A vugraph grand slam

[Walddk]

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=s3hakj984dkjca984&s=sakqj1086h5da874cj]133|200|Scoring: IMP

S: 7S[/hv]

From the Australian Open & Women's Playoffs on BBO vugraph over the weekend. You have, confidently, bid to the excellent grand slam in spades. How do you play the hand on the lead of ...

 

- 1. ♣K

 

or

 

- 2. ♠2 (East following with the 9)

 

Roland

[Gerben42]

Draw trumps, ♥AK, ruff ♥. Play trumps except last 1, leaving:

[hv=n=shjdkjc9&s=s6hda87c]133|200|[/hv]

 

You know who has the last ♥, if it is on your left play the last trump and discard the ♥ if it's not high. If the last ♥ is on your right you discard the ♣ on the last trump.

 

Or you could take a ♦ finesse at this point B)

[inquiry]

First curse them for leading a club.. don't they know that against a grand slam you are suppose to lead a trump. On a trump lead, i could pull trumps, cash two hearts, ruff a heart, cross to club, ruff a heart, and presumably cross to diamond and cash long heart.

 

Now the cash heart, ruff heart needs 3-2 instead of 4-1 hearts. I am not sure i would play a spade at trick two. At least two other lines exist.

 

One is to play to ruff a ♦ in dummy. This is ♦K at trick two. Loses if you find diamonds 5-2. Playing for 4-3 diamonds is about 62%. That is better than relying on finesse in either major, or finding hearts divided 3-3 or 4-2 with doubleton queen or 5-1 with singleton Q which comes to 54% (3-3 is about 35.5%, 4-2 with Qx is 16%, and Q 2.5%).

 

However, you do have some combined changes.. You can take the 54% that the heart queen falls, and in the remaining time it does not, you can take the diamond finesse through WEST (54%+1/2*46%= 77%). So, no. It is not right to go for the immediate diamond finesse.

 

So the general play would be to play for hearts first, then if that fails, play for diamonds. There is also some squeeze chances (See below).

 

My line would have been.. to ruff a club at trick two, then pull trumps.. then cash two top hearts, then if no one had shown out of hearts, ruff a heart. If someone had a singleton heart that was not the Queen (or west with singleton TEN, when ruffing finessee works) I will ruff a second club to try to isolate a club threat.. (Btw, did east give a count signal i can read at trick one and two when I ruffed a club). Anyway, assume hearts are 4-2 and i ruffed one.. i now reach these combination of endings... (after 3-2 trump split.. if 4-1 i will have throw a club and played an extra round of trumps). Here I gave them both a club stopper despite my efforts to ruff one, and I gave them both the diamond queen (impossible in real world). First hand, EAST has four hearts, second WEST has four hearts..

 

[hv=n=shj9dkjc98&w=shdqxxcqxx&e=shqxdqxxct&s=sjt8hda87c]399|300|Cash two spades, then decide if WEST held KQT of clubs or not (a bad defender might tell you.. but with QT of clubs, he should pitch the queen to leave a little doubt where the TEN is). I suspect we will not have bad defenders here.

 

If i can not read the ending, after the two clubs, I will take the diamond finessee while i have an entry (trump) in may hand. Should it become obvious that WEST has the club stopper (say someone throws the club TEN), then I cash last trump playing double squeeze--- west in clubs, east in hearts, so my little diamond is good after taking King ACE in that order.

 

Of course, if WEST had 1♠ and 2♥ or maybe even 2♥ and 2♠, I might play him for KQT long in clubs (say 1-2-4-6 or 2-2-3-6) and play for the double squeeze. We don't know how spades are splitting.. the nine in the origianl post makes it look like WEST has four. [/hv]

 

[hv=n=shj9dkjc98&w=shdqxxcqxx&e=shqxdqxxct&s=sjt8hda87c]399|300|Cash two spades, then decide if WEST held KQT of clubs or not (a bad defender might tell you.. but with QT of clubs, he should pitch the queen to leave a little doubt where the TEN is). I suspect we will not have bad defenders here.

 

If i can not read the ending, after the two clubs, I will take the diamond finessee while i have an entry (trump) in may hand. Should it become obvious that WEST has the club stopper (say someone throws the club TEN), then I cash last trump playing double squeeze--- west in clubs, east in hearts, so my little diamond is good after taking King ACE in that order.

 

Of course, if WEST had 1♠ and 2♥ or maybe even 2♥ and 2♠, I might play him for KQT long in clubs (say 1-2-4-6 or 2-2-3-6) and play for the double squeeze. We don't know how spades are splitting.. the nine in the origianl post makes it look like WEST has four. [/hv]

[inquiry]

I either missed the or between 1 and 2, or it was editted in....

 

I play as outlined above on club lead, on trump lead, i pull trumps, and play to the AK of hearts, if all follow, i claim, ruffing hearts twice.... if someone has five hearts and is unfineesable (IE WEST), i revert to line given above too (if east has QTxxx i can take two ruffing finesses to promote one trick).

[nige1]

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=s3hakj984dkjca984&s=sakqj1086h5da874cj]133|200|Scoring: IMP

S: 7S

From the Australian Open & Women's Playoffs on BBO vugraph over the weekend. You have, confidently, bid to the excellent grand slam in spades. How do you play the hand on the lead of

- 1. ♣K

- 2. ♠2 (East following with the 9)[/hv]

I like Inquiry's line.

 

A remarkable hand! :angry: However the East-West cards are distributed, no successful defence is possible at double-dummy, unless East can ruff an opening lead! :huh:

[ceeb]

On ♠ lead --

 

Pull trumps discarding ♣, ♥, and if 4th round ♣. Play ♥A,K. If RHO follows twice or singleton ♥Q claim. Ruff a heart.

 

If trumps were 3-2, then LHO has 5 minor cards remaining and the situation is:

 

Dummy: ♠--, ♥Jx, ♦KJ, ♣A98

LHO: ♠--, ♥Q10, ♦XX?, ♣XX?

Declarer: ♠J10x, ♥--, ♦A87, ♣x

 

A. If LHO appears to have a doubleton club, play ♣, ♣ruff, and finish trumps for double squeeze with ♦ as pivot suit. Line C below remains an option if you lose confidence in the club lie after ruffing.

 

Otherwise, cash two more trumps and decide whether to

 

B. cash 2 diamonds then last trump for double squeeze with ♣ as pivot,

C. finesse the diamond.

 

Ostensibly the odds favor B if LHO has 2 trumps and C if LHO has 3 trumps.

 

If trumps were 4-1 then a club has to go on the 4th trump, so line A is out.

[Walddk]

[hv=d=n&v=b&n=s3hakj984dkjca984&w=s42h63d962ckq10763&e=s975hq1072dq1053c52&s=sakqj1086h5da874cj]399|300|Scoring: IMP

S: 7S

Lead: CK[/hv]

Here is the full deal. Ironically, a trump lead (the "recommended" lead against a grand slam) gives declarer no losing option. She has enough entries to set up hearts to get rid of the two diamond losers.

 

The lead of ♣K is more challenging. We can all see that declarer can pitch a diamond on a top heart and ruff one in the dummy, but then you have not combined the chances (hearts).

 

The unlucky declarer won ♣A, cashed both top hearts and ruffed a heart high. No queen. The problem was now that West got rid of one of her diamonds, so when declarer tried to ruff her losing diamond, West had the giant ♠4 in front of dummy's 3. Down 1.

 

Declarer could still have made her contract after she ruffed a heart. The tool is now a double squeeze where West must guard clubs and East hearts. Result: no one can guard diamonds.

 

In Denmark, and perhaps in many other countries too, all expert declarers would have chosen the squeeze, because that would have meant that you win the last trick with ♦7 (the beer card). Not bad in a grand slam, is it? (I know East can spoil that plan if he lets go ♥Q in the end game).

 

No matter what, it was a fascinating hand on the club lead.

 

Roland

[dcvetkov]

Really remarkable hand.

 

You can almost claim on double squeeze, after heart fail to oblige. You only need to be careful to ruff club at trick 2. and hope East has less then 3 clubs or does not have the 10xx Diamond distribution then is immaterial.