Poll... play in northfork VA regional

[inquiry]

This is one of my favorite hands. This hand was played May 24, 1986 in the Northfork VA regional bridge championship, flight A open pairs. This is board 9 from the first session, the hand was rotated to allow South (as opposed to the original north) to be the declarer. First, note the auction… yes I use to play precision before I became more enlightened. :- ) 1♣ was forcing, 1♦ true negative (we played super-unusual positives), and the jump to 2♠ was forcing.

 

BEAR IN MIND that this is matchpoints, so plan your play carefully. To help you out, you cleverly and correctly duck the first ♥ trick, as you are reasonably worried about a potential 4-2 ♠ split and win the ♥Ace at trick two. You cash two top ♠s and on the third ♠, EAST shows out discarding a low ♥. This is matchpoints of course, so you now have to decide how to continue. Place your vote and if you like, explain why you voted on way of the other, especially if you choose the last option. BTW, do you guys prefer the choice of a line poll type question like this so you can just vote and more on, or do you prefer more opened ended questions were no line is suggested.

 

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sth752dkt853ct974&s=sakq965hat3daqcaq]133|200|Scoring: MP

1♣-(P)-1♦-1♥

2♠-(P)-3♦-(P)

3♥-(P)-3♠-(P)

3NT all pass

(thanks helium for pointing out no auction)

 

T1. ♥J-2-9-3

T2. ♥4-5-Q-A

T3. ♠A-4-T-2

T4. ♠K-7-♥7-♠3

T5. ♠Q-8-♦3-♥6[/hv]

[helium]

cant see the auction, difficult to vote:))

[joker_gib]

I directly duck a spade to west. If he has the club king then double squeeze if ♦ return or simple squeeze on east (if he has the ♦ jack) if ♣ return. If not east will be triple squeezed if he has the ♦ jack.

 

Am I wrong ?

[inquiry]

I directly duck a spade to west. If he has the club king then double squeeze if ♦ return or simple squeeze on east (if he has the ♦ jack) if ♣ return. If not east will be triple squeezed if he has the ♦ jack.

 

Am I wrong ?

I am not going to venture whether I think your line of immediately duck a ♠ is right or wrong, as I want to keep all the options as viable choices as people vote (or until someone presents a proof of the superiority of one line or the other). However, I do want to ask you about one issue in your reply. This is that if WEST has the ♣K you will have a double squeeze.

 

As you know, a double squeeze matures when the count is right. That is, when you have all but one of the remaining tricks. Here you will have 5♠, 2♦, 1♥ and 1♣. Is it your plan to duck another trick somehow (and which one) for your double squeeze to work so that you can win 10 tricks? Assuming a ♦ back, how do you set this double squeeze up?

 

Ben

[Free]

I guess if you play ♦AQ, and exit a ♠, normally west wont have any ♥s left, so he'll have to play ♣ in the fork, or ♦s where you can discard your last ♥. That's a sure +1 imo.

 

On the other hand, if you want to make +2, you'll need a squeeze. Put ♦Jxxx and ♣K in East, and it will be possible. Then you should exit a ♠ right away, and play all the ♠s afterwards. This will be the end position:

[hv=n=shdkt85ct&s=shtdaqcaq]133|200|[/hv]

 

East needs to hold 1 ♥, ♣Kx, and he has only 2 cards left to hold in ♦. Squeeze in 3 suits. Now you play ♦A and overtake the Q with the K. If the J doesn't drop, you can still finesse ♣ for +1...

[joker_gib]

Forgot my too quick answer as the double squeeze position is not there (you're right)

 

but I will play east for ♣K so I can make +2 if he has the ♦J because he will be triple squeezed. So, after ducking the ♠ I take the ♦ return with the ace and run all my trumps and I overtake the ♦Q. If ♦J drops east is "re-squeezed" on the ♦T with the last ♥ and ♣Kx so that you will see if the ♣ finesse was right or not !!

 

If ♦J doesn't drop I will take the ♣finesse for +1

[inquiry]

At the time of this posting, the poll vote was 1 for what I think is the right line, and 6 for other lines. No way to lock down the poll for some reason, so I suspect the votes will now change. But Free mentioned the right line and joker_gif sniffed it out.

 

The obvious line that wins 10 sure tricks is to cash both ♦ and throw WEST in with his last ♠. Presumably he will be out of ♥ and be forced to return a minor suit... if it is a ♦ you gain one trick right away, and still have the chance for dropping ♦Jack in three rounds or hooking ♣ while you are in dummy. So clearly he will return a ♣ and you make 10 tricks.

 

While that play is simple, and easy. The right play is throw WEST in immediately with a ♠. You will get a ♦ return for sure, which you win with ♦ACE. Now you have lots of lines. One is that whoever holds three+ ♦ to the jack will have to keep all three, else your ♦Q-overtake gains the 10th trick you could have gotten all by yourself. You can always, as noted, on this line, later try overtake the ♦Queen and hook club yourself, also getting back to 10 tricks. But the bonus is when EAST, who clearly has only 5♥ and 2♠ happens to have the ♦J and the ♣K. Now you have the chance for a triple squeeze that gains two tricks. To gain three tricks you have to play carefully (or you end up back with only the 10 you could have ensured with cashing ♦ early. Let's play this line and see what I mean. You duck a ♠, back comes a ♦ and you win the ACE. Now you cash all your ♠, this is the position with EAST to play....

 

[hv=n=shdkt8cx&w=shdc&e=shkdjxckx&s=shtdqcaq]399|300|(west hand immaterial, and EAST only still to play to trick eight...

 

and oh, btw, thanks Gerardo for the option to post "hands" with different number of cards like this... easier than editing the hands after using the template)[/hv]

 

If EAST throws ♥K you cash your ♥T. If East throws a ♦, you overtake ♦Q, cash the ♦T and the rest is easy. But if EAST stiff the ♣King, the only right play is to cash both ♣ now, don't use your entry to the dummy first or you get only 10 tricks again.

 

If EAST throws a ♣ and you cash the ♣ACE and the ♣King doesn't fall, you have two reasonable options depending upon your reading of the ♦ situation... (remember EAST will have had 2♠, 5♥, followed to 1♣ and 1♦ and have to have found 4 discards at this point.... You can cash ♦Q and then throw WEST in with a ♣ (if you think he has ♣K-♦J left, or EAST in with a ♥ if you think he has ♦J and ♥K left, using them as a steppingstone to dummy's king.

 

Note on a natural ♣ lead and continution (EAST was 2-5-4-2 with ♣Kx and ♦J9xx, West keeps the ♥Jx and good ♣ and EAST unblocks in ♥ and you are not winning more than 10 tricks.

 

Semi-funny ending, my partner explained to me after the hand how I misplayed it and was lucky to have an opponent who stiffed his ♣K (I dropped the stiff king as describe above), and that what I should have done was cash two ♦ and exited with a ♠... :P

 

Ben