[kgr]

---

E/NS
Bidding:
1C-1S
1NT-3H
4D-4H
The play:
♦7 for the ace.
♥10 which holds
♥9 for Ace of South
♦K
♦Q ruffed by West
♠ to the Q
and ♠ back to the ace
small ♠ ruffed by East
This is now the situation:

---

I now did play small Club to the Q taken by North with the Ace.
North returned Heart and I had to give another Club trick and a diamond.
...down 2.
How should I play this hand?

[Free]

Why don't you keep it simple? Duck first trick, and try to ruff your ♦ and ♣ losers. You have 1♥ loser, 2♦s and 3 ♣s. One of them can be discarded on a high ♠, so you only need to ruff 2 tricks.

So:

Duck a ♦ at trick 1, this way you keep control over ♦s. Whatever they return, take it and play ♣. Because of the fact that we don't have a singleton, you should expect the trumps to be 3-2, so this is quite a safe line of play imo.

[inquiry]

Looks fairly easy.. you have eight sure tricks (3H+3S+1D+1C) and can develop two more by ruffin minors in your hand (in general ruffing once in both hands will gain only one trick). Or you can play to establish a long Spade (ruff one plus the long one).

Or duck first diamond, wind second and play a club to the queen. Now they can't stop you ruffing two minors in your hand...

Finally, you line works (although not right one), if you ruff with the HEART king so that you have heart ten left in dummy not king. You have won at this point 6 tricks at this point and you lead out the ♣K. If norht wins you are in contorl, you ruff diamond contuation n dummy, cross to the club queen and claim. If he rerutns a club, you win the queen, pull the last trump with your queen (dropoing dummy's ten), and claim. And if he backs a trump? You win your queen in hand and claim.

And if north ducks teh club king? You overtake the heart ten (pulling the last trump) and cash your two good spades for 10 tricks.

Ruff BIG... :-)

Ben

[Rebound]

I'm sure there are better players than I who will offer the same or better advice, but just for giggles, here's what I would do. (And I welcome ay criticism.)

I would duck the opening diamond lead. If they lead them again I will win, then ruff my last diamond in hand and lead the heart Q.

If they switch, you should have no further trouble.

[inquiry]

Welcome to the Bridge Base Forum Rebound...

ben

[Flame]

look at your last diagram, why are you going down instead of making ?
answer: because you had no entry to your hand to take your 2 high spades, so why not fix it by saving the 10 of heart instead of the K of heart ?

[kgr]

I verified play to duck ♦A and play to make two ruffs in leader hand.
First I thought that ♦ return and later ♠ return by defence would kill your entries to dummy and you would not be able to get all trumps before cashing ♠AK in case they return a second ♠ after taking the first trump with the A.
But in that case you can ruff your last ♣ of course.
...BTW: will this line still works if opps play ♥A at trick two and another ♥ and a thirth one when they get in with ♣A?

.... so other question:
- what is the advantage of holding up ♦A? Is it not the same if you play ♦A and return a ♦?
- In fact I took line to setup ♠, but had entry problem to my hand and the end. Should have kept a high ♥ in my hand as suggested.
- Any tips on how to analyze this better at the table? (...probably difficult question)

[Flame]

I dont have time to explain the all thinking process you should do with this hand, but i think your line of ruffing a spade developing ur last spade is much better then the other line suggested of ruffing a club and a diamond in your hand, the other line might go down on 4-2 spade break.

[inquiry]

kgr, on Jul 26 2004, 11:18 AM, said:

I verified play to duck ♦A and play to make two ruffs in leader hand.
First I thought that ♦ return and later ♠ return by defence would kill your entries to dummy and you would not be able to get all trumps before cashing ♠AK in case they return a second ♠ after taking the first trump with the A.
But in that case you can ruff your last ♣ of course.
...BTW: will this line still works if opps play ♥A at trick two and another ♥ and a thirth one when they get in with ♣A?

.... so other question:
- what is the advantage of holding up ♦A? Is it not the same if you play ♦A and return a ♦?
- In fact I took line to setup ♠, but had entry problem to my hand and the end. Should have kept a high ♥ in my hand as suggested.
- Any tips on how to analyze this better at the table? (...probably difficult question)

Why duck !DA.. you are going to play for two ruffs in your hand.. by ducking Diamond ACE you preseve an entry required for this line (assuming that iis the way you are goiing).

Would this line work if they played !HA, !H and aonther !H when in with club ACE? No. You can not score two ruffs in hand with only one trump. Against that, the person with the club ace must have the thrid trump... so they maynot be able to do this. IF they do, you, by default, revert the the set up the long spade line (being sure to keep bigger heart in your own hand)....