can you make it?

[mikeh]

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sj42ha97532dk54c3&s=saq765hk8d1086caq2]133|200|Scoring: IMP

W overcalls S's 1♠ opening with 2♣, N cues 3♣ and S's bid of the spade game ends the auction. The lead is the ♦ A, east encourages and west continues the ♦ 2 to dummy's King. I was sitting out a match and kibitzed this hand at a friend's table, where the intermediate declarer went down.. a push against the same result by an advanced player at the other table. It is the failure by the advanced player that has me posting here, rather than the B/I forum. Can you do better at your table?[/hv]

[han]

I tend to take every finesse I see so I'd just play a spade to the queen hoping it loses.

[Codo]

my first line was nuts, I had run into uppercuts.

 

Now I try: King and ace of Heart, 3. Heart, pitching a diamond.

If West has three hearts and two diamond, he has an ungly return.

If he has a third diamond and returns that, I ruff in hand and play Ace and queen of spades. If spades ar 3-2 I am home. With any other return, I can play along the same lines.

 

IF East has the third heart and wins and returns a diamond, I ruff with the Queen. If this holds, and play ace and another spade, intending to take the jack if the King does not appear. This is winning as long as West has Kx or Kxx.

If the queen is overruffed, I still win as long as trumps are 3-2.

 

If east returns a spade or a club, I can win and fall back on the line with Ace and Queen of spades.

 

So my bottom line: No finesses, but two 3-2 breaks and the black kings with the overcaller.

[y66]

Spade to queen and LHO's king, planning to set up hearts.

 

If LHO ducks, I'll try SA now and hope he was 2326.

 

Don't see how we're making if LHO was 3226 with missing kings.

[TimG]

Don't see how we're making if LHO was 3226 with missing kings.

♥K, ♥A, ♥ ruffed with the Queen. (Making 11 tricks.)

[y66]

♥K, ♥A, ♥ ruffed with the Queen. (Making 11 tricks.)

See it now. :)

[nige1]

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sj42ha97532dk54c3&s=saq765hk8d1086caq2]133|200|Scoring: IMP

W overcalls S's 1♠ opening with 2♣, N cues 3♣ and S's bid of the spade game ends the auction. The lead is the ♦ A, east encourages and west continues the ♦ 2 to dummy's King. I was sitting out a match and kibitzed this hand at a friend's table, where the intermediate declarer went down.. a push against the same result by an advanced player at the other table. It is the failure by the advanced player that has me posting here, rather than the B/I forum. Can you do better at your table?[/hv]

My guess ♦K, ♠A (no king), ♥K, ♥A, ♥ ruff.

[Free]

Start with ♣A, ♣Q discarding the last ♦!

[TimG]

Start with ♣A, ♣Q discarding the last ♦!

That doesn't work on some of the deals I have concocted, and isn't necessary on others.

 

I'm quite curious about what Mike's point was and what the actual hands were.

 

Tim

[pclayton]

I don't see a sure tricks line here.

 

West appears to have the ♦A2. What about clubs? At these colors, if East has four along with the ♦QJ9xx, I would expect a raise. I might have heard a 3♣ call by West with 7, but that's not clear with some defense and a non-passed pard. So if West is 2-6 in the minors, either both majors are breaking poorly or neither. I don't think I can do much about both 4-1's, unless I have the stiff K offside.

 

West also should have trump control in the form of ♠Kxx for the ♦A lead, although this isn't 100%.

 

A spade to the Queen that wins leads to: A♣, ♣ruff, ♥K, ♣ruff, ♥A, ♥....if LHO is 3=2=2=6 I can ditch a ♦, but surely the defense will continue diamond, ruffed, overruffed and a club, uppercutting me and giving a second trump trick, no matter who has the ♠K.

 

If the spade Q loses, I'm sure I'm in good shape, but why should West be so accommodating with Kxx? Ducking would appear to be the right play looking at that heart suit. I don't think declarer has a counter.

 

It has to be better to play ♥, ♥, ♥ ruffed with the Q. If it wins, ♠A, spade to board.

 

Free's loser-on-loser is intriguing, but is going to run into problems when West has two hearts. West plays a heart; and you have trump promotion woes no matter where you win the trick. You may have to fall back on hearts, but its hard to see how playing hearts initially isn't superior.

[mikeh]

I was kibitizing LHO, so my thinking may have been biased by knowledge of the hands, but my thinking was as follows:

 

LHO overcalled 2♣, and has A2 in diamonds, so very probably has the spade King. He probably also has 6 clubs, given that he has a soft hand.

 

So we will usually fail if we play to ruff clubs immediately... club to the A, ruff a club, return to a heart, ruff a club, cross in hearts and run the spade J. This fails when LHO Kxx in trumps.. he leads a club and rho ruffs... even if we pitch our losing diamond, rho merely leads that suit, or the boss heart and down we go.

 

It seems to me that we need 3-2 major suit breaks (as per Phil), so my thought at the time was to win the diamond K, play three rounds of hearts. If rho shows out, ruff low and play A and a spade.

 

If rho covers the 3rd heart, ruff low. LHO can overuff or not, as he chooses. If he refuses to overruff: spade A and a low spade towards the J brings in 11 tricks. If he overruffs, he is endplayed.. we make 10 tricks.

 

This is not the only way, obviously...for one thing, ruffing with the Q works as well... but fails in the virtually impossible layout where rho has Kx in trump... the Q holds, we play A and a low towards the J.. rho wins, cashes a diamond and we still have a spade to lose.

 

Frankly, I didn't give this hand a lot of thought... I posted it because I had seen one player fail and knew that it was pushed by a near-expert at the other table, so thought I'd put it out here, since I rarely post play hands (perhaps because I rarely play)