Best line?

[mr1303]

[hv=d=s&v=b&n=sak10h8xxdajxxca9x&s=sq98xxhak107dck8xx]133|200|Scoring: MP[/hv]

 

You have the not so hot sequence:

 

1S 2D

2H 4NT

5H 6S

 

where 4NT was RKCB for hearts, and 5H showed 2 without the queen.

 

You get the king of diamonds lead. Any suggestions for a line of play?

[dicklont]

Small chance, you will have to find East with QJx in hearts.

 

Discard a club on diamond ace.

Finesse hearts to the 10, (if East inserts an honour go to dummy again in spades).

Now play all the hearts to ruff the last one in dummy, with King or 10.

Doesn´t matter, since either defender could have spade Jack, but for sake of elegance we ruff high and finesse the jack on the way back, giving East all the important cards.

 

You only lose 1 club trick if all this works out.

[Impact]

first blush: play for dummy reversal & C 3-3 or two Honours doubleton (may also work if DKQx or KQ tight) but will require hooking SJ for extra entry and of course S3-2.

 

That involves pitching H at T1...

 

Alternative line of playing for H 3-3 or something good to happen but since you need to play at least 1 rd of C for dummy reversal it seems like continuing that spiel is slightly superior, since they can force you to part with next top C anyway if they get in...

regards

[benlessard]

Ruff a D

S to the A

ruff a D

S to the T

ruff a D with the Q

A of H

S to the K

run the 8 of H.

 

You still have the A of C and A of D on dummy so you are able to finesse again in H. If the 9 loose to the T you will of course play for H 3-3

 

Need S 3-2

J of S with LHO

and H9,H9x,H9xx or QJx with RHO.

[Finch]

Nice try, but you have played 6 trumps from hand (3 diamond ruffs and 3 trump entries to dummy).

 

There seem to be three main lines.

 

1. Dummy reversal + 3 heart tricks

2. Dummy reversal + 3 club tricks

3. 3 heart tricks + minor suit squeeze

 

Lines 1 and 2 both need the SJ onside and seem to go:

 

Ruff the lead in hand

Spade to the ace

Ruff a diamond

Spade to the 10

Ruff a diamond (high)

{cash one or more hearts}

Club to dummy

Draw the last trump

{set up side suit}

 

The problem with these lines is that we can't cash the ace of diamonds before losing a heart/club trick because otherwise they might have a diamond to take, but alternatively we risk never being able to take it. This means we need either diamonds 4-4, or the hand we lose a club/diamond to, to have no more diamonds.

 

If we lose a club/heart earlier to a 5-card diamond suit we can find the ace of diamonds ruffed off.

 

Which rounded suit to play on?

Clubs needs the suit 3-3 or two honours doubleton

 

Hearts there are various holdings we can pick up: we can't take two finesses against H9x(x) onside because of lack of entries, so we are left with 3-3 or Hx offside (or alternatively 3-3 or 9x offside but that is less likely). I think that makes hearts better but I haven't worked it out.

 

We need spades 3-2 with the jack onside

We need our side suit to play for 3 tricks

We need diamonds 4-4, or 5-3 with the shortage winning the club/heart trick

------------------------------------------------------------

How about the alternative squeeze line?

Assuming from the lead that the DQ is on our left, we can play:

 

Win the diamond lead (not ruffing it as we want all our trumps)

Cash the AK of hearts (we'll come back to this later)

Assuming an honour hasn't fallen on our left, play a third heart. Assume the last heart is now a winner.

A club return is worst. Win in hand. Draw trumps, including picking up singleton Jack and Jxxx on our right {get back to hand with a diamond ruff if necessary to draw the last trump}

Cash winners

Coming down to a 4 card ending with DJx and A9 of clubs on the table, a master heart and 3 clubs in hand, on this heart we throw a diamond from dummy and if LHO had four clubs originally he is squeezed.

 

If LHO plays an honour on the second round of hearts I think we draw one round of trumps in dummy before playing a third heart (if RHO rises and plays another heart we will over-ruff in dummy if necessary; if RHO doesn't rise the heart gets ruffed on our left but now trumps are 3-2 and we can manouvre a heart ruff anyway, we can still pick up 4-1 trumps)

 

This line needs hearts playing for 3 tricks (as do the lines above), and also needs LHO to have 4 (or 5) clubs, but picks up all 3-2 spade breaks plus a little over half of the 4-1s.

 

There are various alternative possible lines in hearts, but overall I think this is a better line. I need to think longer about the best line in the heart suit.

 

Win the ace of diamonds

[benlessard]

oups...

 

 

If we lose a club/heart earlier to a 5-card diamond suit we can find the ace of diamonds ruffed off.

Ducking the H early seems to work.

 

D ruff

A of H followed by a H if the J or 9 doesnt fall.

 

H 3-3 &

J of S in lho &

S 3-2

 

Seems better than the squeeze line.