[Deanrover]

Scoring: IMP

After a stayman auction you wind 4 Spades. West leads the two of spades and you play H2, H3, HQ, HK. D4, DA, D3, D2. H6 HJ H7 H4. Trump back, East discarding Club 6

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Scoring: IMP

After a stayman auction you wind 4 Spades. West leads the two of spades and you play H2, H3, HQ, HK. D4, DA, D3, D2. H6 HJ H7 H4. Trump back, East discarding Club 6

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Is what you have left, presuming you win in hand.

[luke warm]

i don't see any hope ))))) let me try that hidden text stuff

Spoiler

from the diagrammed position, lead a club toward the Q... i can't crossruff, they have 2 tricks already and there are 2 trumps out

[jtfanclub]

Ruff a H, praying the A falls. Then D to the K and club towards the Q.

[Trpltrbl]

Play K of ♦ and hope honor appears. Ruff a ♥ and ruff a♦. If all else fails, I will play up to the Q♣.
I tend not to trust opps carding in situations like this. It's too easy and in match against expert pair I doubt they will show you what they have.


Mike

[inquiry]

Here is my solution. Since this seems a very nice problem and perhaps too adavanced for beginner/Intermediate, my solution is probably very wrong and way more convoluted than necessary (if I am right, great problem dean). Thus, I have hidden it... :-)

NOTE: Since DEAN has provided "the solution", I have unhidden this attempt...

Ok, West has four spades and east one. That is a fact. A couple of minor clues also here. West jumped up with the heart Jack on the second round, so we are fairly sure the heart nine is with eAST. The club discard by east is likely to be from a five card suit. Why? Eat lead the diamond 4, sounds like a three or four card suit (third or fourth best). So East has 1S, and 3 or 4D. Can he have five hearts and be pitching a club? Yes, but only if playing a very deep game. So East is 1-4-4-4 or 1-3-4-5 with 34 ether way in the reds.

One line of play that I am fond of is lead the heart 8 in the hopes west had AJx (i will not be brave enough to lead the TEN and let it ride if WEST fails to cover with ace in effort to pin the heart 9) *** This line below is based upon assumption heart ACE does not show.. for when HEART ACE does show see next post***. Ruff the heart in dummy,and now play a club to the ACE, and ruff a second heart. Now, I duck a club all around, leading low from dummy. The idea is playing WEST for 4-3-4-2 or 4-4-3-2 with Kx of clubs. When west wins, he has to lead a diamond to my king or a spade to me. I pull trumps and cash my club Queen.

This sollution doesn;t matter which four card red suit WEST hads, but he has to have a doubleton club king, and the cards have to be played in this precise order.

This line has the hidden benefit of ALSO working when WEST is 4-3-3-3 with the king of clubs. Because when you lead the fouth heart to ruff, WEST wil lhave to either discard a club (in which case he makes his club king stiff and the duck works again, discard one of his origianal 3D, in which case isntead of a club from dummy, you can play a Diamond to your ace, pull trumps, and lead a club towards the king, or "discard" one of his trumps, in which case you overtrump, play diamond to ACE, use spade ace to pull west last trump, and lead towards the club king while you still ahve the spade JACK to control diamonds.

As long as west has the club king, it looks like it is cold, so rather than be pessimettic like luke warm, I am actually quite optomistic that I am making.

[Deanrover]

Hint to Ben:

Spoiler

You are along the right lines with your figuring of the distributions. However, if you are playing clubs to be 2-5, don't you think it more likely that the King is with the five? In any case, it is.

[inquiry]

Ok, I will give. My solution, catering to west being 4-3-3-3. 4-3-4-2. or 4-4-3-2 (or even 4-4-4-1) and also holdng the club king seemed right to me. Clearly Dean has another solution in mind. I suspected so, because the solution I envisioned included a non-material squeeze on WEST when he was 4-3-3-3 right out of adventures in card play, hardly material for a beginner post.

On the other hand, if dean's hint is correct on the location of the club king, I see nothing short of a misplay by west holding AJxx of hearts (East K9 x) where you can now pin the heart nine by leading the heart ten will work.

So, if the club King is with EAST, you have to play for a lucky heart position. You can try heart TEN hoping to pin the nine (WEST AJxx), or you can try heart eight, hoping someone (west?) had Axx of hearts originally), and EVEN then it is very adventure in cardplayish... you have to stip EAST down to two diamonds and three clubs, cash your last heart winner (after pulling trumps), to force him to 3 clubs and one diamond. Cash diamond ace, to remove the exit, the play a club towards the Q9x playing the intra-finessee (insert the nine). If East comes to just two clubs, cash club ACE and duck a club while retaining the diamond ace.

Boy, still a tuff problem. Now I suspect your line might include an intra-finesse much earlier than trick 11 (club to the 9), and then leading the club Queen from dummy to pin the jack or ten with WEST, but I can't imagine that line working against good defense. For isntance, the fellow who wins the intra-finessee while trumps are still out can simply return a club even. You can't pull trumps without losing hearts at the end, and you can't enjoy your ill-gotten second club trick with trumps still out...

Here is the squeeze ending... that would work if EAST has club king...

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Lead low heart and ruff out the ♥A. Spade-King to ace, and pull the last trump with the jack. East must keep three clubs or you duck a club. So he throws a heart here on the last trump.. now cash the last trump with EAST to play...

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This is a more typical squeeze than the non-material one I have hidden above, but again, a complex play for beginner post. IF the heart ACE falls on round three from WEST, I might very well play for this one.

Maybe I need a bigger hint, these beginner problems are always so hard for me... BTW, I would like to steal this hand for a book on squeezes I am working on... becasue I think it is a neat, expert level problem... so don't spoil it by showing me some rinky-dinky little easy solution I am overlooking... :-)

[Deanrover]

OK. You were right that West has stiff heart ace left. So ruff the eight, pull two rounds of trump, then cash your ten of hearts. You are now down to

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And East can only hold minor suits. If he has zero or one diamond left, then you can cash your diamond and lead a low club to dummy, covering whatever West plays. As long as East has King + one or both of Jack and Ten of clubs you will make on an endplay. You will also make if you can guess to play west for Jack-Ten doubleton. If East has kept two diamonds and two clubs then play Ace and another club, ducked in dummy, and win the enforced diamond reutrn in hand to claim the club Queen at T 13.

[paulhar]

Deanrover, on Aug 10 2004, 09:23 AM, said:

OK. You were right that East has stiff heart ace left.

You mean that West popped with the HJ with J9x left?

[Deanrover]

Sorry, that was a typo. But it would have been a most cunnign defence :-)

[inquiry]

Why I chose to play West for Club Kx or Kxx instead of EAST...

Welll, for one reason, I like the ending better. For another the line of defense choosen. Someone with Jx or xx or Tx in clubs and four trumps is more likely to start clubs in an effort to wangle a club ruff than someone with Kx.

Second, to make when EAST has the club King, WEST has to ahve specifically, HAJx, not HAJ9x. So while playing west to have 2 or 3 clubs to the King rather than EAST having five the king looks against the odds (king more likely to be in the long hand (with 4 or 5) than in the short hand), there are effects of the other suits to consider. I didn't work out the odds initially, but the implication of the trump lead and continution and the fact that WEST is likely to have doubleton club and didn't lead one, pushed me towards the line I proposed. And, if you ruff the heart eight, and the heart ACE doesn't fall, you have no choice but to play the line I suggested. However, if you ruff the heart 8 and west drops the heart ACE, you have a chance to fall back on the second line.... (strip squeeze on East)... the line I gave first assumed the fourth heart was no good... (else seems like the problem would have mentioned that).

Ben