make this slam

[mikeh]

[hv=pc=n&s=sq6haj9daq84caq75&n=sak8532hq8dj6ck84&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1sp2cp2sp2np3cp3dp3sp5np6nppp]266|200[/hv]

 

Imps, 2/1. 2♠ could have been a 5 card suit. 5N was 'pick a slam' and partner made an excellent decision with his red Q/J to bid 6N.

 

The opening lead (which was an error) was a low heart. You play low and your 9 wins the trick. You play the spade Q and a spade, with LHO showing out and signalling for a diamond. The opps are advanced players who can sometimes falsecard but are likely telling the truth.

 

Plan the play, being specific. For example, if you drive out the spade, what do you pitch and how do you plan the play on the return of either a heart or a diamond?

[manudude03]

I duck the spade. On a diamond return, I win the ace, play 3 rounds of clubs ending in dummy and cash the spades throwing 3 diamonds initially, and hope to catch opps in a double squeeze if clubs are not 3-3. If I get a heart return, I guess I have to win the ace, cash the ace of diamonds, cross to the ace of clubs, run spades throwing 3 diamonds and the heart (in that order) hoping to catch West with 3+ clubs and the king of diamonds.

[kenberg]

Pretty much the same. You say the opening heart was a mistake, perhaps so, but my guess is the King of hearts is on my right. But perhaps I don't have to commit on that just yet.

 

I also lead a small spade, throwing a small diamond. Whatever comes back, it seems I may as well rise, cash the red aces, go the board in clubs, and cash the remaining spades throwing first my last two diamonds and then my last heart.

 

Who, if anyone, has the long club. If it is lho and he has the diamond, he is squeezed. If it is rho and he started with the king of hearts, he is squeezed. Or rather was squeezed on the last spade before I tossed the heart. Also it works if rho, contrary to the signal, holds the king of diamonds since the club diamond squeeze is automatic.

 

So this line works if clubs are 3-3, if either opponent holds the long club and the diamond king, or if rho holds the long club and the king of hearts.

 

That's the best I see, but I will keep looking.

 

Added: About the heart king: lho leading from Txxx and rho playing low makes far more sense to me than lho leading low from KTxx. So I guess my real worry is that rho holds both red kings and lho holds the long club. It would be really nice to accommodate that possibility w/o giving up on the others, but I don't see how.

[keylime]

I would not have played spades here at trick 2. I would test clubs first.

[mikeh]

I would not have played spades here at trick 2. I would test clubs first.

While it may be relatively unlikely, what happens if one opp is long in both blacks?

 

What layout are you catering to?

[keylime]

I'm catering to the fact that LHO has evidently given us a gift because they didn't want to blow the lead. Maybe something like x(x) 9xx(x) Kxxxx xxx. I wish I had a pusher in clubs.

[kenberg]

I'm catering to the fact that LHO has evidently given us a gift because they didn't want to blow the lead. Maybe something like x(x) 9xx(x) Kxxxx xxx. I wish I had a pusher in clubs.

 

That's a hand with both finesses working and clubs splitting. You will make 6, maybe 7 assuming that you win the third club in dummy and run one of the finesses. . But will starting on clubs help when the cards lie not so nicely?

[keylime]

Admittedly if my RHO is on 4-3-2-4, I won't be enjoying this hand.

[kenberg]

I tried thinkng about this further, really without getting anywhere. But a question that occurred to me from the beginning: Just how did W signal for a diamond? If he played a diamond of whatever size, I suppose I need to think about what that implies. Presumably he would be reluctant to pitch a diamond from a four card holding. It also might be of interest to know just which heart was led at trick 1. I would not trust some of my opponent's signals that much but usually the length lead at trick 1 can be trusted when playing against strong opponents.

 

Anyway, I still go with the plan to establish spades and then depend on clubs, aided perhaps by the long clubs being on either side with the king of diamonds, or on my right with the king of hearts.

[Phil]

I would not have played spades here at trick 2. I would test clubs first.

 

There's no layout where this is right Dwayne. Even if LHO has the long spade you've killed your entry to the spade when the diamond hook was working all along.

[PhilKing]

I still go with the plan to establish spades and then depend on clubs, aided perhaps by the long clubs being on either side with the king of diamonds, or on my right with the king of hearts.

 

That's not really a plan as such. It's more about how (or rather when) you establish them in order to preserve multitudinous prospects.

[kenberg]

That's not really a plan as such. It's more about how (or rather when) you establish them in order to preserve multitudinous prospects.

 

Right, but I said a few posts up what I would do. (Largely the same as manodude03. He has, in some cases, a different order. Perhaps his is better, but I don't see why.) The first three tricks are stipulated. I lead a spade, throwing a diamond. I win any return, cash the red aces, and go to the board in clubs. I cash the spades throwing first my two remaining diamonds and then, on the last spade, throw my heart unless E discard the king of hearts. I now have the diamond card on the board, a club for entry, and only clubs in my hand.

 

So this squeezes E in clubs-hearts if he has four clubs and the king of hearts, or it squeezes either player that holds four clubs and the king of diamonds. It loses to a layout where one player holds four clubs and the other holds both kings, and it loses if W holds four clubs and the king of hearts because the squeeze fails against him, at least run this way, because the heart threat is in my hand. I doubt anyone leads from the KTxx against 6NT but maybe he did. I'm betting the king is on my right and rho was not putting it up with the queen in dummy. He figures that if partner led from his ace then that's just too bad.Of course this line wins, as just about any line does, if clubs are 3-3.

 

Of course if I were truly confident that the king of hearts is on my right I would not screw around with all this squeeze stuff. 5+3+1+3=12. (Lead spade, throwing diamond. If a heart comes back let it ride, else win, return to dummy, run spades lead the heart, getting back to hand with a club if the Q is not covered. This will be hard to explain of the heart loses to the king and clubs were 3-3). I think the heart king is on my right, but I would rather trust that I can still bring this in either with clubs 3-3 or with one of the squeeze positions working out.

 

If there is a way to preserve more options, I'm all ears.

 

Added: If rho has ten red card including both kings, and one spade, I could have made it by playing a small diamond from hand at trick 2. He must take it, else I establish spades and claim 5+2+2+3=12. When he does, I have the entries to cash three diamonds and two hearts (including at trick 1). So that's four rounds of diamonds and two rounds of hearts that have been played, and E must yield in either clubs or spades.

But that's pretty dd, and anyway the problem stipulated the first three tricks. I think now it is too late, with the lead in dummy. If I come to hand with a club and lead a diamond, W can rise and play another club, and I don't think I can untangle the entries.

[mikeh]

On reflection, I think the low heart from dummy at trick 1 was an error. Playing the Q would resolve the issue of the heart K. At worst, it would leave doubt as to the 10, but if it holds, you have the certainty of the K being on your left as it was (that's why I said the lead was an error...not that LHO had anything very attractive, but imo a spade seems better).

 

As the hand lay, you were destined to win so long as you declined either red hook if offered by RHO. LHO is x K10xx K10xx Jxxx and is helpless.

[PhilKing]

If there is a way to preserve more options, I'm all ears.

 

Nope. I was thinking, wrongly, that I needed to duck the spade immediately to prevent having to find wo premature discards. Put it down to my self-inflicted bout of food poisoning from a badly defrosted fish pie. :(

[kenberg]

I suppose W was thinking along the lines of: "Surely S has the ace of hearts for his 5NT bid. But no one says he has the Q, and I suppose once spades are established he has 12 tricks. So I lead a heart." Something like that.

 

At trick 1 I would assume the king of hearts lies on my right, and I imagine that if it does he might go wrong of I play low. It's an interesting question. Could partner possibly be underleading the ace/ It would mean that South made a very strange 5NT bid, almost impossible, and partner made a surprising, though perhaps not impossible, lead. All in all, I would expect third hand not to rise if I play small so the Q seems to have some advantages. You still have to worry about the ten.

 

As the play went, I think that W, if he wants to signal at all, might encourage a heart back. Declarer might suspect a bluff and run it. Probably not. But if he keeps quiet in diamonds then declarer might reason: "I will cash three clubs ending in dummy. If they split, I claim. If they do not split, and if W has the club length, I can finesse the diamond. This might be attractive because if the diamond king is with E then this works while the squeeze, at least as I ran it, fails. (A heart club squeeze with the heart threat in the wrong hand.)

[kenberg]

Nope. I was thinking, wrongly, that I needed to duck the spade immediately to prevent having to find wo premature discards. Put it down to my self-inflicted bout of food poisoning from a badly defrosted fish pie. :(

 

Q: Is it worse to go down in a slam or to eat a badly defrosted fish pie?

[mikeh]

Q: Is it worse to go down in a slam or to eat a badly defrosted fish pie?

If you have to ask, you may have done the former, but you surely haven't done the latter

[gszes]

the age old question play to make your contract via a simple

finesse? or go for the more headlines grabbing squeeze.

 

You have to start deciding at trick ONE how to play the hand so dont

touch a card until you come up with a plan. The obvious play for an

extra trick is a vienna coupe hoping an opp with long clubs also holds

the dia K but this hand isnt as simple as that we have more options.

 

The first thing to realize is that neither heart in dummy is good for a squeeze

card because they will disappear on the second heart lead anyway. We may

also have to throw an opponent in before spades are set up. With this in mind

we should play the heart Q at trick 1 not so much to "discover" where the K is

but to do our utmost to keep the heart J hidden from the opps as long as

possible. Playing the heart Q (if covered) may also (depending on the play)

allow us to take a finesse in hearts against the T with rho.

 

trick 1 heart Q if it holds while we "know" lho holds the K it is the advantage

of the hidden heart J that might pay off if lho holds the presumed long spades.

trick 2 spade Q

trick 3 spade K assuming they dont split did we luck out and have long spades with

lho??? if so when we continue with trick 4 spade K (dia pitch) trick 5 spade (dia pitch)

lho will have to lead and they must avoid a dia or a heart and they may well be tempted

to return a heat since we may well have decided to play low on the first heart if we had

J. If lho returns a red suit the hand is over. If they return a club we can then decide to

either play for the vienna coupe (dia k and clubs) or take a dia finesse. Most of us will

want to play for the squeeze because we can make with either the clubs breaking

33 or the player with the dia K also has the long clubs (has to be much higher than 5050.

 

trick 4 spade A pitch a dia

trick 5 spade pitch a dia assuming rho wins and returns a red card

trick 6 red ace

trick 7 red ace

trick 8 club to K

trick 9 spade pitch the dia Q

trick 10 spade pitch a heart

 

dummy has void void J xx

your hand void void void AQx

 

if either had started with the dia K and 4+ clubs they were squeezed on the

previous trick down to 3 cards and they cannot hold the dia K and 3 clubs

so you will be able to claim. This hand may have been as simple as taking

the dia finesse and it still might work if rho also had the long clubs but it will

be a lot more entertaining if lho had the dia K and the long clubs. the planning

starts at trick 1 and do not touch a card until you think the entire hand through.

[kenberg]

I agree with the above. However, on the current set up the Q holds at T1, we play the spades and find out that there are four of them on our right. Suppose lho encourages a heart play and, when we give up a spade, a heart comes through. I assume we play the Jack. Now what?

 

Cases:

1. Long clubs on our right, diamond king on the right. We are blessed, sacrifice another virgin, either play works.

2. Long clubs on the right, diamond king on the left. Nothing works.

3. Long clubs on the left, diamond king on the right. Finesse works, squeeze doesn't.

4. Long clubs on the left, diamond king on the left. Squeeze works, finesse doesn't.

 

Tough call between 3 and 4. The shortness in spades is an argument for 4.

 

To run the squeeze, you first must cash the diamond ace. A Vienna Coup, I think, but whatever it is you have to do it. Bye-bye finesse. As near as I can see, there is no way to have your cake and eat it too.

 

 

But W signaled for a diamond. Hmmmm!.

 

It seems to me that W can see the long spades in dummy and count tricks. Declarer bid clubs. W knows the diamond-club squeeze will work and so the last thing he wants is to discourage a diamond finesse. "Moi? The diamond king? Heavens no, I have this heart card." If he signals, in whatever mode they use, for a diamond should I believe him? A real question, but I usually believe my opponents when they give me the combination to the safe.I'm not clever enough to pull off a scam and I assume the same goes for them. Still, I am often clever enough to just shut up about my diamond holding and so this is suspicious.

 

Of course i will get it right. Of course.

Edited April 9, 2013 by kenberg

[kenberg]

One more thought about this. Suppose that at T1 we put up the Q and it holds. That places the K with W. Perhaps, in sort of an inverse Restricted Choice, it also places the K of diamonds. Given a heart suit headed by the king and a diamond suit with only spots, and with the auction suggesting the opponents have controls in both suits but length in neither, it is likely W would have selected a diamond lead.

Once you place the diamond king with W, the squeeze almost, but not quite, plays itself. You decline the finesse and go to the board and run the spades hoping for the best. But if the opponents don't force you to cash the ace of diamonds by leading a diamond when in with the spade, declarer had better do it himself or he will just have the "bad luck" of clubs not splitting and no one discarding one.

 

All in all, an interesting hand.

[han]

On reflection, I think the low heart from dummy at trick 1 was an error. Playing the Q would resolve the issue of the heart K. At worst, it would leave doubt as to the 10, but if it holds, you have the certainty of the K being on your left as it was (that's why I said the lead was an error...not that LHO had anything very attractive, but imo a spade seems better).

 

In my experience people don't often underlead kings against 6NT, especially when they have 2 that are likely both well placed. This auction seems especially dangerous for underleading the heart king. By playing low on the first trick you almost guaranteed the contract if the heart king was onside, while playing the queen would leave you in a much worse position if the king was onside.

 

Are you sure your knowledge of LHO's dubious lead isn't influencing your thoughts here?

 

By the way, interesting play problem.

[mikeh]

In my experience people don't often underlead kings against 6NT, especially when they have 2 that are likely both well placed. This auction seems especially dangerous for underleading the heart king. By playing low on the first trick you almost guaranteed the contract if the heart king was onside, while playing the queen would leave you in a much worse position if the king was onside.

 

Are you sure your knowledge of LHO's dubious lead isn't influencing your thoughts here?

 

By the way, interesting play problem.

Quite possibly: I was declarer and played low at the table: it was only when reading those who were concerned about the location of the K that I suggested that we could force that disclosure by playing the Q.

 

As for the opening lead, it was an error, but in fairness to the leader (with whom I have a particularly significant relationship), she had a tough choice: K10xx in both reds, Jxxx in my 'known' suit, and stiff in a suit in which I had implied at least tolerance by allowing partner to bid 6♠ if he felt it right to do so. I would lead a spade, and she agreed with me after the hand. But then I'd have no story, since I would have gone down :P

 

I noted only when proofing this that kenberg already picked up on the diamond K inference.

 

Indeed, one advantage to playing the Q at trick 1 is that if it holds, one has a decent inference that the diamond K is offside for precisely the reason you give for suggesting that few would lead hearts on this auction against this contract. When one finds out that she has a stiff spade, it is fairly easy to tentatively place her with both kings and a problematic club holding. Playing low from dummy deprives you of this line of thinking, for whatever that may be worth.

[han]

I certainly agree that west had an unpleasant choice of opening leads.

[kenberg]

Iwas thinking about the W lead and the implications. As soon as W leads a small red card, there is reason to believe that she has the king of the other suit. If W holds no king or both kings it's a free choice, but if she holds one of the kings she is apt to choose the other suit. This is not an ironclad thing but probably enough so that after the heart lead, regardless of whether it goes small top the 9 or up with the Q holding, or on a different deal up with the Q covered, probably after the heart duck the evidence favors running the club diamond squeeze rather than running the diamond finesse.

 

The longer I think about this hand the more i like it.

[lrussell]

Playing the ♥Q from dummy at trick 1 would be a mistake when West has

 

♠x

♥10xxxxx

♦K109x

♣Jx

 

Good hand.