[lamford]

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Intercities Online Team Ch. 16-board matches.
Your Pass over 4C was forcing, of course. Double would have been 0-4, so partner felt the need to move … West leads the king of clubs, and you draw trumps in two rounds, ending in South, West having Jx. What next?

[Trinidad]

Fun board.

Spoiler

Continue clubs, discard diamond on the last club if East wins and continues clubs. Should West win and return a heart, start praying...

Rik

[mikeh]

On hands like these, it is often best to give preemptorban unnecessary winner, taking a pitch while emplaying him and/or setting up a squeeze.

Here, tho, if we exit a club and pitch a diamond on the third club, Rho has an easy diamond exit, and you still have to hope Lho has the heart king, which is probable but not certain.

I’d exit the club anyway. It’s almost sure that Rho wins, and exits a club, which I ruff. Now I play diamond King and low to the Jack. If RHO wins, he may well be 1=3=2=7 and he is now endplayed. If he has a third diamond, then I have to hook the heart.

[lamford]

[quote name='Trinidad' timestamp='1584126560' post='991447']

Spoiler

Continue clubs, discard diamond on the last club if East wins and continues clubs. Should West win and return a heart, start praying...

I thought of that Rik, but does not East just exit with a diamond. You get three diamonds, but still have a heart loser if the king is wrong?

[lamford]

mikeh, on 2020-March-13, 14:54, said:

On hands like these, it is often best to give preemptorban unnecessary winner, taking a pitch while emplaying him and/or setting up a squeeze.

Here, tho, if we exit a club and pitch a diamond on the third club, Rho has an easy diamond exit, and you still have to hope Lho has the heart king, which is probable but not certain.

I’d exit the club anyway. It’s almost sure that Rho wins, and exits a club, which I ruff. Now I play diamond King and low to the Jack. If RHO wins, he may well be 1=3=2=7 and he is now endplayed. If he has a third diamond, then I have to hook the heart.

I think your line is better than mine which was to hook the heart and then play the red-suit squeeze. That failed when the diamond was right all along, and the jack of hearts with East! You would fail when East was x Kx Qxx QJTxxx, but so would I.

[shyams]

lamford, on 2020-March-13, 17:47, said:

I think your line is better than mine which was to hook the heart and then play the red-suit squeeze. That failed when the diamond was right all along, and the jack of hearts with East! You would fail when East was x Kx Qxx QJTxxx, but so would I.

How about finessing in ♥ and, when it loses, play for a show-up squeeze on West? You need West to hold ♥J and it works even when East had x Kxx Qx QJT9542 (we play for the drop if ♥J never showed up).

Edit: Perhaps your post meant exactly what I wrote, and I misunderstood it the first time. My apologies.

This post has been edited by shyams: 2020-March-14, 01:15

[Trinidad]

lamford, on 2020-March-13, 17:43, said:

I thought of that Rik, but does not East just exit with a diamond. You get three diamonds, but still have a heart loser if the king is wrong?

You are right. Somehow I got the heart lengths mixed in my brain.

Rik

[lamford]

shyams, on 2020-March-14, 01:01, said:

How about finessing in ♥ and, when it loses, play for a show-up squeeze on West? You need West to hold ♥J and it works even when East had x Kxx Qx QJT9542 (we play for the drop if ♥J never showed up).

Edit: Perhaps your post meant exactly what I wrote, and I misunderstood it the first time. My apologies.

That was the line I played, but I think that was too clever by half, and if I take the heart finesse, I should just take the diamond finesse. If East is 1-3-2-7 then the squeeze needs the same player to have the jack of hearts and the queen of diamonds, pretty much the same chance as the diamond finesse. If he is 1-4-1-7 then the diamond finesse will be right whoever has the jack of hearts. I overthought this one, and should just finesse the diamond after the heart lost. But ...

MikeH's line is better still, and makes with either red finesse right, and when East is 1-3-2-7.

[tonycherr]

Play a Club, West will win play another Club on which South discards a Diamond. East is endplayed.

[Cyberyeti]

tonycherr, on 2020-March-19, 08:06, said:

Play a Club, West will win play another Club on which South discards a Diamond. East is endplayed.

No he isn't, as people have said above, he returns a diamond, you pitch your third heart, but this doesn't help, you still have to take the heart finesse.

[tonycherr]

Draw trumps ending in dummy. Play DK, DA, Club from Dummy. If East wins (East will have difficulty playing low when holding CQ,) plays another Club on which South discards a Diamond now you have to hope East has no more Diamonds. If East has 8 clubs Only fails if East has a singleton Heart King(90%) or Doubleton HK if holding 7 Clubs over 65%. Unlucky if West wins the second Club but still have other lines mentioned. If East plays a third Diamond you can take the Heart finesse.