[jillybean]

Taken from the TD forum and given it's on thread.

paulg, on 2024-February-08, 09:46, said:

We won the SBU Winter Foursomes.

It is a double elimination event and we went undefeated through the entire tournament. Our opponents played 160 boards, since they had to play a semifinal whilst we had a bye.

If you like lots of bridge, it is scheduled for 32 boards on Friday evening (may be cut to 24 boards next year), 72 boards on Saturday and 56 boards on Sunday. If you get eliminated at any point, then dropping into the two plate events does not reduce the number of boards significantly.

It is played in a very pleasant location, a few miles from the airport with a hotel across the street. We would like to see more teams playing.

You have to play the following hand in 7♣:

West leads the ♥10

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Edited to complete auction

jillybean, on 2024-February-08, 10:26, said:

Congratulations! I will keep it in mind for the future, winter in Scotland sounds like fun.
I would have to start training now, I could not play that number of boards.

What are your opponents leads ? (I'm just delaying giving the wrong answer)
♥QT9x?

paulg, on 2024-February-08, 10:42, said:

Leads are pretty standard, so ♥10 is the normal lead from that holding.

jillybean, on 2024-February-08, 11:28, said:

I have to hope for a 3-2 club break

I'm going to win ❤️ in hand, ruff a diamond
Draw trump, no I think I may need to ruff a heart

pescetom, on 2024-February-08, 13:57, said:

It's a very neat auction, compliments.

I suspect we were lucky with the lead which will show us the way to tackle hearts.

[jillybean]

I'm busy packing for NZ but want to take another look at this. I can't see how we can pickup the hearts so I think we need to rough a heart
before drawing trump. We have the top clubs so can over ruff if East ruffs

[pescetom]

My thought about hearts was that the ♥T suggested that W started with QT9x(x), and as we cannot pick up the suit we should probably just leave it there, pull trumps and spades hoping W is squeezed holding ♥Q9x ♦Kx when we cash the last spade from ♠K ♥3 ♦AQT.

But it looked more convincing then than it does the day after

[jillybean]

I think it hinges on the heart play, I will take another look. 🥺
Or we have to throw west in...

[paulg]

jillybean, on 2024-February-09, 12:44, said:

I think it hinges on the heart play, I will take another look. ��
Or we have to throw west in...

Clearly the heart lead means something, trying to discern what is why I was pleased I was dummy.

Throw ins have never proved to be the most successful play in grand slams

[jillybean]

I give up
Diamonds are dead ...unless W has Kx?

The only way I'm making this is if W has led T from QT9.

[smerriman]

How about:

Spoiler

aiming to win the ♥AK and ruff two hearts high? That works if trumps are 3-2 (unless there's a singleton heart).

[pescetom]

smerriman, on 2024-February-09, 20:27, said:

How about:

Spoiler

aiming to win the ♥AK and ruff two hearts high? That works if trumps are 3-2 (unless there's a singleton heart).

Hmm. I thought of that, but it seemed too likely that West may have 5 hearts.

How about:

Spoiler

I suspect ruffing two diamonds has better chances, as it could pick up both the hand of my squeeze and some layouts with ♦K in East too.

Take the lead with ♥A, then ♦A pitching a heart, ruff a diamond and return with spades for another ruff.
Now cash the remaining spades and clubs finishing in hand.
If the ♦K has dropped then cash the ♦Q we promoted and finesse ♥Q9.
If not, then hope it is in West and on the last trump he is squeezed with ♦K ♥Q97.

But that's still not very likely.

Maybe my first thought of pulling trumps and playing W for the diamonds K was best after all.

[paulg]

As it happens you cannot make the hand double dummy, but it was the most interesting play problem from the event.

Without the heart lead, I like the idea of trying to ruff hearts before drawing trumps.

Should the heart lead make you play any differently? My brother did not think so and the second round of hearts was ruffed.

As often happens, we didn't need to bid the grand slam as they played safely in 5♣ at the other table. Fortunately we had some good results on the more boring hands.

[pescetom]

Thanks, maybe you could post the full hand?

It's awkward to bid in 2/1 and we might end up in 6NT either by choice or clumsiness.

[paulg]

pescetom, on 2024-February-12, 03:07, said:

Thanks, maybe you could post the full hand?

It's awkward to bid in 2/1 and we might end up in 6NT either by choice or clumsiness.

It was something like this:

---

[Cyberyeti]

GIB says it can't be made without a diamond lead on that layout

[pescetom]

Cyberyeti, on 2024-February-12, 05:55, said:

GIB says it can't be made without a diamond lead on that layout

Looks like it was dealt purposely to defeat all three plans

6NT is no sweat though, which will please lazy bidders.

[Cyberyeti]

pescetom, on 2024-February-12, 09:36, said:

Looks like it was dealt purposely to defeat all three plans

6NT is no sweat though, which will please lazy bidders.

switching another spade honour to south makes it doable on a dummy reversal, you're an entry short as is

[pescetom]

Cyberyeti, on 2024-February-12, 12:41, said:

switching another spade honour to south makes it doable on a dummy reversal, you're an entry short as is

For 6NT you mean?
Surely all I need to do is put up ♥J on trick 1?
Or take the finesse later, or throw him in like jillybean was dying to do, or whatever.

For either of my plans in 7♣ I have all the entries I need.

[Cyberyeti]

pescetom, on 2024-February-12, 13:25, said:

For 6NT you mean?
Surely all I need to do is put up ♥J on trick 1?
Or take the finesse later, or throw him in like jillybean was dying to do, or whatever.

For either of my plans in 7♣ I have all the entries I need.

no for 7♣, you're an entry short to ruff 3 diamonds and then draw trumps in the short hand, but fine if you move a spade honour across

[pescetom]

Cyberyeti, on 2024-February-12, 15:31, said:

no for 7♣, you're an entry short to ruff 3 diamonds and then draw trumps in the short hand, but fine if you move a spade honour across

With you now. I meant that the second plan of ruffing 2 diamonds only needed one less diamond in E, no problem of entries. If the K fails to drop under the A then we just hope it is in W.

I agree with Paul that on a black suit lead ruffing two hearts looks best, but on the actual lead I still like my first plan of playing for the squeeze with ♦K in west (almost 50%), it would also work in 7NT I think.