Exercise Number 8

[pilowsky]

Bored with going down in normal contracts I decided to to do some book larnin and get deceived by a real expert.

I came to exercise number 8 where I was told: "that by laying down the ♣A and then losing three more club tricks to East I would be able to ...satisfy...BL.".

I loaded the hand into BBO and onto a teaching table where I allowed the robots to sit W E and N. They followed Clyde's bidding (almost) to the letter and played the hand as he specified. with the result that I made 4♥-1 .

Not good. I turned on the double-dummy and tried again: computer still said no.

Then I found another line that did not seem to involve squeezing West in diamonds and spades.

What am I doing wrong?

Here's the hand:

After the bidding West leads the ♠Q, you take it with the Ace, draw trumps in four rounds and the rest is up to you.

[hv=pc=n&s=s865hakqj64dca842&w=sqjt93ht832daqt8c&n=sak42h75dk742c763&e=s7h9dj9653ckqjt95&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1h1s2n3c4hppp]399|300[/hv]

 

fwiw, when I gave to GIB, the bidding was:

After the 1NT East always "thinks" for a few seconds before bidding.[hv=d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1h1s1n2c4hppp]133|100[/hv]

Here's what happened when I make the contract.

 

- and if she's confused - imagine how I feel...

[Cyberyeti]

OK, let's itemise what we know:

 

W has 5 spades (he overcalled and his partner followed at trick 1), 4 hearts (you drew trumps) and 4 diamonds (otherwise E bid clubs with 6 diamonds and 5 clubs). He also overcalled at the one level so presumably has the diamond A, thus you can squeeze him in diamonds and spades. You have to lose 3 tricks to allow this squeeze to work, if E switches to diamonds before cashing all his clubs you can discard as you did. If he cashes all his clubs you get to this position:

 

[hv=pc=n&s=s86h4dc&w=sjthdac&n=sa4hdkc&e=shdj9c5]399|300[/hv]

 

Where leading your last trump squeezes W.

 

I'm confused you say you went -1 as the play shows you making 10

[pilowsky]

What confused me was that the recommended line was "You now need to lose enough tricks to set up the squeeze, so you start by laying down the ♣A and playing another club"

This line of play ended badly.

Unless laying down the ♣A means looking at it carefully and not actually playing it.

[manudude03]

You can make by playing ace of clubs and other after drawing trumps. If East doesn't cash all the clubs right away to play a diamond instead, you can make a loser-on-loser play, otherwise you leave Kx in spades and diamonds to allow you to ruff a minor (coming down to stiff king of diamonds) and then squeeze West.

[DavidKok]

Love is correct, but it would help to show how you failed when playing the ace.

 

The key idea is to squeeze West in spades and diamonds. For that your goal is to reduce to precisely the 3-card ending shown by Cyberyeti, being on lead in the South hand. To this end you need to enlist some help from the defence, as you need to get rid of your small clubs (by losing them). So after drawing trump you play the ace of clubs and another club, intending to cheerfully lose three rounds (pitching the fourth spade and small diamonds). Of note here is that East need not help you with your squeeze - they could instead cash only one or two rounds of clubs, before switching to a diamond. In that case you play loser-on-loser (as you did and Cyberyeti pointed out) by pitching a losing club. If instead East takes three rounds of clubs and then switches to a diamond you ruff in hand, and you have arrived at the desired ending.

 

Without seeing the play when going for the squeeze, my guess is you either failed to ruff the diamond after 4 rounds of clubs, or discarded incorrectly from North.

[hrothgar]

thanks for posting a fun hand

 

I am miserable at working these out

[Cyberyeti]

What confused me was that the recommended line was "You now need to lose enough tricks to set up the squeeze, so you start by laying down the ♣A and playing another club"

This line of play ended badly.

Unless laying down the ♣A means looking at it carefully and not actually playing it.

 

What exactly did you do (the play shown leaves you with 10 tricks) if you discard too many spades or diamonds you can butcher it, but as long as you have ♠Kx, ♦Kx the trick before the diagram I gave you should be fine

[nige1]

[hv=pc=n&s=s865hakqj64dca842&w=sqjt93ht832daqt8c&n=sak42h75dk742c763&e=s7h9dj9653ckqjt95&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1h1s2n3c4hppp]300|300|

Pilowsky 'Bored with going down in normal contracts I decided to to do some book larnin and get deceived by a real expet. I came to exercise number 8 where I was told: "that by laying down the ♣A and then losing three more club tricks to East I would be able to ...satisfy...BL.".I loaded the hand into BBO and onto a teaching table where I allowed the robots to sit W E and N. They followed Clyde's bidding (almost) to the letter and played the hand as he specified. with the result that I made 4♥-1 . Not good. I turned on the double-dummy and tried again: computer still said no. Then I found another line that did not seem to involve squeezing West in diamonds and spades. What am I doing wrong? Here's the hand: After the bidding West leads the ♠Q, you take it with the Ace, draw trumps in four rounds and the rest is up to you.'

+++++++++++++++++++++

Beautiful ending, Pilowsky! :) Well spotted :) [/hv]