Frustrating slam

[nige1]

[hv=d=n&v=b&w=saqj64haj5daj32ck&e=sthk87dk9cqjt6542]266|100|Scoring: IMP

-- ---- 1♣ (_P)

1♠ (_P) 2♣ (_P)

2♦ (_P) 3♣ (_P)

3♥ (_P) 3N (_P)

6♣ AP

You declare 6♣ as East.

LHO leads ♥6. What do you do?

I played ♥J covered by ♥Q and ♥K. Now what?

I played ♠A, ruffed ♠4 low, and led a ♣ to dummy's ♣K. ♣K won, both following. Now what?

I ruffed ♠6 low and was over-ruffed with ♣8 for one down.

Obviously, I can do better. But should I play differently at single-dummy?

I don't know :)

[/hv]

[eyhung]

This may be with the benefit of hindsight, but consider that if you could ruff out the spade king with the extra entry provided by the club king, the opponents should have taken the trump ace to deny you that entry. And it's not like that it's a particularly hard defense to find after you ruff a spade in your hand at trick 3.

 

Maybe a better line is to play a club to the king at trick 2, ruff a spade back to hand, and lead another trump. If the club ace wins and exits any side suit, that will increase your chances to pick up that suit (a heart exit will isolate the menace in hearts). Assuming the club ace exits with a neutral trump, you can then draw trump, cross to a heart, ruff another spade, then trumps coming down to

 

Q -- AJ3 --

--- 8 K9 x

 

If both the HT9 are still out, I'd play the last club throwing spade queen from the dummy, then I'd probably take the diamond finesse (East is unlikely to have been squeezed). If the heart 8 is now second in rank, I'd probably use the information provided by the spade ruffs, club break, and discards to decide whether to try to drop the diamond queen or finesse.

[Free]

I think it's better to play on ♦. After ♥K just draw ♣K, ♦ to the K, ♣s. Eventually ruff a ♦ to get to your hand and play off all your trumps:

AQ

-

J

-

 

T

8

-

2

 

On the last trump, if ♦Q is still in play, discard ♦J. Now you either had a double squeeze, or maybe a single squeeze. You have to decide if you'll take the ♠ finesse or try to drop the K.

 

This combines your chances: ♦Qxx, double squeeze with ♦Qxxx-♥xx in LHO's hand, and a ♠ finesse or a clear decision to drop the K.

 

This doesn't work when opps return a ♠ after taking ♣A. However, you still have some chances left.

[miguelm]

I don't know what the winning play is, but the percentage play should be something like:

- win in hand.

- Spade ace followed by Spade ruff.

- Club to King

- Spade ruff

- Club Queen.

- etc.

 

If you don't manage to drop the Spade King you still have the change of a possible squeeze in the reds and/or a finesse in Diams.

And that is why you should work on dummy Spades rather than Diams., coz' if you start with the Diams. then they may force your Spades when they are in with the trump Ace, and in the process you waste the needed entry to enjoy the spades (if the King falls 3rd).

[Old York]

Opening with 9 points seems highly unusual, but np

 

Let your partner declare the hand in 6NT, any opening lead is likely to give him his 12th trick

 

On the actual hand, the rule of 11 tells you that it is unlikely that South has Qxxx, it may have been slightly better to play low from dummy on the heart lead, South may have led from 109xx, Qxxx, or even 10xxx, third hand plays high quite often from Q9x. You played well enough, If it all goes wrong just put it down to experience

Were trumps 3-2? maybe ok to ruff high?

 

Tony

[eyhung]

Opening with 9 points seems highly unusual, but np

 

Let your partner declare the hand in 6NT, any opening lead is likely to give him his 12th trick

 

On the actual hand, the rule of 11 tells you that it is unlikely that South has Qxxx, it may have been slightly better to play low from dummy on the heart lead, South may have led from 109xx, Qxxx, or even 10xxx, third hand plays high quite often from Q9x. You played well enough, If it all goes wrong just put it down to experience

Were trumps 3-2? maybe ok to ruff high?

 

Tony

Not everyone leads 4th best vs. suit contracts, and second, defenders are far more likely to falsecard on lead vs. a slam.

 

I actually think 6 from 6x is most likely but Qx6(x) can't be ruled out if the leads are 3/5. The OP didn't state what the leads were so I assume he didn't note it and so I'm not going to analyze the HJ play. It's certainly not unreasonable -- clears up one of the questions so you can focus on the spades/diamonds.

 

And yes, I chose to leave diamonds as the remote threat because the defenders can theoretically knock out the spade threat when they win the club ace.

[Old York]

Not everyone leads 4th best vs. suit contracts, and second, defenders are far more likely to falsecard on lead vs. a slam

Exactly, I agree 100%

Which is exactly why you should play low from dummy

This put enormous pressure on North if he does hold Q9x(x), while still allowing declarer to finesse later if he believes that South does have the Queen

 

I would still prefer the lead to run up to the West hand :)

 

Tony

[Fluffy]

heart lead is normal from any holding on this bidding, and ♥J is the normal card to play.

 

Ruffing too many spades in hand is not good. You want to play trumps before that but then a heart lead will get rid of an entry to dummy prematurelly. It is all a matter or percentages.

 

Anyway the ♣K scoring smeleed like a dead rat.

[jdonn]

I think you have to play the heart jack at trick 1. If you play low and win the king without the queen appearing, you risk south winning the first club and returning another heart and now you are on a complete guess.

[dellache]

I think this is a really difficult hand (at least for me) to play. The only thing that I would not do is ruff spades like you did, because the overruff is likely, and you cannot counter it (if you ruff High, the 4-1 clubs kills you).

 

This would be a nice hand to play double dummy, but here, after you lose the ♣Ace, probably the defense may force you to guess too early, hence remove some of your options.

 

Here intuitively, I would play the ♥J of course (Q underlead is not unlikely) and when it fails, I would immediately play a club. If South takes it, I doubt he can afford to play a Spade now, because it would be ridiculous if I have a Spade void. Let's say I'm in dummy now : I have my first decision to make. I don't fear the Spade overruf anymore now, so I would ruff a Spade, and play a second Club. It looks as if I can exert my spade and diamond option. But wait. They will of course see this and play the Ace of clubs immediately to remove my ♥King. Now instead I can try to benefit from a relatively short ♦Q, and play on a pointed suits squeeze if that doesn't work, or play on a simple finesse in Spades if North happens to be short in Spades, or etc. etc.

 

Oh gee I give up the full analysis. Let's play this one card after card. I play Club at the second trick, and await their reaction.

[nige1]

heart lead is normal from any holding on this bidding, and ♥J is the normal card to play. Ruffing too many spades in hand is not good. You want to play trumps before that but then a heart lead will get rid of an entry to dummy prematurelly. It is all a matter or percentages. Anyway the ♣K scoring smelled like a dead rat.

In retrospect, I feel that, after ♥K, ♠A, at trick three, I should have continued ♠Q rather than ♠x. RHO is an expert but I suppose that might have enticed a cover or hesitation.

 

On my line, I agree that when dummy's ♣K wins there is a suspicious odour. I mistakenly deemed ♠ to be worth pursuing (believing that LHO was unlikely to be dealt a doubleton and that, otherwise, I would have lots of chances).

 

Suppose, however, you leave ♠ for the moment and return to hand with ♦K. When you lead a ♣ honour, LHO wins ♣A, RHO following. Now how would you continue if LHO exits in ♣? ♦? ♥? Obviously I know what would have worked at the table but I still don't know what the best play is at single dummy.

[nige1]

I think this is a really difficult hand (at least for me) to play. The only thing that I would not do is ruff spades like you did, because the overruff is likely, and you cannot counter it (if you ruff High, the 4-1 clubs kills you).

This would be a nice hand to play double dummy, but here, after you lose the ♣Ace, probably the defense may force you to guess too early, hence remove some of your options.

Here intuitively, I would play the ♥J of course (Q underlead is not unlikely) and when it fails, I would immediately play a club. If South takes it, I doubt he can afford to play a Spade now, because it would be ridiculous if I have a Spade void. Let's say I'm in dummy now : I have my first decision to make. I don't fear the Spade overruf anymore now, so I would ruff a Spade, and play a second Club. It looks as if I can exert my spade and diamond option. But wait. They will of course see this and play the Ace of clubs immediately to remove my ♥King. Now instead I can try to benefit from a relatively short ♦Q, and play on a pointed suits squeeze if that doesn't work, or play on a simple finesse in Spades if North happens to be short in Spades, or etc. etc.

Oh gee I give up the full analysis. Let's play this one card after card. I play Club at the second trick, and await their reaction.

OK. If you win ♥K and lead a ♣ then I guess that LHO will follow Jdonn's defence: He will win ♣A (RHO following) and continue ♥9 (RHO petering). Assume, if you like, that opponents carding methods are fourth highest but second from poor suits and you can trust them

 

I doubt whether this hand is all that interesting. In fact I hope it is not. I posted it because friends expressed surprize that I failed in 6♣. So I'm interested to see who can suggest a winning line that they can rationally defend.

[eyhung]

OK. If you win ♥K and lead a ♣ then I guess that LHO will follow Jdonn's defence: He will win ♣A (RHO following) and continue ♥9 (RHO petering). Assume, if you like, that opponents carding methods are fourth highest but second from poor suits and you can trust them

So you're asking how to continue after

 

T1: ♥J, ♥K

T2: ♣ to LHO's Ace

T3: ♥9 exit, obviously win ♥Ace.

 

Now the H8 is a menace against RHO. Oddly, LHO could have led a low heart to preserve the H9, so he has already misdefended (if we are assuming that LHO is honest, then he won't have T96).

 

So now I would cross in diamonds, draw trump pitching a heart and spades from the dummy. Then I'd cash the DA and ruff a diamond, picking up any Q-third of diamonds (more likely than K-doubleton of spades). Then I'd run the rest of the trumps with menaces H8, DJ, and SQ. The 3-card end position would be

 

AQ void J void

T 8 void x

 

In this ending, lead the last club and discard the DJ. Assuming the HT has not appeared, now I play a spade to the ace -- this wins whenever the person with the HT holds the SK, or whenever LHO holds the DQ and SK.

If the carding is "honest", East holds the HT, so this line wins when East has the SK (simple major-suit squeeze) or when West holds the DQ (double squeeze). It also wins when East holds the DQ-third. The failing case is if East holds the HT, DQ-fourth and West holds the SK -- in which case their tempo of discards may lead me to take the spade finesse (for example, if East is a poor player who will never bare a king quickly, but discards a spade without pause at trick 10). But against an expert East defender who is capable of baring his king in tempo, I would reject the finesse and play for the drop.

[nige1]

Well done eyhung :)

On that defence, as the cards lie, eyhung's line would work :)

Although, as eyhung points out, his line fails if LHO continues with a small heart :(

And, on reflection, I don't suppose Jdonn would lead ♥9 :)

Of course, I don't know how the actual LHO would have defended on eyhung's line, because I was declarer and that situation did not arise at the table.