play problem

[karlson]

[hv=pc=n&s=sat6hj643dakq4cj5&n=skj8ha85d987cq643&d=w&v=n&b=12&a=ppp1np3nppp]266|200[/hv]

 

IMPs

 

♥7 lead, low, K, low

 

Righty switches to the ♣T which you duck to the K.

 

Out comes the ♥Q. Righty pitches a small spade on this trick.

 

Well this has gone from not so great to quite good indeed, but there's still some work left. Plan?

 

In principle the opponents play standard carding but you have not found their carding to be trustworthy.

[pooltuna]

while ducking the ♥Q to get your squeeze count is a consideration so is keeping the 4th ♥ as a throw in card. Consequently I am inclined to win the A♥ and lead a ♣ for discovery purposes.

[Free]

Looks more like an endplay to me. You can risk it all by taking a ♠ finesse now, but that can wait.

 

Take ♥Q with the Ace, ♦A and play another ♣. You now have 2♠, 2♥, 3♦ and 1♣ trick in the bag. Whatever comes back, take ♦KQ and a ♣. See which opponent you can safely endplay to bring your 9th trick. It's difficult to predict the exact order of play, because many things can happen after ♦A or after the ♣.

[rhm]

Assume ♦ do not break, since otherwise there are 9 tricks. Obviously you also have 9 tricks if you guess the ♠ position.

When you eventually play a ♣ to develop a trick there, I will not assume that opponents are clever enough to duck. If they do, no squeeze or end play is likely to work and I at least see nothing better than guessing the ♠ in the end position.

Assuming ♣ are not ducked, superficially an end-play for the ♠ queen looks attractive. Appearances are deceptive. Trouble is, with the ♥ ace entry in dummy gone now, how will you reach and cash your ♣ queen trick without using the ♠ king as an entry? If West has the ♠ queen and you throw East in, there is no end-play.

If West has the ♠ queen he should prefer to keep all his ♥ and and come down to a doubleton ♠. Again you would have to guess the ♠ position. Overall playing for an end play does not look better than a guess.

 

What about squeeze chances?

Trouble is that the ♥ menace is not worth much, because West is sitting over the fourth ♥. For the same reason a red suit squeeze can not work.

Nevertheless since ♥ are known to break 5-1, it is likely that East is the one long in ♦, in which case you might squeeze him between the minors or between ♦ and the ♠ queen.

 

So the idea is playing for the squeeze. Duck the ♥ queen. If West does not find the ♦ switch and ♣ are not ducked you can discard a ♦ on the ♥ jack, cash your top ♠s ending in dummy and finally cash the ♣ queen in the following ending:

 

♠ J

♥ -

♦ 9

♣ Q6

 

 

♠ 10

♥ -

♦ KQ4

♣ -

 

 

You discard the ♠ ten. East will be squeezed, if he held the minors or either opponent if he held length in ♦ and the ♠ queen. Of course you also make if the ♠ queen drops or ♦ break.

 

It does not matter whether opponents return ♣. You still reach the above ending in dummy with the ♣queen already played.

Best defense, assuming the ♣ is not ducked, is for West to switch to ♦ after the ♥ queen was ducked and ♦ to be continued after you led a ♣. In this case you will have to discard a ♠ on the ♥ jack and cash the top spades to reach this ending:

 

♠ -

♥ -

♦ 9

♣ Q6

 

 

♠ 10

♥ -

♦ Q4

♣ -

 

You cash the ♣ queen. East will still be squeezed if he holds length in ♦ and either the ♠ queen or length in ♣.

But West will not be squeezed if he held length in ♦. Fortunately West does not look bright enough to find the ♦ switch in this case.

 

Rainer Herrmann

[Finch]

Looks more like an endplay to me. You can risk it all by taking a ♠ finesse now, but that can wait.

 

Take ♥Q with the Ace, ♦A and play another ♣. You now have 2♠, 2♥, 3♦ and 1♣ trick in the bag. Whatever comes back, take ♦KQ and a ♣. See which opponent you can safely endplay to bring your 9th trick. It's difficult to predict the exact order of play, because many things can happen after ♦A or after the ♣.

 

Sadly this line requires a lead from the wrong hand at a critical point.

Other than that, it's a good line (and one thatis surely right if dummy had Kxx of diamonds)

[Finch]

I would win the second heart, and play a club.

What happens?

 

p.s. opponents don't always find the perfect defence when given this problem earlier enough in the play.

[karlson]

I won the heart and played a club. Lefty won the ♣A and played another heart, righty pitching another spade. Everyone follows to two diamonds if you cash those.

[rhm]

I won the heart and played a club. Lefty won the ♣A and played another heart, righty pitching another spade. Everyone follows to two diamonds if you cash those.

 

If you did not duck either ♥, play ace of ♠ and finesse ♠ against West.

If East wins you have the minor suit squeeze against East in reserve. (Looks like East is protecting ♣)

Playing two rounds of ♦ early wins only if the ♦ jack ten drops doubleton.

 

Rainer Herrmann

[Free]

Sadly this line requires a lead from the wrong hand at a critical point.

Other than that, it's a good line (and one thatis surely right if dummy had Kxx of diamonds)

You can use the ♠K as an entry if you're planning on endplaying West. :rolleyes:

[karlson]

The conclusion isn't particularly interesting; at the table I really didn't give this hand enough thought. Once west as a passed hand turned up with ♥QT9xx and ♣AK I thought ♠Q on my right was extrememely likely, and spade length was consistent with the early pitches. So I just cashed 3 diamonds and when west showed up with 4 I threw her in with the last one, throwing the ♠J from dummy. This had the chance of producing a black suit squeeze, but today I was down one when lefty had ♠Qxx and righty four clubs.

 

Afterwards I decided that the double squeeze around diamonds was the way to go, exactly as Rainer described in his first post. And yes, I still had a chance to recover after not ducking the heart.