[Hanoi5]

You got to 5♦:

1♦-2♠-3♠-4♠
X-Pa-5♦-All Pass

♠---
♥xxx
♦AJxxxx
♣ATxx

♠K9
♥Qxx
♦KQTxx
♣KQ9

They lead a spade, diamonds are 1-1. I rejected the idea of an Ace being underled so I ruffed, enter my hand with a trump and ruffed again, what now?

[kayin801]

What spade did they lead, and can I get vul/format? Need to know more about lefty's preempt please

But I'm assuming from your commentary that righty definitely held the A, since you'd probably mention whether the ♠K was covered by the second spade ruff. I guess before ruffing the second ♠ I'd cash a couple diamonds and then the ♣K before getting dummy to make a decision. Maybe they won't discard all spades, or if they do ruffing the K later will reveal a 7-4 break or something unusual.

(If lefty covers the ♠A (sneaky lefty) then we have the additional chance that the ♥AK are on our right, so I'd probably play the ♣ suit from the top.)

I like the meta-game involved by pitching a heart on the first spade. If we were really worried about hearts then we would have ruffed at trick 1, therefore we must have the A, therefore it must be right to try to make some club tricks! There's probably a deeper layer to that that I missed though.

[bluecalm]

Clubs 3 times. If they are 3-3 claim. If they are 4-2 ruff last club and:
a)LHO has 2 of them, play for AK in RHO's hand (not too likely)
b)RHO has 2 of them, play for 6-Hx-1-2 with LHO

[whereagles]

Well, not easy to get a full count here, so I'd just play the odds. Finessing clubs through RHO should be like 50%, whereas playing clubs for the drop and resorting to leading towards the heart queen if that fails should is just about the same, i.e. 52% on paper.

So the solution is to play slowly and look at RHO to see if he shows interest in the play. If he does, he's got Jxxx of clubs. If he goes casual, he should have 3 clubs

[bluecalm]

Quote

hereas playing clubs for the drop and resorting to leading towards the heart queen if that fails should is just about the same, i.e. 52% on paper.

Could you explain how did you arrive at those figures ?
Playing for drop is bigger chance than finesse and you have added bonus of heart play.

[Hanoi5]

whereagles, on 2011-April-28, 07:04, said:

Well, not easy to get a full count here, so I'd just play the odds. Finessing clubs through RHO should be like 50%, whereas playing clubs for the drop and resorting to leading towards the heart queen if that fails should is just about the same, i.e. 52% on paper.

So the solution is to play slowly and look at RHO to see if he shows interest in the play. If he does, he's got Jxxx of clubs. If he goes casual, he should have 3 clubs

Although I'm not very fond of trying to determine interest of opponents in the play, I'm afraid RHO was behind a screen so I couldn't really do that. During the play I thought of playing a small club to the 9 but figured it wasn't such a good idea. Last night while beating myself for losing 10 imps when they made at the other table playing from the other side and receiving a club lead I wondered whether eliminating spades and then playing a heart to the Queen wouldn't be a nice deceptive play, but no one has mentioned it. I believe throwing away a heart on the spade won't be very successful as hearts are the weak suit of the table and if a club is led it would be from the Jack, which doesn't look so interesting.

[gnasher]

Some possible lines:
(1) Cash a trump, a club, and another trump ending in dummy, then take a club finesse against East. Works when East has ♣J or LHO has singleton ♣J.
(2) Draw trumps, test clubs, ruff the fourth club, cross to dummy in trumps, and lead a heart to the queen. Works when clubs are 3-3, ♣J is doubleton, ♥AK are onside, or a heart honour is singleton offside.
(3) Draw trumps, test clubs, ruff the fourth club, cross to dummy in trumps, and lead a heart planning to duck hearts twice. Works when clubs are 3-3, ♣J is doubleton, or a heart honour is singleton/doubleton offside. Also works if RHO rises from ♥AK in the 4-card ending (which I hope is unlikely).

It would be nice to know the vulnerability and what spade they led, but I'd probably go for (2) or (3). I'd decide which one after I'd seen what they did on the clubs and diamonds.

[nige1]

gnasher, on 2011-April-28, 07:50, said:

Some possible lines:
(1) Cash a trump, a club, another trump ending in dummy, then take a club finesse against East. Works when East has ♣J or LHO has singleton ♣J.
(2) Draw trumps, test clubs, ruff the fourth club, cross to dummy in trumps, and lead a heart to the queen. Works when clubs are 3-3, ♣J is doubleton, ♥AK are onside, or a heart honour is singleton offside.
(3) Draw trumps, test clubs, ruff the fourth club, cross to dummy in trumps, and lead a heart planning to duck hearts twice. Works when clubs are 3-3, ♣J is doubleton, or a heart honour is singleton/doubleton offside. Also works if RHO rises from ♥AK in the 4-card ending (which I hope is unlikely).
It would be nice to know the vulnerability and what spade they led, but I'd probably go for (2) or (3). I'd decide which one after I'd seen what they did on the clubs and diamonds.

I like Gnasher's line: Draw trumps, Eliminate spades. Test clubs. Now, If LHO is short in clubs then heart to queen (2) else duck (3).

[Phil]

LHO appears to be 6=1 in the pointeds, but with bad spades, and vulnerable, he might be 7=1.

With ♥AKxxx and a spade raise, RHO probably sticks in a lead director. I would be inclined to try Gnasher's #3.

[han]

The vulnerability would have been good.

Assuming that lefty led a low spade (so has at most Q109xxx of spades) it seems very likely that LHO has fewer than 4 hearts. I'd just play three rounds of clubs. If lefty has 4 I'd ruff the fourth, ruff a spade and play a heart to the queen. I'd duck if RHO plays low. With ace-fifth and AK of hearts righty might have bid more strongly.

The 52% mentioned by wereagles is way off.

[whereagles]

I was assuming dutch 2♠ overcall standards, i.e. 0-7 hcp

[barryallen]

han, on 2011-April-28, 10:53, said:

The vulnerability would have been good.

Assuming that lefty led a low spade (so has at most Q109xxx of spades) it seems very likely that LHO has fewer than 4 hearts. I'd just play three rounds of clubs. If lefty has 4 I'd ruff the fourth, ruff a spade and play a heart to the queen. I'd duck if RHO plays low. With ace-fifth and AK of hearts righty might have bid more strongly.

The 52% mentioned by wereagles is way off.

I really like that line and if the ♠K never got covered by LHO I would favour it even further. I am not really worried about LHO having 4♣, because it would probably mean 2 ♥ to an honour or that RHO would have done well to duck the ♥ holding the AK.