[Double !]

Scoring: IMP

Playing imp pairs with superb partner. Opps pass throughout.
Bidding goes 1NT-p-2C-p-2D-p-3NT.
lho leads H-10, small from dummy, RHO plays H-Ace, you play small. Rho plays H-J at trick 2, you win King, lho plays H-7. What is the best line from this point?

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[Double !]

Thank you all in advance!

DHL

[luis]

I think is simple maybe I'm not seeing something.
club to the king a diamond back towards KQ
if this holds spade to dummy and yet another diamond.

[awm]

I like ♦K from hand at trick three. The problem is, if I go to dummy and lead a diamond to the king, then go to dummy again and lead diamond to queen, I should go down any time ♦A is off. Basically the diamond ace wins the second round (hold up play) and then another spade comes through and I'm cut off from dummy. Even if the spade queen is right, they can play another heart to cut me off from hand, forcing me to cash the club ace before playing the last diamond (otherwise I won't likely GET the club ace).

After ♦K loses, I can maintain communication in various ways. Should be able to make any time diamonds divide 3-2, or if hearts are 3-3.

[Double !]

luis, on Aug 8 2005, 04:26 PM, said:

I think is simple maybe I'm not seeing something.
club to the king a diamond back towards KQ
if this holds spade to dummy and yet another diamond.

RHO plays the Jack of diamonds, you play King, LHO wins ace of Diamonds and shifts to the 7 of spades. Your play from dummy.

[Double !]

awm, on Aug 8 2005, 04:35 PM, said:

I like ♦K from hand at trick three. The problem is, if I go to dummy and lead a diamond to the king, then go to dummy again and lead diamond to queen, I should go down any time ♦A is off. Basically the diamond ace wins the second round (hold up play) and then another spade comes through and I'm cut off from dummy. Even if the spade queen is right, they can play another heart to cut me off from hand, forcing me to cash the club ace before playing the last diamond (otherwise I won't likely GET the club ace).

After ♦K loses, I can maintain communication in various ways. Should be able to make any time diamonds divide 3-2, or if hearts are 3-3.

In retrospect, this might have been a better play than club to king. I don't know. Assume lho ducks the diamond king and rho plays the jack. Next?

[fred]

You can compromise by leading crossing to the dummy in clubs to lead the first round of diamonds toward the KQx. You can always continue diamonds from your hand, but it costs nothing (at least as far as I can see) to make your first diamond play from the dummy.

This play gains when RHO has a singleton Ace of diamonds. Not very likely of course, but every little bit helps

Furthermore, you table presence might tell you that there is no way that LHO ducked the Ace of diamonds. In that case you can revert to Luis's line.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Double !]

fred, on Aug 8 2005, 05:23 PM, said:

You can compromise by leading crossing to the dummy in clubs to lead the first round of diamonds toward the KQx. You can always continue diamonds from your hand, but it costs nothing (at least as far as I can see) to make your first diamond play from the dummy.

This play gains when RHO has a singleton Ace of diamonds. Not very likely of course, but every little bit helps

Furthermore, you table presence might tell you that there is no way that LHO ducked the Ace of diamonds. In that case you can revert to Luis's line.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

That is what I did. LHO won ace ( I didn't like the look of the diamond jack that rho played), and lho shifted to spade 7. At this point I didn't know if I should let this ride or not. Another reason I played to club king was to reduce options should lho win diamond ace (I suspect it would have been better for defense if he hadn't won the trick, but here I was at trick 5 with the spade lead and 1D, 2H, 2 or 3S, and, likely, 3 club tricks.) To let the spade ride or not? How much does the diamond Jack change the situation. Is it the only one rho had? As for table feel, I never know what to expect from opps. (That means that my table feel is very poor.) But, thanks for your feed-back and personal congrats on Spingold win.

[mikeh]

Play a ♣ to the K. Lead a ♦ to the K.

Assume the opps duck, which is probably best defence on most holdings.

If you think ♦ are 3-2, then continue a small ♦. This caters to Ax in either hand (and, yes, West might duck with Ax... if you use a dummy entry to lead a second ♦, he can win and return a ♠, destroying dummy if east holds the Q).

If ♦ are 3-2, you make easily...at least 3♦'s and 2 tricks in each side suit.

The interesting wrinkle is if east plays a 9, 10, or J of ♦ on the first trick.

If the early ♥ play is to be believed, that suit is 3=3. Therefore west has led a short(ish) suit and is probably balanced with a 4 card minor from which he did not want to lead.

If he holds Qxx 1097 AJ9x xxx or equivalent, you have to be very careful.

If you exit a low ♦at trick 5, he wins, cashes his ♦ winners and exits a ♥. Now you are down: you have only 8 winners.

You can counter this by cashing the 3rd ♥ before exiting in ♦'s.

He can cash his winners, but is then endplayed into giving you an extra black trick... and the location of the ♣Q is irrelevant.

This is probably the correct line even if you believe ♦to be 3-2, altho you will look silly if west held, for example, xxx 1097x AJx Qxx: he cashes 2♦ and a ♥ and exits a ♠.

Cashing the 3rd ♥ maximizes the chances of making the contract if ♥ are 3=3, as I think they are. It does not cost the contract when ♦ are 3-2, since you win 3 ♦, 3♥ and 3 black tops, and it gains the contract (sometimes) when ♦ are 4-1

[mikeh]

Fred's post appeared while I was writing mine, and so did the response with the ♠ 7 coming back after LHO won the ♦A.

I would win the ♠ A, and cross to my hand in ♦. If ♦ are 3-2, I clear the suit and have 3♦, 2♥, 2♠ and 2♣.

If rho shows out (it is tough to believe that LHO shows out), then cash the ♥ and stick lho in with ♦, reverting to the endplay chance I outlined above.

[Double !]

Maybe I better give the east-west hands. Everything you all said went through my mind more or less.


West

♠ QT7
♥ T7
♦ AT93
♣ 8742


East
♠ 9653
♥ AJ96
♦ J
♣ Q965


As can be seen, the winning play was to let the spade ride to the Jack. Interestingly, it turned out better for west to win the diamond trick and exit with the spade before I had a chance to discover the bad news. I popped ace, led a second diamond from the board, started feeling really badly when rho showed
out, and I won the queen. At this point I got lucky. I led the club Ten. Rho won but did not continue spades. Instead, rho continued with a 3rd heart. This along with two more clubs (pitching diamonds from board) squeezed west who eventually pitched a diamond. Got lucky. the throw-in/ endplay putting lho in with low diamond at this point was successful. I still don't think I played it correctly, I don't know if the winning spade play was clear or strongly suggested at trick 5, and I guess I just got lucky. So much in a seemingly benign hand.

[Double !]

mikeh, on Aug 8 2005, 05:46 PM, said:

Fred's post appeared while I was writing mine, and so did the response with the ♠ 7 coming back after LHO won the ♦A.

I would win the ♠ A, and cross to my hand in ♦. If ♦ are 3-2, I clear the suit and have 3♦, 2♥, 2♠ and 2♣.

If rho shows out (it is tough to believe that LHO shows out), then cash the ♥ and stick lho in with ♦, reverting to the endplay chance I outlined above.

Yeah,

I think this works, (tired) I just couldn't find it at the table. Thanx.

DHL

[Gpm_bg]

Scoring: IMP

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Examine that game and find the way how 7♦ could be reached and complited.

In my case the lead was ♣5

Is there a chance 7NT to be done also with squeeze

[Fluffy]

At first gancec you can only make 7♦ since you need 12 top tricks to squeeze east: 1♠, 3♥, 5♦, 2♣ and a ♣ ruff.

[TheoKole]

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To make 7 ♦, you'll need to execute a Squeeze against East in the majors, since at the table, you won't know for sure, but will suspect East of holding KQ ♠
because of the lack of Spade lead, you should play for a simple squeeze, played as a double with hearts as the pivot suit.

The timing of this is very tricky,

win the club lead, and immediately run the Q ♥, playing the A♥ if East covers with the K ♥ (he should). Back to dummy with a ♣ or ♦, I would play a ♣ at the table West could make a mistake and play the Q♣, and ruff a club with the J♦.

Cash the A ♠, and run ALL the ♦'s. If by the 5th ♦, the Q and K ♠ have not been appeared, throw the last spade from hand, and finesse the 9♥ to make your Grand. East by this time will have been sueezed out of a heart or the K and Q ♠.

If he has thrown the K and Q ♠, you keep your J♠ and throw a small heart from your hand. (You have already thrown your 10 ♠) Then finesse the 9 ♥, and your hand will be high.

If you can find this stressfull and successfull line at the table, (if you want to make your contract you have to risk it ) I would say Very Well Done

How did you get to 7♦ though with only 29 points and without a solid suit to run ?

Cheers