Rate a Slam #17

[inquiry]

[hv=n=s972hak3daj73ck32&s=sakqj6hj842dk9ct7]133|200|You open 1♠, LHO overcalls 2C, your parnter forces to slam.

 

Defense begins ♣A and ♣Q, RHO plays ♣4 and ♣5 in that order.

 

At trick 3/4 you win two rounds of ♠, LHO discards a club on the secnod round of spades.[/hv]

[bb79]

it looks like LHO has missing honors. to me best line appears, finish RHO's trumps discarding small heart from dummy, cash ♥AK, ♦ to hand, play last trump. if LHO started with x,Qxx,QTxx,AQJTx, he is squeezed in the reds. if LHO started with x,xx,QTxx,AQJxxx, LHO is squeezed in minors.

 

If this is the correct line, I give 2.5

[inquiry]

^^^^^

This is the winning line (the final sequence of plays can be monkeyed with a little bit (like cashing last spade before the hearts, but these end up in the same place. There has been 9 votes on this hand, averaging 2.89.

 

[hv=n=s972hak3daj73ck32&w=s4hq75dqt54caqj86&e=st853ht96d862c954&s=sakqj6hj842dk9ct7]399|300|[/hv]

[gnasher]

Odd that West didn't make a takeout double. Not that this affects the line we play: it still caters for LHO's x xx Qxxx AQJxxx and x Qx xxxx AQJxxx.

[lmilne]

How about if the full hand is:

 

[hv=n=s972hak3daj73ck32&w=s4hqt9dqt4caqj986&e=st853h765d8652c54&s=sakqj6hj842dk9ct7]399|300|[/hv]

 

Now we can squeeze West in clubs and hearts (as opposed to reds or minors). But the line would need to be slightly different. We can still play one more round of trumps, but a fourth round messes things up.

 

If this is the layout, we need to cash 3 rounds of diamonds first, so that the squeeze card (a trump) forces West to discard *before* North instead of after South. We also need our other trump to get back to hand.

 

Cashing two rounds of hearts also doesn't work - we need a split menace in hearts (I think). Winning line is 3 rounds of diamonds immediately, ruff a diamond back to hand, then lead the last trump in this ending:

 

[hv=n=s972hak3daj73ck32&w=s4hqt9dqt4caqj986&e=st853h765d8652c54&s=sakqj6hj842dk9ct7]399|300|[/hv]

 

I'm still trying to work out what the best line is to cater for any possible two-card squeeze against West, perhaps someone could take a look? We don't really know yet which suits West guards alone.