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This hand came up today in a Dutch pairs tournament:

 

x

Jxx

QJ10xxx

KQJ

 

AQx

A987xx

K

Axx

 

You find yourself in 4H after the following auction:

 

1H - 1S - 2S - 3S

4C - p - 4H - all pass

 

LHO leads a spade to the jack and your queen. You cash the ace of hearts and RHO plays the queen. What now?

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I don't see

an endplay or trump coup. The AD is always on my left, so low D from dummy isn't going to gain me a trick. If trumps are 2/2, the field will find it. I don't have enough winners to squeeze anybody.

 

I'm stumped. Hopefully someone else will get this one.

 

 

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What tricks are you in danger of losing? What are some ways around that?

 

More specifically, the way the spade suit and the trump suit interact with each other on this hand is pretty interesting.

 

Another hint:

What I mean by the above is that you want to ruff your spade loser, but if you do that you will promote a trump trick for them if LHO started with KTx. However if you just play a trump, they can play a spade. Now if you pull trump you have a spade loser. There is a clever way to avoid this.

 

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Without reading Justin's hint,

the problem is picking up KTx of trump on your left without losing the small spade trick. In my plan if I ruff the spade immediately I can no longer pick up the trump ten.

 

Thinking

 

Edit - run the KD now. If it holds, good chance I can ruff out the A and run diamonds (LHO rates to have the ace, and has 8 major suit cards at least). If LHO rises with the ace, my low spade is going on the diamond, and a low trump towards the jack will pick up the ten of hearts.

 

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I must be missing something -- I don't understand what the problem is. At the table, I would proceed by

 

 

immediately ruffing a small spade in dummy with a low heart, retaining the Spade Ace in my hand for later use. I now lead the J of hearts off dummy.

 

I'm assuming that RHO shows out at this point and that LHO wins the King. What's he going to lead back? His Heart 10 is set up now so he could cash that, but so what? I can lose 3 tricks. 2 hearts (K and 10), and the Diamond Ace.

 

He can't have less than three spades, because he and his partner bid and supported spades, so I'm not worried about a spade ruff coming at me. What's he going to ruff? Does he have a club void? Unlikely... a stiff diamond? Maybe -- but so do I, and I have the H987 that I can ruff with to prevent him from getting a trick with his little heart.

 

He gets his 2 trump tricks, and they win the diamond Ace.

 

What am I missing?

 

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I must be missing something -- I don't understand what the problem is.

The problem is that this is MPs and a chance to win 11 tricks would be great.

 

edit: jlall beat me.. there should be a notification before submitting a post if a new post has come up during the time you were composing your post just like gmail.

Edited by mohitz
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What am I missing?

You make 4 instead of making 5 which is not that great at matchpoints

Thanks :rolleyes: Actually I asked my mother-in-law a few moments after I clicked "add reply" and she filled me in on what I was missing.

 

I guess that's why I really suck at MP games... I have a bit of tunnel vision when it comes to making my contract.

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What am I missing?

You make 4 instead of making 5 which is not that great at matchpoints

Thanks :rolleyes: Actually I asked my mother-in-law a few moments after I clicked "add reply" and she filled me in on what I was missing.

 

I guess that's why I really suck at MP games... I have a bit of tunnel vision when it comes to making my contract.

I have nothing to add to this thread. I just wanted to welcome you to the Forums, Kivgaen. Hopefully reading some of the threads here will broaden your vision.

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