Play of the hand

[TMorris]

This may be completely obvious but at the time is wasn't to me so I would welcome advice as it is bugging me.

 

Playing 4cM & weak NT at IMPs. Your opponents at the other table play strong NT and 5cM.

 

On the auction

 

P P 1♣ P

1♦ 1♥ 3♦ P

3 ♥ P 3NT All Pass

 

You get a low heart lead

 

Dummy

 

♠ KQ84

♥ Q62

♦ J1042

♣ K4

 

Declarer

 

♠A65

♥ J7

♦ AK63

♣AJ95

 

You win trick 1 with the Jack

On the Ace of diamonds you get 8 on your left and 7 on your right.

 

In principle the opponents are playing reverse attitude signals & standard count.

 

On 2 rounds of spades your RHO discards the 8 of clubs

 

How do you proceed from here?

 

It seemed to me either

 

a) take diamond finesse

b) cash K of diamonds and take club finesse if Queen of diamonds doesn't fall

 

are there alternatives and which is best?

[Behemont1]

E obviously holds a singleton ♠ and 5carded ♥ suit. so he is probably 43 in the minors..why not cashing another spade and see what his discard is gonna be. the 2nd option of those you proposed has certainly a higher % to be a winning one...but i would cash a 3rd spade now...what is E's discard?

[JLOGIC]

I admit this is a kneejerk reaction and I have not calculated it at all but I'd be surprised if it was not right to play a heart at trick 2, when they run hearts pitch a club a diamond and a spade from hand, a club and a diamond from dummy. Now at some point cash the club king, cash the AK of diamonds, if that doesn't work play your ace of clubs and pitch a diamond from dummy. Your endgame will be Ax of spades, the diamond and the CJ opposite the KQxx of spades and surely someone has been squeezed or spades are breaking. I guess this loses when RHO is guarding clubs and diamonds still and LHO guards the spades, that would require at least Qxx of diamonds and Qxx of clubs on your right, if they had the AK of hearts they would probably have opened. If LHO has a heart honor we may choose to pull an audible depending on what LHO pitches also so that line is very appealing to me.

[TMorris]

E obviously holds a singleton ♠ and 5carded ♥ suit. so he is probably 43 in the minors..why not cashing another spade and see what his discard is gonna be. the 2nd option of those you proposed has certainly a higher % to be a winning one...but i would cash a 3rd spade now...what is E's discard?

 

If you cash a 3rd spade I imagine the discard is a small club

[TMorris]

I admit this is a kneejerk reaction and I have not calculated it at all but I'd be surprised if it was not right to play a heart at trick 2, when they run hearts pitch a club a diamond and a spade from hand, a club and a diamond from dummy. Now at some point cash the club king, cash the AK of diamonds, if that doesn't work play your ace of clubs and pitch a diamond from dummy. Your endgame will be Ax of spades, the diamond and the CJ opposite the KQxx of spades and surely someone has been squeezed or spades are breaking. I guess this loses when RHO is guarding clubs and diamonds still and LHO guards the spades, that would require at least Qxx of diamonds and Qxx of clubs on your right, if they had the AK of hearts they would probably have opened. If LHO has a heart honor we may choose to pull an audible depending on what LHO pitches also so that line is very appealing to me.

 

Thank you for this, much appreciated, not something I would have thought of at all. It would indeed work.

[JLOGIC]

Well..

 

A) It is counter intuitive to take no finesses on this hand and also not test spades...while going after hearts so don't feel too bad :P

 

B ) I am not sure it is the right line, I'll let Rainer tell you if it is :P Obviously testing spades and diamonds and hooking clubs is a very high percentage line.

 

C) If you do take a line like this, you always have to consider what happens if they don't cash the hearts. In this case obviously once a third heart is played RHO must cash since otherwise he is cut off and we can hook a diamond safely, but sometimes weird plays when in with the second heart break up your entries or whatever, especially when you are going to block yourself somewhat by pitching a club from dummy. In this case nothing bad happens but just keep that in mind before trying stuff like this.