Helgemo isn't declaring

[Finch]

One of our team (in the European mixed) was worried about playing against a team containing Helgemo, because he's such a good declarer player... we said that there were very few hands where the difference between a decent declarer and a great declarer swings significant imps, so not to worry.

 

In spite of that, we were perhaps pleased that it was "only" Saalsenminde who had to play this slam. They were 30+ imps down with 14 boards to go so were pushing somewhat when they chose to bid it.

Can you find a line to make 6H?

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sa4hajt743datck104&n=sq82hq652dq63caq8&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1hp2n(FG%20raise)p3c(nat%20extras)p4h(min)p4s(cue)p5c(cue)p6hppp]266|200[/hv]

 

West leads the 6 of spades (3rd & 5th, if he is being honest) to the queen, king and ace.

Trumps are 3-0 onside.

Clubs are 5-2, East having the doubleton.

[rogerclee]

I think we need east to have the DK and west to have the DJ to make, but then we can always make assuming we can read them. It's very unhuman for east to discard down to 2 spades and to stiff his DK in the endposition (And what if we don't have the DT? West can help by contributing the D9 if he has it to deny JT though). If that's the case then we will have a count on west's hand (whether he keeps 2 spades and DJ or stiff spade and Jx of diamonds) and then we can just play accordingly.

[bluecalm]

Play 6 hearts, 3 clubs ending in dummy. In 3 card endgame you have:

8♠ Q6♦ to

AT♦ 4♠

 

If RHO has K♦ and LHO J♦ we are home because they both need to keep 2 diamonds and it doesn't matter who takes spade trick as none of them can open diamonds safely.

 

(yeah and we need to watch for those small spades to guess if W was 6-0-5-2 or 5-0-6-2)

[menggq]

If u think RHO has SK and DK ,first round put on small spade one.when rest three cards every one,u endplay RHO wd be OK.

[han]

I must confess that the only line I see is Roger's. Curious how Saalsenminde played it.

[rhm]

I must confess that the only line I see is Roger's. Curious how Saalsenminde played it.

Is there any other line than playing first all ♥s, discarding a ♠ and a ♦ from the table, followed by 3 ♣s. Then you have to take stock. Normally you will exit in ♠.

West should discard his ♣s, because declarer could have ruffed a 4th ♣ all the time. If he keeps a fourth ♣ declarer can read the position better.

The real decision was at trick one whether to put up the ♠Q.

 

Rainer Herrmann

[Finch]

You do have to cash your winners slightly carefully. I've told you in advance what the club position is, but you don't know what's going on in clubs until you cash them. Simply saying you will 'read the position' isn't quite enough: if no-one has discarded a club and everyone follows to 3 rounds, how are you going to decide whether LHO has bared the DJ with a long club, or RHO has bared the DK with a long club?

[gnasher]

You could just go with the odds. 4063=4324 is less likely than 4054=4333, and 4063=43-Kx-4 is much less likely than 4054=43-Kxx-3.

 

Also 10xxx - J98xxx xxx might be a 3♦ bid over 1♥. Or is that just me?

[y66]

If I win SA, cross to CA, then take 6 hearts, maybe the hand with long clubs will come down to 2 diamonds and 3 clubs and the other hand will come down to a spade, Kx of diamonds and 2 clubs.

 

Then I can play 2 clubs and throw them in with a spade.

[ceeb]

You do have to cash your winners slightly carefully. I've told you in advance what the club position is, but you don't know what's going on in clubs until you cash them. Simply saying you will 'read the position' isn't quite enough: if no-one has discarded a club and everyone follows to 3 rounds, how are you going to decide whether LHO has bared the DJ with a long club, or RHO has bared the DK with a long club?

I don't see much difference between the problem when the defenders keep 1♣ and 2♠, versus keeping 3♠. I compare these two defensive strategies:

 

1. The defenders keep one large spade each and one small (<♠6) spade between them (RHO discarding one small spade), no clubs, and three diamonds. So long as they treat the two small spade spots as described, LHO not revealing a small spade and RHO not revealing both of them, the ambiguity about spade length remains.

 

2. The defenders keep two spades, the long club, and three diamonds.

 

Maybe #2 has a practical advantage in that even if the defenders mess up by revealing the spade position, the unknown club situation still disguises the distribution. Is that the point, or is there more?

 

By the way, additional discarding strategies to consider are

 

3. The defenders keep two spades -- one big one little -- and four diamonds.

of which

3a. The sleepy way: spades are 1-1; declarer must exit in spades.

3b. The unexpected way: one defender holds both spades and a singleton diamond honor, the other hold THREE diamonds.

[Finch]

I realise I misposted the original hand, which makes much of the problem somewhat less interesting. Dummy actually had Q9x of spades. This leads to some additional possible lines - in fact as it happens I was sitting East with KJ10x of spades and the king of diamonds, which made the DJ irrelevant (although West does have it, so the suggested line also works).

 

I was slightly surprised at the line taken at the table: he played the SQ at trick 1, then drew three rounds of trumps on which West discarded 2 spades and a club. He then cashed his 3 club tricks on which East discarded the last small spade. At this point the only winning line is to play for the actual layout; if West's last spade is the jack he can come down to the singleton DJ, a winning club and the SJ as his last 3 cards and declarer can't lead the DQ from dummy. Instead he played (I believe) for West to have discarded from an originally holding of Jxxx spades and (I assume) the DK and exited in spades for one off when I could play another top spade.