Cute slam hand

[Stephen Tu]

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=sahkqt6daqj642cat&s=sk843haj53d95ckq4]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

After starting 1♦-1♥-3♠! you eventually reach 6♥ with the opps passing throughout.

 

Opening lead, SQ. What's your line?

 

(if you test trumps, East shows up with the stiff H9)

[the hog]

Win the S, two rounds of H, A and Q of D win the return - including ruffing a D high, draw trumps and claim.

[Halo]

Ace of Spades, heart to the Jack, small spade ruffed high, draw trumps ending in South and diamond to the Queen.

 

Makes if hearts are no worse than 4-1, five trumps, three clubs, two spades, two diamonds.

 

EDIT: don't tell me it doesn't work! I'll try again.

[temp3600]

Win the S, two rounds of H, A and Q of D win the return - including ruffing a D high, draw trumps and claim.

If you intend to play diamonds this way, I think it is slightly better to cash the ♦A, cross to hand in clubs and lead small towards the ♦Q next. This wins against any 4-1 layout of the diamonds, while A followed by the Q loses against x - K10xx if East ducks his king.

[the hog]

Win the S, two rounds of H, A and Q of D win the return - including ruffing a D high, draw trumps and claim.

If you intend to play diamonds this way, I think it is slightly better to cash the ♦A, cross to hand in clubs and lead small towards the ♦Q next. This wins against any 4-1 layout of the diamonds, while A followed by the Q loses against x - K10xx if East ducks his king.

Not really. 2S, 4H, 2D and 1 D ruff and 3C adds up to 12 tricks.

[kenrexford]

Win the S, two rounds of H, A and Q of D win the return - including ruffing a D high, draw trumps and claim.

If you intend to play diamonds this way, I think it is slightly better to cash the ♦A, cross to hand in clubs and lead small towards the ♦Q next. This wins against any 4-1 layout of the diamonds, while A followed by the Q loses against x - K10xx if East ducks his king.

Not really. 2S, 4H, 2D and 1 D ruff and 3C adds up to 12 tricks.

Do you not have a problem, as suggested, with this line when RHO holds Kxxx and ducks the Queen? This might be ruffed by LHO with his third of four possible hearts. When he then plays his fourth heart, you cannot establish a second diamond trick.

[Winstonm]

If the diamonds are 3/2 there is no problem - so the focus should be on how to handle a 4/1 diamond break.

 

Win the spade ace, cash the diamond ace and lead a low diamond. If LHO has 4 diamonds there should be no problem ruffing out diamonds and managing trumps; if RHO has 4 diamonds it is more complex. If he wins the 10, it looks like the best return is the trump 9.

 

This is won in dummy and a diamond is ruffed high. Cash the spade king and pitch a diamond, then cross to the club ace and ruff another diamond high.

 

Now all you have to do is guess the heart position and double finesse the 87xx while having a club entry back to hand - but even then you have to be careful and cash both clubs for the last diamond pitch before repeating the heart finesse.

[Stephen Tu]

As you all worked out, the idea is to protect vs. 4-1 breaks in both red suits. I don't like Winston's line as it requires a presumptuous double-finesse in hearts & would lose to many mundane 3-2 H breaks. Better to play DA, DQ, without touching trumps. Playing Q forces the DK to cover or for someone to ruff, if hearts 4-1 hopefully (& most likely) the person with long trumps, then you can just draw trumps at some point w/ the 3 big ones in dummy, no double hook required.

 

However, given the substantial chance for an uptrick, I think it's better to try two rounds of trumps, then DA, cross in clubs to lead toward DQ if west has the 4 hearts (and just hook D if east has 4 hearts). You lose if both suits break 4-1 & LHO is 6-4-1-2, as he can pitch & get a club ruff, but that's rare, you still make nearly all the time, & you get the uptrick a fair amount of the time (when hearts are friendly can take d hook w/ impunity).

 

At the table I got a diamond lead so the danger was immediately apparent. A few other tables got spade/club lead, I think it's easy in this situation to not anticipate 4-1 diamonds & not cash DA first. A lot of other tables got help though, either East didn't give West the diamond ruff when it wasn't led on the go (and declarer hooked), or East didn't duck when the DQ was led off the board after a diamond lead to dA and a couple rounds of trumps. But most *still* managed to go down. This seems to be a blind spot of a lot of int players; they are so locked in on counting losers in their own hand & figuring out how to get rid of them, often by ruffing in dummy. They forget to try to view the hand the other way, counting losers in dummy & ruffing them in their own hand, making dummy the "master hand", which can often be easier.

[Winstonm]

I don't like Winston's line as it requires a presumptuous double-finesse in hearts & would lose to many mundane 3-2 H breaks.

 

Pretty easy, actually - you said in the post it was a singleton 9 with RHO. :)