7NT with a bad break

[mike777]

We can't make this hand if RHO guards clubs, since no single nor double squeeze operates: one needs the threat(s) behind, not in front of, the guarding hand.

 

So assume LHO has both blacks, odd tho it is to have led from Jxxx(x) in clubs....maybe he had no good lead.

 

We want to reduce to an end position in which he can't keep Jxx Jxx in the blacks.

 

If we simply cash 5 hearts after the finding out the spade position, we will have reduced to a 6 card ending: 10 void Q AQ10x opposite AQxx void Ax void.

 

That permits LHO to hold onto the Jxx in both blacks. We can of course force him to pitch from one of these by cashing the diamond A, a suit in which he has been forced to void himself, but that leaves him with an easy club pitch, since we can't cash the diamond and still get back to the clubs.

 

It is all too easy to stumble into this trap. The key is to mentally play out the hand: to picture the holdings you want to create. if you do this, and it takes practice and focus, then you will see that you can avoid this, and make the trap inescapable, by the counter-intuitive (to an inexperienced player) play of cashing that diamond A early.

 

Now, doing so negates any chance of establishing the diamond Q as a trick....but for that to happen, LHO has to have both blacks guarded AND the diamond K. If that were the case, one dodges the bullet of not cashing the diamond Ace because in the 6 card endgame, LHO is already in a 3 suit squeeze!

 

However, given that we are playing LHO for 8 black cards, and 5 reds, and RHO for 3 (or fewer) clubs and the rest reds, the odds are against LHO holding the diamond K (tho his dangerous club lead makes it not as unlikely as a priori)

 

 

 

sigh

 

 

I will never be able to do all of that at the table under pressure.....

 

 

Is there any kind of shortcut...not best... alternative?

[CamHenry]

As it turned out, LHO held:

♠Jxxx

♥J

♦Kxxxx

♣Jxx

 

Yes, I should have tested ♥ first, but the J falling meant I could overtake safely for my 5 tricks there. I ended up making when the ♣J fell; not how I'd have liked the story to end!

 

(For what it's worth, cargobeep, it was MPs in a weak field - so -1 is the same 0 as -13 would have been, since no other pair bid grand).

[Free]

This is true, it looks like good technique, but doesn't help you in this case.

Apparently it would have helped me, since the J drops :P