Communication problem

[frSurfer]

You play 6 ♠ in South and receive a club lead: the 3.

 

A careful declarer must forecast his communications:

you are short an entry in hand to draw trumps when they break 4-2!

 

Any idea?

 

North

♠ J

♥ AJ985

♦ QJ643

♣ K5

 

 

South

♠ AKQ763

♥ 74

♦ K7

♣ AJ7

 

Solution:

 

You have 1 ♦ loser and provided the ♠ behave themselves, you should be able to pitch a low ♥ on the 3rd ♦ honor.

 

A careful declarer must forecast his communications: you are short an entry in hand to draw trumps when they break 4-2!

 

Actually, there's a way to cope with the issue: being a good player, West wouldn't have underlead the ♣ Queen against a slam, fearing this would give you your 12th trick, right?

 

Do refuse the free ♣ finesse and play Dummy's King at trick 1.

 

Then: ♠ Jack, hold your breath and finesse the club Queen... It succeeds!

(Who said "of course"?)

 

3 more rounds of trump are necessary, then ♦ King and you're home.

 

A lazy declarer would have gone down 2... Well done partner!

[kenrexford]

The solution seems dubious to me.

 

Assume you just accept the free club finesse, winning the Jack. Now, you lead a spade to the Jack in dummy and play a diamond to the King. if this wins, you have your entry. If this loses, what will LHO do to you?

 

If he returns a diamond (not possible in the actual layout), you win the diamond Queen and cross to the club Ace (overtaking the King) to pull trumps. If a heart, win the Ace and return in clubs the same way. if a club, overtake the same way.

 

These lines all require the diamonds to be 3-3 (or a heart-diamond squeeze), which is against the odds. But, it seems like the chance that LHO has made an attacking lead from the Queen of clubs is higher than the chance that LHO has the diamond Ace AND that diamondfs are not 3-3 AND that a heart-diamond squeeze does not exist.

[BunnyGo]

We could just win the club King at trick one, and take the finesse later. I don't see a reason why LHO is more likely to be leading from the Queen than just trying to make a passive lead.

[Mbodell]

The solution seems dubious to me.

 

Assume you just accept the free club finesse, winning the Jack. Now, you lead a spade to the Jack in dummy and play a diamond to the King. if this wins, you have your entry. If this loses, what will LHO do to you?

 

But what if RHO plays the ♣Q on trick 1? You will go down now with the hand layout in the link.

[Phil]

"Actually, there's a way to cope with the issue: being a good player, West wouldn't have underlead the ♣ Queen against a slam, fearing this would give you your 12th trick, right?"

 

LOL

[matmat]

LOL

 

oh come on Phil. Everyone knows real experts lead trump against slams.

[Hanoi5]

Did anyone mention that you're down on the normal ♥K lead?

[gwnn]

Shouldn't we have some blanket rule against this sort of advertisements?

[gnasher]

How about winning in hand and playing a diamond to the queen? That usually works unless LHO has a doubleton diamond.

[gnasher]

Shouldn't we have some blanket rule against this sort of advertisements?

But then we would have missed out on an interesting play problem.

[rhm]

But what if RHO plays the ♣Q on trick 1? You will go down now with the hand layout in the link.

I think you should not overtake anyway. Play

 

T1: Win ♣ in hand.

T2: ♠J to dummy

T3: ♦ to king. Assume it looses to LHO. Otherwise there is no problem.

T4: Assume LHO plays anything back but a trump. Win in dummy and do not overtake ♣, even if possible, because then you have 2 losers to take care of and need ♦ 3-3

T5: If the return was not a ♦ play a ♦ honor yourself from dummy. Assume it wins.

T6: Play a low diamond.

 

If RHO shows out ruff, or if he ruffs over-ruff. If RHO follows to the third ♦, ruff low!

Ruffing low is better than ruffing high because when RHO follows to a third ♦, a ♦ break is now more likely than ♠ being 3-3 (where ruffing high would win).

 

To make this contract you will always need ♠ no worse than 4-2. This line also requires ♦ no worse than 4-2, but this is very likely after the ♣ lead.

Of the critical cases where LHO has the ♦A, you win unless RHO has either 4♦ or is 2-2 in ♠ and ♦.

 

From the opening lead it looks to me more likely that LHO has the ♣Q than the ♦A. Many lead a side suit ace against slams. Also when LHO has the ♦A chances have gone up that he has 3 or 4 cards in ♦. The remaining 5 small ♦s will break 3-2 most of the time.

The suggested solution is clearly inferior, but convenient to the given deal layout where this line goes down.

 

Rainer Herrmann

[Free]

This vubridge advertisement is getting annoying, especially since it's not free (yeah yeah, the lite version in which you can't do anything is free la-di-da). I hope BBO gets a percentage, otherwise they might as well ban their spam...