quiddity

I guess we have to come down to a 2 card ending with the lead in hand (holding a spade and a club) where we can lead the club and score the jack of spades. The alternative method of scoring 3 ruffs in hand is impossible; we don't have enough entries to dummy. If West is 4432 or 4342 we can cash the AK of diamonds discarding a club, ruff a diamond, and cash the AKQ of hearts discarding a club. Now at trick 10 we have to guess which red suit to lead and ruff in hand, hoping West cannot overruff. Then cash the ace of clubs for a discard and lead the last club. If West is 4441 he can either ruff the club ace high and continue with another trump (sticking us in dummy) or he can ruff low forcing us to overruff in dummy. Either way we will need a winner in dummy. Because of the possibility of this layout, it is better to lead a diamond at trick 10 - this will establish a diamond winner in dummy if west started with 4 diamonds. The strict endgame conditions make this a relatively easy problem to solve if given enough time. 2.5.

I don't understand - without playing on spades or clubs how can we know whether west has kept 2 clubs or 3? Isn't it still a guess?

Assuming West isn't just messing around, he probably has the club KQ and a spade stopper for his double. The question is whether the stopper is QJx, requiring an early spade duck, or QJxx in which case we need to duck a club to rectify the count. Ducking a spade will not work because a club return will knock out the squeeze entry. I guess I'll duck a club; it works for more cases (including QJT), and I don't think a double is likely with just QJx. It's probably best to run a few diamonds first (we can run 4, discarding a spade, without losing either chance), but I doubt it will reveal anything meaningful.

I don't think the club finesse can gain - even when West holds QJx he can split his honors on the first round and declarer will have to lose a trick anyway or else use the last dummy entry on a speculative second club finesse. So it seems best to start playing clubs from the top hoping for 3-3 or a doubleton honor. If we drop the miracle QJ doubleton, we can't afford to block the diamonds by starting with the K. Play a diamond to the ace and then run the eight (allow west to win if he covers in case he started with QT9x). Otherwise, after losing the club trick, win the likely heart return, cash the ace of diamonds, and finesse the jack hoping for Qx or Qxx onside. If East drops the Q on the first round we can pick up West's T9xx with two finesses.

The best line I can find is: ace/king of spades, ace/king of diamonds, diamond ruff high. If diamonds are 3-3, draw the last two trump (overtake the T with the J) and claim: 5 spades, 2 hearts, 4 diamonds, 1 club. If someone shows out: ace of hearts, heart ruff, diamond ruff high, draw the last trump, ace of clubs, diamond. 5 spades, 2 hearts, heart ruff, 3 diamonds, 1 club. Very basic but I had to look at it for a while. The diamond position suggests a duck or a loser-on-loser but on this hand it results in the club entry getting knocked out early. I guess my pattern-matching software needs an upgrade.

Oh right - I see it now. I'll rate this one 3.5. It would be easier to find the right line if I didn't hold the diamond queen.

This looks like a straightforward "ruff out the king" hand with a positional squeeze against West as a second chance. Duck a heart at trick 2 and win the trump return in dummy. Spade ruff, heart ace, spade ruff, heart ruff, spade ace discarding the heart, spade ruff, and run the trumps. If the spade king drops or if West started with both spade and diamond kings you make it. I have a feeling that I should be using the heart threat somehow..

By all means, please post more of them. About the rating for this hand - I think safety play is one of the benchmarks of "intermediate" rank and this one is pretty easy to spot, so 2.0 looks right.

edit: nm, i missed something - the club blockage. I guess in auction 2 the best chance is to cash 4 hearts, the top clubs, the spade ace and the last two clubs (discarding diamonds). Then duck a spade and hope the king drops doubleton. In auction 1, end with a spade to the queen.

ok, after the fix I can cash a top spade, lead a heart to the king and then a spade to the king in case west started with 7 spades. This loses only if East had a singleton heart - almost impossible given the bidding and the lead. If that's the solution you're looking for, I'll rate the problem 2.0 / 2.5.

When I first looked at the hand it seemed pretty straightforward: win the HT, cash a top club and a top spade, then a club to dummy, a spade to the king, and a third spade ruffed in dummy. After the given play to the first three tricks I don't see anything better than cashing the top spades and hoping East doesn't have a stiff.

Why didn't partner bid 2♠ over 2♥? That's much harder for them to double. That's certainly true. On the other hand, partner had a terrible hand with a lousy suit, QJT of hearts, and in general a pretty low odr. But maybe I should have posted partner's problem. So? It is MP w/w and he has 5 spades. Passing is good if both 2H and 2S are down. That is such an extremely unlikely scenario (14 total tricks in the majors?). If 2H is making 2S will be fine, and if 2S is making 2S will be fine. People are not doubling 2S nearly as often as you think. But isn't there a decent chance that a like-minded partner will bid 3S over 3H because it's MP, w/w?

oops, I didn't notice the auction. However, a bad club break is only relevant if West can overruff - since he is not the preemptor, I think that makes the line safer. The only relevant risk is the 3-0 trump break. Edit: never mind - thinking about it more, I guess the chance of going down when the HK was onside outweighs the potential gain of RHO holding HK plus 3 clubs.

One alternative is to win the DA and duck a club at trick 2. If West wins and leads a heart you can take the hook and haven't lost anything. On any other return you have 3 entries (2 diamond ruffs and a third trump) to try to set up a long club, and the heart ace serves as the entry to cash it after drawing trump. This fails if trumps are 3-0 or if west has Tx of trumps and 3 or fewer clubs. Otherwise, even if the clubs don't break, the heart finesse is kept in reserve. But the fact that west can usually break up the line if it were working might be a reason to reject it.

Lawrence's rule was "good trump support, a good suit of your own, no ace/king/singleton/void in the other two suits, and a minimum opening bid worth not more than 12-15 support points".

I don't think this is right. Han is playing LHO for Hx of clubs (by drawing trump and leading a club to the ace) if RHO shows out of trumps.

I agree with Han that, after ducking the first club, if RHO shows out of trumps it is best to play LHO for Hx. If LHO shows out I think it's clear to play for the ruff, since this will provide an overtrick when clubs are 3-3 or when LHO has ANY doubleton (LHO is out of trumps and RHO has 4 clubs). Nick's line gains when - LHO has QJx of clubs and RHO has a singleton diamond (not the T) - the defenders make a mistake on the run of trumps The other line gains when - LHO has xx of clubs and a singleton diamond (not the T) Did I miss anything? At this point I'm stuck. It looks like Nick's line gains in 12 specific cases (4 cases of QJx * 3 cases of singleton diamond) and the other line gains in 18 specific cases, but these might not be equally likely. How should I continue?

Since no one else is biting, I have a follow-up problem. I can think of two possible lines. They both start with ruffing the third heart and cashing a top trump. Assume the T does not appear (otherwise dummy's trumps are high and the fourth club can always be ruffed). Then a club is ducked, both opponents follow and no honor appears. A spade is returned, won by dummy's ace, and a second high trump is cashed. Someone shows out (if diamonds were 2-2, again the fourth club can always be ruffed). Line 1: Draw the third trump and play a club to the ace. If LHO follows with an honor, lead a third club to the T. Otherwise lead a third club to the K. Line 2: Play a club to the ace and a club back to the king. If clubs are not 3-3 (and the T is not good), ruff the fourth club in dummy. Which line is better and why? Does it matter who showed out on the second round of diamonds?

You might also be able to ruff the 4th club in dummy, depending on how many rounds of trumps you draw...

Do you think 3NT by South is the field contract? I would guess most are playing 3NT by North after a 3S bid by South.

I think this comes down to whether declarer has Qx or Qxx of clubs. If declarer has Qx, you need to play the K to avoid dropping a trick, but if declarer has Qxx and you play the K declarer will be able to win the second and third rounds and you will be out of clubs when you get back in. In addition you know partner has a weak hand and probably doesn't have an outside entry. In that case it's better to play the J and force declarer to guess whether to hold up - usually declarer will just win the Q and then you can play the K under the ace on the next round and still have a club to lead to partner's ten. If partner has the queen, it doesn't matter whether you play the K or J. You'll hold the trick and lead the other honor to the second trick. Since West preferred NT to a 4-4 spade fit, 4333 is quite likely. So it looks like the jack is best.

It looks like lefty is long in diamonds and spades so I'll ruff the opening lead and cash the AK of hearts hoping to cross-ruff the red suits. If opps follow to both tricks, I think I can lead a club to the ace and start ruffing. If LHO was 4252, he can pitch diamonds on the first two heart ruffs, but now I can lead a club to the king to lead another heart.

No idea what's right on this hand, but one good thing about pass is that it keeps 3nt in the picture if partner can reopen with a second double.

On hand 1 I would pass. I can imagine lots of ways to set 3S and few chances to make 4H. Also, I don't think lefty is auto-saving over 4H here with a passed hand on his left and a hand that couldn't act over 3S on his right. I think he'll frequently take a shot at defense here, and every so often he'll have a trappy hand with hearts and we'll go for a ridiculous number. On hand 2 I like the argument for 4C, though I don't like the fact that it's a level higher. 3S could be right too.

This time it looks like the possibility of missing a heart game by passing is greater than the risk of going for a large number. It's unlikely that a passed hand opposite a w/r 3rd seat weak-2 bid will be able to penalize us. Follow-up question: if LHO did somehow double us and it was passed around, would you sit for it or try to run to 4C?