruff is imminent; in the former case, K♠ with LHO and ♣-ruff is a self inflicted wound

2) LHO might have led a stiff ♥ instead of #1

Also, after winning ruffing ♥, probably try J♠ or T♠ of spades to try and sneak past KS with RHO in case the ♣ ruff exists.

[Winstonm]

O.K., now here is the kicker. If you win the club in dummy, cash the heart ace for a diamond pitch then play the AK of diamonds, RHO follows with the 10Q. Now what?

[foobar]

Winstonm, on 2018-April-02, 22:09, said:

O.K., now here is the kicker. If you win the club in dummy, cash the heart ace for a diamond pitch then play the AK of diamonds, RHO follows with the 10Q. Now what?

Don't see the need to take a ♦ pitch before AK of ♦ (win T1 in hand to preserve entry to board). But I suspect that it probably wouldn't have made the play problem so interesting ?

[Winstonm]

foobar, on 2018-April-02, 23:38, said:

Don't see the need to take a ♦ pitch before AK of ♦ (win T1 in hand to preserve entry to board). But I suspect that it probably wouldn't have made the play problem so interesting ?

That's true - and my problem. I never considered the J9 of diamonds anything but losers. Suffice it to say, LHO held: K9x, x, xxxxx, Q10xx. By returning to hand with a heart, I either was going to be overruffed or self-uppercutted.

[nige1]

Winstonm, on 2018-April-02, 14:03, said:

Imps. All vul. Opening lead club 3. What is the safest line?

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Winstonm, on 2018-April-02, 16:00, said:

If you choose to play the J, it wins.

Winstonm, on 2018-April-02, 22:09, said:

O.K., now here is the kicker. If you win the club in dummy, cash the heart ace for a diamond pitch then play the AK of diamonds, RHO follows with the 10Q. Now what?

foobar, on 2018-April-02, 23:38, said:

Don't see the need to take a ♦ pitch before AK of ♦ (win T1 in hand to preserve entry to board). But I suspect that it probably wouldn't have made the play problem so interesting ?

Interesting problem, WinstonM. I don't know what's the best line but, if you intend to win the opening lead in hand, then it costs nothing to
Try dummy's ♣J, at trick 1. When that finesse wins, a reasonable continuation is
Cash ♣A.
Cross to dummy's ♠A.
Discard a ♦ on ♥A.
Discard another ♦ on ♣K,
Return to hand with ♦A, and
Advance ♠Q.

Most lines involve playing 2 rounds of ♣s early but this line runs the risk that that an opponent can ruff the 3rd round of ♣s. with a small ♠.

Another winning line is ♣K, Discard a ♦ on ♥A, ♦AK, ruff a ♦. As the cards lie, you can return to hand with ♣A, to lead ♠Q.

Admittedly, it's easier to find successful lines after peeking at the full deal

[Winstonm]

nige1, on 2018-April-03, 14:54, said:

Interesting problem, WinstonM. I don't know what's the best line but, if you intend to win the opening lead in hand, then it costs nothing to
Try dummy's ♣J, at trick 1. When that finesse wins, a reasonable continuation is
Cash ♣A.
Cross to dummy's ♠A.
Discard a ♦ on ♥A.
Discard another ♦ on ♣K,
Return to hand with ♦A, and
Advance ♠Q.

Most lines involve playing 2 rounds of ♣s early but this line runs the risk that that an opponent can ruff the 3rd round of ♣s. with a small ♠.

Another winning line is ♣K, Discard a ♦ on ♥A, ♦AK, ruff a ♦. As the cards lie, you can return to hand with ♣A, to lead ♠Q.

Admittedly, it's easier to find successful lines after peeking at the full deal

Think of this as a trick 1 problem - what line are you going with. I decided to ruff 1 diamond and pitch 1 diamond and rely on the spades being either stiff 9 or 32. I was concerned about LHO holding 3 clubs only and the 9xx in spades so that if I played 3 rounds of clubs and lost a spade to Easts king, the 4th club would then doom me. So I won the king in dummy, pitched a diamond on the heart ace, and played 2 rounds of diamonds, on which the Q10 came down. Now I had another quandry - start on spades and risk a diamond ruff if LHO holds Kx and RHO holds 9xx or continue to ruff the master diamond to strip east of the ruff risk. I decided to ruff the J of diamonds, then I had to either come back to hand with a third club ruffed or a heart ruffed. I chose hearts - unsuccessfully.

[nige1]

Winstonm, on 2018-April-03, 16:48, said:

Think of this as a trick 1 problem - what line are you going with. I decided to ruff 1 diamond and pitch 1 diamond and rely on the spades being either stiff 9 or 32. I was concerned about LHO holding 3 clubs only and the 9xx in spades so that if I played 3 rounds of clubs and lost a spade to Easts king, the 4th club would then doom me. So I won the king in dummy, pitched a diamond on the heart ace, and played 2 rounds of diamonds, on which the Q10 came down. Now I had another quandry - start on spades and risk a diamond ruff if LHO holds Kx and RHO holds 9xx or continue to ruff the master diamond to strip east of the ruff risk. I decided to ruff the J of diamonds, then I had to either come back to hand with a third club ruffed or a heart ruffed. I chose hearts - unsuccessfully.

nige1, on 2018-April-03, 14:54, said:

Another winning line is ♣K, Discard a ♦ on ♥A, ♦AK, ruff a ♦. As the cards lie, you can return to hand with ♣A, to lead ♠Q.

This is the line suggested by Gszes

[Winstonm]

Doesn't it seem more likely, though, that a heart ruff is safer as West did not lead a heart and the clubs could be 1-5? The question that is eating me is did I play badly or was I unlucky? I can live with either as long as I know.

[nige1]

Winstonm, on 2018-April-04, 14:39, said:

Doesn't it seem more likely, though, that a heart ruff is safer as West did not lead a heart and the clubs could be 1-5? The question that is eating me is did I play badly or was I unlucky? I can live with either as long as I know.

♣s or ♥ (or both) might be 6-1.
If you believe defenders' carding, LHO has length in both minors, making a shortage in ♥ likely.
If LHO has ♠Kx doubleton, and 6 ♣s, then RHO can ruff a ♣, anyway, whether or not you cross to ♣A.
If you successfully re-enter hand with a ♥ ruff, you aren't out of the woods. If RHO has ♠Kx doubleton, and 5 ♥s, he can lead a 3rd ♥ to promote LHO's ♠9.
20-20 hind-sight, of course