[Trumpace]

I was kibitzing this hand:

In a friendly rubber, you are South, dealer and hold: QJxx, Qx, AQxx, Axx.

Playing SAYC, you open 1D (not 1NT, live with it ). The full bidding:

1D - (1S) - 2C - (P) - 3C - (P) - 5D! - All pass.

West leads the club 9 and you see:

Scoring: Rubber

Lead ♣9.

---

What is your plan for this 5D contract?

[1eyedjack]

Nice hand.
Don't mind the 1D opener (I would be playing weak 1N anyway so would do the same). I object more to the 3C raise rather than rebid in NT. But perhaps in their system 3C shows extras and 2N rebid a min + guard.
As to the play:
It would seem pretty trivial if trumps are 2-2 (knock out H:A, discard C on H, ruff 2 Clubs after drawing trumps). But I reckon West is likely to have started with something like 3-5-3-2 shape.
I win first Club with Ace and immediately play on Hearts until they take the Ace. I get rid of Club loser on established Heart. and then lead singleton Spade. I hope to ruff a Spade in hand and draw 2 rounds of trumps (leaving West's trump outstanding, ending up with two trumps in each hand (Qx opposite Jx), two clubs in North and two Spades in South, lead with North.
At this stage I place East with S:Hx and C:Hx (assuming he has not already unguarded).
So I lead D:J and decide whether or not to overtake based on what East discards. If he discards Club I retain the lead with north and ruff the club good. If he discards Spade I overtake in South and ruff the Spade good.
How did I do?

EDIT:
Forget all that - had the wrong opponent with the long Spades - Duh! rethinking

This post has been edited by 1eyedjack: 2005-July-27, 17:33

[1eyedjack]

OK, I re-thought, this time assuming that West has 5-3-3-2 shape. I reckon that West is more likely to have the tripleton D, for what appears to be a short Club lead and no 2-suited or jump overcall, or other action over 3C.

I start the same way - knock out H:A and take a quick C pitch on H.
Then it depends on whether the Spade honours are split. If they are I need to lead the singleton Spade. If East plays low I can ruff out his honour. If he plays high I can take a ruffing finesse against West.

I think it likely that the Spade honours are split because if West held both S:AK he may have led one of them in preference to C:9. It may make a difference to know who has the H:A (which you will know before you have to make the Spade guess). If East turns up with H:A as well as the presumed C:QJxx then West does not have much for his 1S overcall unless he has S:AK.

If (unlikely) I read West for both the S:AK then I must not lead the singleton S at this stage, but must draw all opponents' trumps (and thus strip West's exit card) before leading S:Q to West, who by then hopefully has nothing but Spades to lead back to me, promoting the S:J

[luis]

If spades are 5-3 I guess a dummy reversal might work we take
2 hearts
2 clubs
4 diamonds (in the short hand)
and 3 spade ruffs two low and one high.

[1eyedjack]

I am beginning to wonder whether Spades are 6-2 with honours divided. I might have expected a jump overcall, but perhaps not with such a ropey suit, perhaps not at rubber scoring, and perhaps out of range for the bid.

On the other hand, with S:Hxx support I wonder why East did not support to 2S.

If Spades are 6-2 I begin to worry that C:9 may be singleton. Provided that H:A is in same hand as long S and singleton C (likely on the bidding) I can still make but in this case I need to win first Club with K, not A, draw trumps and lead singleton S (before or after knocking out H:A, in this case it doesn't matter what order as West cannot continue C, but I suppose it is sensible to do the Hearts first.

Basically I reckon that there is almost certainly a line to make, but the line seems to depend on reading of the opponents' cards, unless Luis's dummy reversal works against them all. The problem that I was having with the dummy reversal is that entries to South are limited for the purpose of ruffing Spades. A Club ruff by South may be required to do that, but unless you ruff the Club high you risk an overruff, unless you draw trumps first and then you don't have enough trumps in North to complete the dummy reversal. And you cannot afford to ruff Club high if you are planning to use South's high trumps to draw trump.

[Fluffy]

I don't think dummy reversal is gonna work against accurate dedfence, the only hope I see is ♦2-2, or 1-3 (menaing LHO has 10 black cards), so we can ruff 2 ♣ in hand.

[Trumpace]

I am confused with the usage of the term "dummy reversal".

I thought dummy reversal would be trying to ruff 2 clubs in hand? (South is the declarer) Trying to ruff spades would be the "normal unreversed" play...

[coyot]

Trumpace, on Jul 28 2005, 10:02 AM, said:

I am confused with the usage of the term "dummy reversal".

I thought dummy reversal would be trying to ruff 2 clubs in hand? (South is the declarer) Trying to ruff spades would be the "normal unreversed" play...

Dummy reversal means ruffing on the side with LONGER trumps, while using the shorter trumps to draw opp trumps. Since you USUALLY have longer trumps in hand, it is called dummy reversal.

Here, the longer hand is not trying to ruff it's losers and then draw trump and play it's high cards, which would be the usual approach - you intentionally make this hand shorter. It was your bidding that made the longer hand "dummy", with 1NT opener you would most likely end up being dummy with the 4 diamonds and the play would have the look of the proper dummy reversal.

[Trumpace]

1eyedjack, you are right. Spades were 6-2 (and seems likely from the bidding).

We need hearts to be at least 5-3. LHO needs to have at least 2 clubs.
So LHO cannot have more than 2 diamonds!

So I think we should play LHO for 6-3-1-3, 6-3-2-2 or 6-4-1-2. (Anyway, assume you are given that spades are 6-2).

[Trumpace]

coyot, on Jul 28 2005, 10:26 AM, said:

Dummy reversal means ruffing on the side with LONGER trumps, while using the shorter trumps to draw opp trumps. Since you USUALLY have longer trumps in hand, it is called dummy reversal.

<snip>

Thanks! I guess that is the right way to look at it. Some ppl use dummy reversal to exclusively mean ruffing in hand... no matter what your trump length.. which seems silly to me now

[luis]

Trumpace, on Jul 28 2005, 04:57 PM, said:

coyot, on Jul 28 2005, 10:26 AM, said:

Dummy reversal means ruffing on the side with LONGER trumps, while using the shorter trumps to draw opp trumps. Since you USUALLY have longer trumps in hand, it is called dummy reversal.

<snip>

Thanks! I guess that is the right way to look at it. Some ppl use dummy reversal to exclusively mean ruffing in hand... no matter what your trump length.. which seems silly to me now

The other dummy reversal I know is when pd passes a cuebid then you say "you come here and play this hand you ###%%$#^^~~"
Is that a dummy reversal too?
I did that in the special program we have here to test Juniors called "Survive a tourney with Luis".

[Trumpace]

luis, on Jul 28 2005, 12:04 PM, said:

The other dummy reversal I know is when pd passes a cuebid then you say "you come here and play this hand you ###%%$#^^~~"
Is that a dummy reversal too?
I did that in the special program we have here to test Juniors called "Survive a tourney with Luis".

No.. that guy is still the dummy. LOL.

I guess when someone tried to get in the "Survive Tourney with Luis" tourney, they would have been told, "How can you be such an idiot?"

[mila85]

Club lead looks like a singleton (maybe doubleton). So east has probably ♣QJ and west all the other honours.

Take in hand and start with two round of trumphs.
-If they split - no problem.
-If east has 3 of them, play heards. Discard club on 3rd of them and ruff club. Play ♠Q. Ruff spade return, ruff the last club. Cross by ruffing spade high and claim.
-If west has 3 diamonds: Play third trumph and heards. West takes and returns something (probably heard). Discards club on heard, play club king and spade to Q. If west has no more than 3 heards, she must return spade and you make ♠J.

If trumphs are 4-0, it needs a new plan...

[Trumpace]

These are the four hands:

---

Interesting change: What if south held Qxxx of spades instead of QJxx?

[1eyedjack]

I think it still makes on a non-low-Spade lead.
On the C:9 lead with with the Ace, knock out H:A and pitch C on H and ruff Clubs in hand (ruff first one high then draw West's trump before the next C ruff).

[Trumpace]

1eyedjack, on Aug 2 2005, 12:05 PM, said:

I think it still makes on a non-low-Spade lead.
On the C:9 lead with with the Ace, knock out H:A and pitch C on H and ruff Clubs in hand (ruff first one high then draw West's trump before the next C ruff).

I presume you are talking about the Qxxx,Qx, AQxx, Axx hand.

Your line is to ruff 2 clubs in hand.

I think correct defense can set the contract.

You play a heart on the second trick. West wins and leads a low spade. East wins and leads another spade. You have to ruff. I don't think 5D can be made now.

the spade ruff was your entry to dummy to draw trumps after ruffing 2 clubs in hand, which has been removed prematurely...