MP declarer problem

[AL78]

[hv=pc=n&s=saqhq752da95c9742&n=st975hadqj3caqjt3&d=s&v=0&b=11&a=1n(12-14)p2c(Stayman)2hdp3nppp]266|200[/hv]

 

Matchpoints. West leads the ♥J. What is your planned line of play?

[jillybean]

This is completely out of my comfort zone but here goes.

 

I hope ♥J was from top of sequence and not from KJTxx

♥A

 

♦Q, if E plays K I will win in hand and play to ♣A and hook spade on way back,

I need to set up 2 tricks in ♠ or ♦ unless the ♣K falls singleton.

[Cyberyeti]

This is completely out of my comfort zone but here goes.

 

I hope ♥J was from top of sequence and not from KJTxx

♥A

 

♦Q, if E plays K I will win in hand and play to ♣A and hook spade on way back,

I need to set up 2 tricks in ♠ or ♦ unless the ♣K falls singleton.

 

It's very unlikely to be from KJ10xx as it was his partner who bid hearts, and he's fielded a psyche if he has that

[thepossum]

Small spade to the AQ - not sure after that = I struggle on some hands planning more than 1 step ahead

Which heart does East drop under the Ace

Does the Spade finesse win or lose?

[smerriman]

If we take a finesse and it loses, they'll clear hearts and then we'll be down every time the ♣K is offside.

 

I think I'd just play clubs from the top. If the opponents clear hearts we then have a guaranteed 9 tricks and free shot at 10 by taking the diamond then spade finesses into the safe hand.

[sfi]

I'm also giving up on the club finesse. Even at matchpoints I'm happy to trade a club trick for chances elsewhere.

[AL78]

Small spade to the AQ - not sure after that = I struggle on some hands planning more than 1 step ahead

Which heart does East drop under the Ace

Does the Spade finesse win or lose?

 

♥6. The spade finesse loses and the ♥8 is played.

[mikeh]

The hand is more complex than has been noted so far.

 

The question is how often east will bid hearts. I assume that the weak 1N is standard for the OP field, but even so, not everyone would bid 2H here, on a bad suit.

 

Against any other auction we’re almost certainly not getting a heart lead, and we’d have all the time in the world to take the club hook without much risk, even on the most probable lead (based on our holdings) of a diamond.

 

This complicates matters because it’s mps and we’d not like to simply surrender a bad board by playing the club Ace at trick two…unless, of course, we drop the stuff king, lol.

 

As to what line to take, I was mulling over options but I now ‘know’ that the spade king is offside, which makes it difficult to be objective. My post, therefore, is merely to point out that we shouldn’t make our plan based solely on what happened at our table.

[AL78]

jillybean got the right answer. I took the spade hook immediately which lost and when my ♥Q was knocked out I didn't think there was any chance of making, so took a failing club hook and went two down for a bottom.

 

If I'd have thought about this a bit more I would have worked out the club finesse cannot possibly work with RHO's overcall and should play for them to have a stiff king. If I take that line I make the contract for an average plus.

 

The full deal:

 

[hv=pc=n&s=st975hadqj3caqjt3&w=s863hkt9643dk86ck&n=saqhq752da95c9742&e=skj42hj8dt742c865]399|300[/hv]

 

[Cyberyeti]

Well you make an overtrick if you get it right.

 

You have 5 clubs, a marked diamond finesse with E out of hearts, 2 hearts and a spade, so that's 10.

[smerriman]

jillybean got the right answer.

It seems clubs from the top works too :) Were the auctions and lead identical at other tables?

[AL78]

It seems clubs from the top works too :) Were the auctions and lead identical at other tables?

 

No idea about the auctions but the other four pairs were in 3NT N. One pair got a low diamond lead and made 9 tricks. One pair got a low spade lead (nice) and somehow still managed to go one off, no idea how as after that lead you make at least nine tricks even if you don't drop the stiff offside club king. The other two pairs got the same lead as me (so maybe they got the heart overcall as well), one going one off, the other making 11 tricks.