An "Insanity" Problem

[kenrexford]

You are dealt ♠KQ10xx ♥xxx ♦x ♣Qxxx. Partner passes, and RHO opens 1♦. You toss out a frisky 2♠ jump overcall, yielding 3♥-P-3NT-all pass.

 

You lead the spade Queen (Rusinow), and dummy hits with ♠Jxx ♥AQxxx ♦x ♣KJ9x. Typical.

 

Declarer wins the spade Ace in hand, partner contributing the deuce (standard count). Declarer then plays A-K-Q-J of diamonds, partner showing out on the fourth diamond, exposing Opener to have 8 diamonds. Adding in his spade Ace and heart Ace gets to 10 obvious tricks. If he has the club Ace, that gets him to 12, so the issue will be whether he tries for the heart-spade squeeze against you or the club-spade squeeze, it seems.

 

In any event, you decide, for whatever reason, to pitch two hearts and a club. Declarer pitches two hearts from dummy, and a club. Partner pitches a heart.

 

At this point, Declarer makes a strange move of leading a small spade toward dummy. How can this be right? He has no more entry to his hand unless he has the king of hearts, which gives him 12 tricks off the top, and all he would need is a 3-3 hearts split (which exists) or a club-heart squeeze, or something. Or, he has the club Ace, which also makes no sense, for the same reason. He might have the stiff heart King, but then what the Heck is this line?

 

Having no clue, you figure that Declarer must have just lost his mind. You guess (correctly, by the way) that Declarer must not have the heart King or the club Ace and just either forgot about how to get back to his hand or pulled the wrong card. So, you duck. You figure that Declarer is in trouble, and bad. He will win the spade for his fifth trick, can cash the heart Ace for a sixth, but then partner gets in to lead spades.

 

Declarer wins the Jack and confirms that he has lost his mind. He next plays the Ace of hearts and a small heart to your partner's Jack, discarding a diamond. So, he believes that diamonds are trumps, it seems.

 

When partner next cashes the heart King, Declarer panics and realizes what is going on.

 

So, that's the set-up. Your brain is, of course, exploding with complete mind-F.

 

So, at the point where Declarer made the play of the Ace of hearts, you were down to ♠Kxx ♥-- ♦-- ♣Qxx.

 

What did you pitch on the Ace of hearts, and what do you now pitch on the King of hearts?

 

More importantly, why? What is the key to the defense at this point? What is about to happen?

[bill1157]

i guess pd has no more spades and is hopefully going to exit with a heart. So i have to keep Qx of clubs and a good spade.

 

Bill

[kenrexford]

i guess pd has no more spades and is hopefully going to exit with a heart. So i have to keep Qx of clubs and a good spade.

 

Bill

I think I made a typo, because partner doesn't have a heart -- I think he pitched it early on. But, had he had a heart, it would have been good anyway, killing his ability to "exit" with it.

[bill1157]

If pd has the other spade, what could the problem be? So he must be 2=3=3=5 and will have to lead a club back, so you need to save all your clubs and pitch spades (and hopefully dummy's spade is higher than the one in declarers hand...)

[kenrexford]

If pd has the other spade, what could the problem be? So he must be 2=3=3=5 and will have to lead a club back, so you need to save all your clubs and pitch spades (and hopefully dummy's spade is higher than the one in declarers hand...)

Yep. You need to save the Q of clubs. That part is easy, but the reason is to ensure that Declarer gets blocked on dummy. Declarer has the club 10 and partner the Ace.