PS I !c you IV

[Phil]

[hv=n=s63ha953dq52caqt4&s=sak987hj7642d4c95]133|200|pass - (pass) - 1C - (1D)

1S - (2D) - pass - (3D)

3H - (pass) - 4H - AP[/hv]

 

You play in 4♥ on the lead of the ♦J, ducked. You ruff the 2nd diamond (10, Q, K).

 

Now what?

[whereagles]

Club Q finesse. Can't get rid of it, so let's see what happens there before deciding what to do with trumps and spades.

[Phil]

Club Q finesse. Can't get rid of it, so let's see what happens there before deciding what to do with trumps and spades.

To Whereagles:

 

 

The finesse wins. Now what?

 

[mikeh]

I usually try to answer these in the time I would take at the table, altho with Frances' hands I often find myself taking longer :P

 

As it is, I ruff the second diamond and hook the club.

 

I will assume it wins (ok, I know it wins)

 

I ruff the last diamond and play AK and a spade.

 

If LHO ruffs ahead of dummy, it won't be from a stiff heart.. he doesn't hold 10 minor suit cards. So I can pitch a club safely, intending to win the round suit return, and, if he played a club, cash the trump A and then go about my business.

 

If LHO pitches, fine.. ruff low and play A of trump and then cross ruff

 

If rho overruffs dummy, he is stuck... I will win whatever he returns, and (unless he returned a trump) cash the heart A and go about my business.

 

 

This line works, I think, on all 2-2 trump breaks and on 3-1 where the long trump has 2 or 3 spades.

 

An alternative line, that involved an earlier cash of the heart A then the cross-ruff, loses to 2=3=5=3 in rho or 3=3=5=2, since rho gets to overruff in spades (when 3=3=5=2, after pitching a spade when we ruff a 3rd round of clubs) and pull a fatal 2nd round of trump.

[whereagles]

If the club hook works, I had in mind to go for mikeh's alternative live.

[Finch]

An alternative line, that involved an earlier cash of the heart A then the cross-ruff, loses to 2=3=5=3 in rho or 3=3=5=2, since rho gets to overruff in spades (when 3=3=5=2, after pitching a spade when we ruff a 3rd round of clubs) and pull a fatal 2nd round of trump.

<confused>

 

ruff second diamond

club to the queen, holding

ace of hearts (all following, let's say)

ace of spades

king of spades

spade ruff

.....if spades were 3-3 all along my hand is now high except for two trumps, so I just ruff a diamond and play winners

 

suppose RHO over-ruffs the third round of spades and cashes his other top trump, having started with a 2=3=5=3 as suggested. We are here, having cashed the ace of hearts, ruffed a spade (over-ruffed) and followed to another trump:

 

-

x

x

A10x

 

 

xx

Jx

-

x

 

there are no more trumps out

we just win a club return in dummy (say), ruff a minor suit card, ruff a spade and claim.

 

One of us is missing something obvious

 

I thought the problem was to cope with 4-0 hearts or 5-1 spades without going off on the obvious layouts.

[655321]

I will try to ruff dummy's losers in my hand:

 

Ruff the second diamond

club to Q

diamond ruff

club to Ace

club ruff

heart to Ace

club ruff

[Phil]

One of us is missing something obvious

 

I thought the problem was to cope with 4-0 hearts or 5-1 spades without going off on the obvious layouts.

Nope. Just was curious as to the approaches of ♣ to Q and ♥A versus ♣ to Q and spade ruffs.

 

By the way, I carved this up pretty badly, but recovered in the endgame.