saturday night bridge

[mikeh]

[hv=pc=n&s=skqj876hkda96cq74&n=s4hat52dkt852caj8&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1dp1sp2dp3cp3hd3sp4sppdpprppp]266|200|Fuelled by an excellent dinner and copious, and excellent wine, you find yourself redoubling this contract. Never mind the bidding....plan the play after the ♥7 lead, ducked in dummy and covered by the 8 on your right. LHO is intermediate, rho is world class,. [/hv]

[mikeh]

if you play a trump honour at any stage, LHO wins and, if possible, returns a small heart though A10x

[phil_20686]

I am going to make the assumption that after copious wine even a WC player is not devious enough to cover from QJ8xx, and that its a "true card" from QJ98xx, and so lho has a doubleton.

 

Provided spades are not 5-0, and presume your spoiler would have given that away, I seem to have at most two spades and one club to lose. I can make 11 tricks with hearts 2-6 whenever lho has the club K, by stripping him of red suit cards in the obvious way.

 

Lets suppose that you win the heart K and play a top spade, lho wins and returns a heart, I win in dummy throwing a heart, cross in diamonds and play two top spades, next I take a club hook. If this wins I cash the next top diamond ruff a diamond and exit a spade, there is a pretty good chance lho will have to lead a club now, or even a diamond is good enough for 11 tricks.

 

The only risk to this plan is that the diamond ace gets ruffed, but then I still have ten tricks. If the spades turn out to be 5-0 its a much more difficult problem.

[gnasher]

Provided spades are not 5-0

I think you've had too much wine.

[phil_20686]

I think you've had too much wine.

 

Ahhh now I understand why its a problem.

[gnasher]

It looks easy to cope with trumps 5-1 if the club is onside. For example: ♠K to the ace, heart won in dummy throwing a diamond, diamond to hand, ♠Q finding out that they're 5-1, diamond to dummy, diamond ruff.

 

I don't really care how the diamonds have broken. If, for example, they're 1=4 and LHO overruffs and plays back a heart, I ruff that, cash the other top trump, play a club to the jack, and play another heart, ruffing. If he overruffs that, he's endplayed.

[bluecalm]

My instinct is to try to collect small spades via heart and club ruffs.

I see not much reason to reject club finesse either so I take K♥ and finesse clubs if that holds I will be able to take tricks with 2 small spades in round suit ruffs which should be enough even if diamonds are 4-1 somehow. Just in case clubs will be first suit to ruff in. I can postpone ruffin heart until I ge more information about distribution.

[daveharty]

I would take the club hook immediately. If the jack holds, ♥A pitching a diamond, then ♦A, ♦K, and a third diamond, proceeding as necessary.

 

Then again, I'm full-belly-sleepy, and drunk to boot.

[Statto]

The hand looks ideal for a trump coup if West is 6=2=2=3, 5=2=2=4, 5=2=3=3, or 5=3=2=3 although the latter seems unlikely from the play on the 1st trick. Start by trying to lose a ♣; on regaining the lead aim to cash ♥A ditching a ♦, then cash the ♦ winners and remaining ♣ winners finishing on table and play a ♥ ruffing low. Whether West overruffs, has another ♥, or discards something, they are endplayed into leading a trump. If/when on lead, we play ♠K. Is it still called a trump coup if we don't actually need to shorten our trumps?

[gnasher]

The hand looks ideal for a trump coup if West is 6=2=2=3, 5=2=2=4, 5=2=3=3, or 5=3=2=3 although the latter seems unlikely from the play on the 1st trick. Start by trying to lose a ♣; on regaining the lead aim to cash ♥A ditching a ♦, then cash the ♦ winners and remaining ♣ winners finishing on table and play a ♥ ruffing low. Whether West overruffs, has another ♥, or discards something, they are endplayed into leading a trump. If/when on lead, we play ♠K. Is it still called a trump coup if we don't actually need to shorten our trumps?

After:

- Club to the jack and West's king

- Cash all side-suit winners

- Heart ruff.

 

If West was 5224, 5233, or any other 52xx, he just overruffs and exits with his remaining plain card, then ducks the first two high trumps. If you're going to play a trump coup, your first ruff has to be in a suit that LHO will follow to.

[gnasher]

I think this combines all the chances:

 

Take an early club finesse, then:

 

- If it loses, cash the side winners, guess which 3-card red suit LHO has (diamonds, probably), ruff one of those, and endplay him in trumps.

 

- If it wins, lead a spade. Say West wins and returns a red suit. Cash a top spade when we're in hand, throw a diamond on a heart, and ruff a diamond. If the diamonds are good, we can throw the remaining club loser on a long diamond. If LHO had four diamonds, we can safely take another diamond ruff in hand (and anyway he was 5242 and CK is coming down). If LHO had a singleton diamond, he will overruff and return a heart, but now we play our remaining trumps to endplay him to lead from ♣K.

[nigel_k]

Basically agree with gnasher but I'm not sure about trying to ruff the third round of diamonds.

 

How likely is it that East passed 1♦ with QJ98xx in hearts and a stiff spade? Against some people it might be quite possible but there are plenty of others where you can completely rule it out, especially if the club finesse loses. And West may well have led top from three or even some nonsense such as MUD. So I might play East for 1534.