dkham Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Full disclosure - I'm preparing this for a Bridge article elsewhere and want to expose it to some experts first! It's an interesting problem though and I think makes for a good challenge. [hv=pc=n&s=skqtha9dat954caq8&w=sj543hj8765dckt97&n=s2hkt2dkqj876c654&e=sa9876hq43d32cj32]399|300[/hv] The question is, what should West lead (knowing all four hands) against South's contract of 6♦? (If you want to play around with the hand, you can use this utility http://dh2119.webatu.com/bridge/testPlayer.html and click Deal Number 5) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilKing Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 ♥J. Don't think it beats it, though. There's a sort of black suit double squeeze by delaying the Fork in spades. The six-card ending is: .............2.............-.............K7.............654....J54.............A98....-...............-....-...............-....KT9.............J32.............KQT.............-.............-.............AQ8 On the penultimate trump East discards a club, declarer a club and we are cooked. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahydra Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Declarer has two possible losers (spade and club - the other club goes on a spade), but can't he always succeed simply by playing a spade towards hand? If E grabs his ace, declarer has a second club discard; if not, declarer doesn't lose a spade. ahydra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilKing Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Declarer has two possible losers (spade and club - the other club goes on a spade), but can't he always succeed simply by playing a spade towards hand? If E grabs his ace, declarer has a second club discard; if not, declarer doesn't lose a spade. ahydra That was the play OP envisaged, but East beats the contract by ducking since declarer loses two clubs instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberyeti Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 J♥ is clearly the best lead as anything else loses instantly, but PhilKing is right, declarer can get home. Does small spade from East beat this at trick one if played the other way up ? I think so.(Edit: but a club is obviously more prosaic) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLOGIC Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 ♥J. Don't think it beats it, though. There's a sort of black suit double squeeze by delaying the Fork in spades. The six-card ending is: .............2.............-.............K7.............654....J54.............A98....-...............-....-...............-....KT9.............J32.............KQT.............-.............-.............AQ8 On the penultimate trump East discards a club, declarer a club and we are cooked. prettayyyyy strong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkham Posted January 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Can you talk me through that double-squeeze a bit more? On the penultimate trump East discards a club, declarer a club, and East must discard a club too (else we can setup two Spade tricks). What do we do now? [hv=pc=n&s=skqthdcaq8&w=sj54hdckt9&n=s2hdk7c654&e=sa98hdcj32]399|300[/hv] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberyeti Posted January 23, 2013 Report Share Posted January 23, 2013 Play the spade. If E wins, you pitch 2 clubs on the KQ, if he ducks, play ♣A and another and N's 3rd x♣ scores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilKing Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 It's still a good hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkham Posted January 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 OK got it, thanks for the excellent analysis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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