Your Line

[inquiry]

[hv=n=st73haqjt832da3c8&s=sa52hk4dkjt62caj3]133|200|Scoring: IMPS[/hv]

 

Contract 6♥.

 

Ok, Opening lead is ♠K, and for this problem, you duck. A low ♠ is lead to the small-JACK and your ♠A at trick two.

 

A couple lines are available. Which do you play?

 

Ben

[Flame]

I play Q of ♥, then if ♥ arent 4-0 i play AK of ♦ ruff a diamond with high trump trump back to dummy, another high ruff, trumps out and club to my diamond trick in dummy.

If hearts are 4-0 with west having 4, ill go with the same line as before, but if east got 4 of them, and east have 4 of them, ill play trumps and get some kind of squeese either West for spade and diamond , or something more complex with the clubs.

[luke warm]

[hv=n=st73haqjt832da3c8&s=sa52hk4dkjt62caj3  

wow... my first thought is that both have clubs stopped, west has spades so i give east the diamonds

 

heart to the ace, hoping both follow... if so, play flame's line - ♦a, k, ruff high, ♥ to the k, ruff another high, draw trumps and hope for

 

dealer: ????? vul: ???? scoring: unknown

♠ 10 ♥ 2 ♦ ♣ 8 ♠ ♥ ♦ j ♣ aj]133|200|Scoring: IMPS[/hv]   squeeze east in ♦ and ♣ first, then west in ♠ and ♣   if east does have 4 trumps i'll need to still ruff the diamonds, but take a chance with lower trump on first ruff... if west has the diamond, it's easy... just toss a club on the last heart... if east has it, same as above   i hurried, the sopranos is about to start, so sorry if i missed something obvious

[Flame]

[hv=n=st73haqjt832da3c8&s=sa52hk4dkjt62caj3 </td> </tr> </table> </th> </tr> </table> </td> <td>  </td> </tr> </table><!-- partnersns end -->

133|200|Scoring: IMPS

wow... my first thought is that both have clubs stopped, west has spades so i give east the diamonds

 

heart to the ace, hoping both follow... if so, play flame's line - ♦A, K, ruff high, ♥ to the K, ruff another high, draw trumps and hope for

 

<!-- PARTNERSNS begin --><table border=1> <tr> <td> <table> <tr> <td>Dealer:</td> <td> ????? </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Vul:</td> <td> ???? </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Scoring:</td> <td> Unknown </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td> <table border='1'> <tr> <th> <table> <tr> <th class='spades'>♠</th> <td> 10 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='hearts'>♥</th> <td> 2 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='diamonds'>♦</th> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='clubs'>♣</th> <td> 8 </td> </tr> </table> </th> </tr> <tr> <th> <table> <tr> <th class='spades'>♠</th> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='hearts'>♥</th> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='diamonds'>♦</th> <td> J </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='clubs'>♣</th> <td> AJ][/hv]

 

squeeze east in ♦ and ♣ first, then west in ♠ and ♣

 

if east does have 4 trumps i'll need to still ruff the diamonds, but take a chance with lower trump on first ruff... if west has the diamond, it's easy... just toss a club on the last heart... if east has it, same as above

 

i hurried, the sopranos is about to start, so sorry if i missed something obvious

If you play the AK of diamond and they dont ruff it, you wont need the sqeeze because your last D is high.

[the hog]

One high trump. A of D, D to K, ruff D high, if all follow suit hand is cold. Why look for a complicated line?

[inquiry]

Ok.. three possible lines here....

 

LINE ONE: Ruff two diamonds high (if necessary), this is fairly excellent line, making against all but 5-1 and 6-0 ♦. A 6-0, or 5-1 split occurs about 16% of the time.

 

LINE TWO: Another line is to just take the ♦hook one way or the other, that is roughly 50%. Clearly playing for the ruff in line one is superior.

 

Third line can combine some chances, if you believe WEST has the ♠Queen for this defensive line (seems reasonable), you can play for double squeeze, or compound squeeze, and still have the chance to drop Qxx, Qx or Q of diamonds. On this line, you win ♠A on trick two and win five ♥s discarding one ♣, one ♦, and one ♠, to reach this position.

 

[hv=n=sthaqda3c8&s=shdkjt6caj]133|200|[/hv]

 

EW have had to come under some pressure. If either opponent has four ♦ to the Q, they have had to make a lot of very interesting discards. For instance if West has the long ♦, he is down to one ♣. If you can read this, you can play ♠ - ♦ squeeze on him. Althernatively if you think WEST is short is ♦, you have a double squeeze, with ♣ teh both threat. The question is, do you think you can read the situation well enough that you can guess who has what?

 

Ben

[Shrike]

Heart to queen. If 4-0 in West: draw trump, diamond ace, diamond to jack while holding breath (West should have spade KQ9x in addition to heart xxxx, hence no more than five minor suit cards against ten or eleven for East; but if the auction indicated a spade lead was safe I would play him for Kx, and play the diamonds normally; I would also play for Q dropping if I though West would make an unusual lead and East would play the jack, not the nine, on the second spade). Making when diamond Q is onside, or offside singleton, or East discards all of his diamonds on the hearts. I'm willing to believe that this part of the line is badly flawed -- I might consider Inquiry's squeeze approach here.

 

If hearts are 4-0 in East: draw trump; diamond ace, diamond king, diamond ruff; hearts. Making whenever diamond queen drops in three rounds, or East has Qxxxxx, or East has Qxxx(x) and both club honors or East holds Qxxx(x) and West pitches down to a diamond void on the hearts. Again, this may be subject to improvement -- a diamond-spade squeeze against West looks likely.

 

If hearts are not 4-0: Diamond ace; if queen falls, claim. Diamond to king; if an opponent ruffs, apologize to partner. Diamond ruff high; heart to king; diamond ruff high; draw trump; run hearts if last diamond is not high. Making whenever diamond queen falls in four rounds, or East holds singleton heart and small singleton diamond, or West holds singleton heart and small singleton diamond and East has both club honors (yeah, right).

 

This line has the advantage over Inquiry's line three that I don't have to make a tough call in the end game regarding the diamonds; nor do I have to read the spade situation, which is not 100% clear, except when West has all four trumps (and I could still chicken out and play for diamonds to come in). It gives up most layouts where one opponent holds Qxxxx or Qxxxxx of diamonds, but gains on a fair number when one has Qxxx.

[Fluffy]

♠ are very very likelly to be 5-2 for the play of 2 first tricks, maybe because of that we can deduce something from the bidding if they both passed at 1 level.

 

If you can discard west having 4/5 ♦ you will scced on the mixed line drawing trumps, playing for ♦ 3-3 or double squeeze when East has 4/5, or the key here is the % of having 5♠ + 4♦ or more against having 5♠+1♦ or less.

 

Playing 1 round of trumps will give you some info also, and its free, so do it.

 

Of course you can still guess and switch for simple squeeze against west on first case, are you good enough on such guessing?, I am not, but maybe its time for me to start reading opponents discards properly.

[inquiry]

Well, Shrike's plan is basically to play for ♦ hook in one case (if WEST has four ♥), and to play for droping the queen with one ruff in the second case (East with four ♥). This is hardly an improvement over line one I gave early, and the line most people took.

 

I am not sure if it is clear but let me give two endings.. One where EAST has four ♦ to Q, and the other were WEST held four ♦ to the JACK (if ♦Q is in short, there of course is no problem).

 

[hv=n=sthaqda3c8&w=sqhdqxxxcq&e=shdxxxckxx&s=shdkjt6caj]399|300|On this hand, simply cash ♣Ace, cross to the ♦ACE, and take last two ♥. This squeezzes WEST in ♠ and ♦[/hv]

[hv=n=sthaqda3c8&w=sqhdqxxxcq&e=shdxxxckxx&s=shdkjt6caj]399|300|On this hand, simply cash ♣Ace, cross to the ♦ACE, and take last two ♥. This squeezzes WEST in ♠ and ♦[/hv]

 

So as can be seen here, from this six card ending, you can always make this hand if you can read the distibution, without risking a ♦ hook. And the opponents have had to make a lot of discards at this point, so you should have some reasonable distributional clues. When this hand was played, the expert declarer, who gave me this hand, had played to ruff two ♦. Of course, sadly, ♦ where 5-1 so they ruffed the second ♦ and he was down one (16% chance of that of course). When he gave to me, I played for the pseudo compound squeeze (not really compound squeeze, because only one opponent can guard ♦, but I don't know who that is), and easily made. But the question becomes, can I really guess who is guarding what at a higher rate than 86% of the time. This is not so clear.

 

Ben

[Trpltrbl]

Either play for a squeeze or for the ♦ to behave. I am playing for squeeze otherwise Ben wouldn't put it in here hehehe.

So win in dummy and start playing trump, pitching ♠ and 1♣ and 1♦ in dummy.

Somebody must start feeling uncomfortable, and I pick up on that fairly quick. Making a slam on a squeeze much more fun anyway.

 

Mike B)