Look Deep

[pclayton]

I love running interesting hands through GIB the day after. Here's one from last night:

 

You bully the opponents up to 5♠ after you make a green 3♥ WJO and pard bounces:

 

[hv=d=e&v=e&w=sjt2h42dak83ckt43&s=sk987hqt9653d962c]266|200|Scoring: IMP

Pass - 1S - 3H - 4S

5H - 5S - AP[/hv]

 

Trying for the tap you lead the ♥10, x, K, ruff.

 

Declarer gets to dummy with a ♦ (pard showing an odd #) and leads the ♠J to your K (pard following) and you punch declarer again with a ♥. Declarer lays down the ♠A getting the news (pard pitches a heart) and leads a club.

 

Do you ruff it? Or do you pitch? Does it matter?

[mikeh]

Experience suggests that it is rarely right to ruff in these situations, but the fact that it is posted as a problem suggests that, on this hand, it may be correct. However, I can't see why that is so, without a double-dummy analysis such as GIB uses. After all, why can't partner hold J98x in clubs?

 

 

Now, if partner holds the ♦Q, we are safe if we ruff and return a diamond, since declarer has an unavoidable diamond loser, but I don't see how pitching a heart on the 1st club affects this.

 

And if declarer holds the ♦Q, then I don't see how ruffing helps. If we return a diamond, declarer wins, pulls trump and runs the clubs if he can. If he can't run clubs even after our ruff, then surely he is going down when we don't ruff?

 

I admit I am posting while pressed for time, so gave this no more than and possibly less time than I would at the table and I look forward to seeing where I erred :D

[Finch]

These problems are often surprising once they've been through DF...

 

If we believe partner's count signal, declarer is 5-0-3-5, which is consistent with the auction (bidding 5S off AQxxx was quite a gamble otherwise). Declarer is down to, let's say,

 

..............................Jx

..............................-

..............................Kxx

..............................K10xx

 

987

Qxxx

xx

-

 

................................Qx

................................-

................................Qx

................................AQxxx

 

and can only afford to lose one more trick

 

If we ruff this and play a heart, he ruffs in dummy, cashes the SJ, crosses on a diamond and draws the last trump.

 

If we discard a diamond, what does he do? He needs the diamonds as communications to draw trumps once he takes the R&D. He plays another club, we discard the last diamond. Now when we plays another club we ruff and play a heart, and he can't untangle his winners.

 

Of course, if this is the layout, why didn't he cash the S10 instead of the SA? Then he wouldn't have had this entry problem.

[TimG]

If we believe partner's count signal, declarer is 5-0-3-5, which is consistent with the auction (bidding 5S off AQxxx was quite a gamble otherwise). Declarer is down to, let's say,

 

..............................Jx

..............................-

..............................Kxx

..............................K10xx

 

987

Qxxx

xx

-

 

................................Qx

................................-

................................Qx

................................AQxxx

 

and can only afford to lose one more trick

I think you are a trick behind: declarer has ruffed the opening lead (T1), crossed in diamonds (T2), finessed in trumps (T3), ruffed the heart return (T4), and cashed a high spade (T5). That leaves an eight card end position (with one fewer trump in each hand than in your position).

 

I do agree, though, that a diamond discard is probably needed to cut communications.

[pclayton]

Can the diamond wait?

[TimG]

Can the diamond wait?

In this one, I don't think it can wait (and DF agrees):

 

.....T

.....-

.....K83

.....KT43

98

Q965

62

-

.....Q

.....-

.....QJ

.....AQ875

 

(Sorry about the formatting.)

[dburn]

I love running interesting hands through GIB the day after. Here's one from last night:

 

You bully the opponents up to 5♠ after you make a green 3♥ WJO and pard bounces:

 

Dealer: East Vul: E/W Scoring: IMP

♠ JT2 ♥ 42 ♦ AK83 ♣ KT43 doc/images/table.png ♠ K987 ♥ QT9653 ♦ 962 ♣ [space]

Pass - 1S - 3H - 4S 5H - 5S - AP

 

Trying for the tap you lead the ♥10, x, K, ruff.

 

Declarer gets to dummy with a ♦ (pard showing an odd #) and leads the ♠J to your K (pard following) and you punch declarer again with a ♥. Declarer lays down the ♠A getting the news (pard pitches a heart) and leads a club.

 

Do you ruff it? Or do you pitch? Does it matter?

It seems to me that you ought to discard a diamond, then another diamond if declarer plays another club. You can ruff the third round of clubs and play a heart, when declarer must lose another ruff to you.

 

Mind you, that second round of trumps by declarer may have been a mistake which Deep Finesse would not have made, although one can understand why a human being at the table would play that way.