[Walddk]

Scoring: IMP

South: 6NT
Lead: D2

---

You pick up your usual worthless hand as East. You have lost interest already when you "listen" to the NS bidding:

2♣ - 2♦
2N* - 6N
p

* 22-24 balanced.

Your partner leads ♦2 (4th best from any holding), 8 from dummy, your 10 and declarer's king. Next South cashes ♣AK, partner following with the 2 and 7 (reverse count), and you let go a diamond.

Declarer's next move is ♥5 from hand, 9 from West, 10 and your queen. So you had a trick after all.

No claim yet, so maybe there is a chance. Take over please. It's not easy, but nobody promised you that it would be. Hidden text would be nice if you care to make your contribution.

Roland

[inquiry]

Spoiler

It looks next to hopeless... declearer surely is 4-3-2-4, and has the AKQx of clubs. We also hope he has the diamond queen (as we can't stand for partner to have those two points among his 2 to 4 expected ones). Partner must have heart king (and no club queen) for the play in hearts to make sense. To climb to 22 count, declearer will there need SKJ, HA, DKQ, CAKQ, but with those honors, he has 11 tricks (4S, 1H, 3D, 3C) but partner is exposed to a heart club simple squeeze. But declarer can be stopped by returning a diamond now to break up the squeeze, by removing the entry to the heart ten threat.. then you hold on tightly to two hearts.... not that it matters. (any return but a diamond allows your partner to be squeezed)

South is KJxx Axx KQ AKQx

[Winstonm]

Spoiler

It appears that declarer is preparing for a squeeze by rectifying the count, but the only hand I can picture that makes this work is this:

KJxx
Axx
KQ
AKQx

If left unattended, declarer will unblock the Ace of hearts (Vienna coup), then run 4 rounds of spades and finally overtake the Q of diamonds with the Ace to play the squeeze card, the Jack of dimaonds. Partner, reduced to K of hearts and Jx of clubs will be pulverized on this card.

Can I make partner smile? I believe so by interfering with declarer's timing. I must return a diamond now (don't you always return partner's suit at NT?), and this play will take away his entry to the squeeze card before he is ready to use it.
Without the ability to cash the 4th spade before the squeeze card, partner is left with an "idle" card that can be discarded.

That's my best guess.

WinstonM

[mike777]

[

Spoiler

HIDDEN][HIDDEN] I can only assume some squeeze so maybe we need to remove some entry here, lets try a D back.

[luke warm]

Walddk, on Jun 5 2005, 12:30 PM, said:

Dealer: South Vul: N/S Scoring: IMP

♠ AQ5 ♥ J103 ♦ AJ8 ♣ 8643   ♠ 9863 ♥ Q842 ♦ 10643 ♣ 10

South: 6NT Lead: D2

Spoiler

the heart play gives it away.. return a diamond and hold on to your spades, just in case

[Walddk]

Scoring: IMP

South: 6NT
Lead: D2

---

Well done everyone! A heart/club squeeze against West is looming, and if you exit passively with a heart, your partner won't be thrilled 1 minute later. Declarer wins his ace and cashes four spade tricks. A club disappears from dummy.

Next comes ♦Q overtaken by dummy's ace. The layout is now:

Scoring: IMP

South: 6NT
Lead: D2

---

♦J (declarer pitches ♥6) squeezes West. 12 tricks.

Many spotted the killing defence. East must return a diamond. By doing so South is forced to use his diamond entry to dummy prematurely. When West followed with ♥9, the whole deal was actually an open book, provided that declarer's heart play made any sense.

West has shown 4 clubs and 4 diamonds, ♥9 is likely from K9x (K9 possible if he is a good defender).

Being able to execute squeezes is nice; breaking them up if you can is even nicer. East could have done that here; he didn't at the table. Instead he kept complaining about the bad cards he was dealt.

Roland

[Fluffy]

I need to keep watching this section closer, I losed a good one :-(