[han]

This hand is from a club game. You are playing against two 20-year olds who have been playing bridge for about a year or so.

AJ10xx
Qxx
x
KQxx

xx
KJx
AQ7x
J10xx

Red against white you decide to pass the south hand in first seat. The auction continues:

p - 1D - 1S - 2D
p - p - Dbl - p
3NT - all pass

2NT on the second round would have been a spade raise so that was not an option. Perhaps you should have doubled 2D planning to bid 2NT. Or perhaps you should have passed out 2DX. In any case you find yourself in 3NT. LHO leads the king of spades. How do you make optimal use of this poor lead?

While experts might well enjoy the hand I posted this for I/A players.

[quiddity]

I don't see the solution. I can duck the lead to preserve communication but I assume LHO can switch to his partner's ace for a diamond through. Say I fly ace of diamonds and knock out the other round-suit ace - LHO returns a low spade to kill my squeeze and that's the end.

I could try winning the opening lead and knocking out the ace of clubs. Say west has it; he leads a heart to his partner's ace for a diamond through. I fly ace and play a spade up and run clubs but I think West can always beat it if he discards correctly.

[cherdano]

 han, on 2013-January-08, 04:32, said:

You are playing against two 20-year olds who have been playing bridge for about a year or so.

...

LHO leads the king of spades.

 quiddity, on 2013-January-08, 13:49, said:

I can duck the lead to preserve communication but I assume LHO can switch to his partner's ace for a diamond through.

[han]

If even quiddity has difficulties with this hand it is harder than I imagined.

As the cards lie the contract cannot be beaten after the king of spades lead. I merely mentioned the level of the opponents to explain the lead. Perhaps LHO forgot that your partner had bid spades.

If you you cannot make the contract with the layout you imagined, try a more optimistic view.

[quiddity]

 han, on 2013-January-09, 09:08, said:

If even quiddity has difficulties with this hand it is harder than I imagined.

And they say the Dutch have no sense of humor.

[quiddity]

Anyway, I think LHO is such a favorite to be 4432 (no negative double from RHO, the spade lead, the lack of a diamond lead even after the raise) and RHO is such a favorite to hold an ace for the raise (2:1 that it is an ace rather than the ♦K, and if he held only KJxxx of diamonds he might have preempted or passed) that I would play for that layout at the table and hope for a defensive error. So I would duck the opening lead, and if RHO gets in with an ace and leads a diamond I would fly ace and hope LHO doesn't find the spade switch.

If LHO shows up with both aces then things change, but I would need to know how the play went before deciding whether to try the diamond finesse or an endplay.

[kenberg]

Since I have spent a couple of hours on this and can't get it, obviously I have been over-rating myself as advanced. If you have a chance, I would like to see the solution.

 han, on 2013-January-08, 04:32, said:

This hand is from a club game. You are playing against two 20-year olds who have been playing bridge for about a year or so.

AJ10xx
Qxx
x
KQxx

xx
KJx
AQ7x
J10xx

Red against white you decide to pass the south hand in first seat. The auction continues:

p - 1D - 1S - 2D
p - p - Dbl - p
3NT - all pass

2NT on the second round would have been a spade raise so that was not an option. Perhaps you should have doubled 2D planning to bid 2NT. Or perhaps you should have passed out 2DX. In any case you find yourself in 3NT. LHO leads the king of spades. How do you make optimal use of this poor lead?

While experts might well enjoy the hand I posted this for I/A players.

[Fluffy]

you might see it better if ♦Q was ♦K

[kenberg]

 Fluffy, on 2013-January-10, 04:18, said:

you might see it better if ♦Q was ♦K

If the Queen were the King (sounds like the beginning of a joke about royals) then I think that I have two spades, two hearts two diamonds and three clubs. There are issues of timing, but I think I can do it. Similarly, holding AQ, if the King is on my right. Is it likely that it is.

Every problem has some sort of context/assumptions. At the table, I would probably at least consider that the Kinf of spades lead is some (mis-)inspired lead from Kx. Maybe I should consider that anyway, but I thought I was being steered away from it by the posing of the problem. Also, with regard to diamonds, there is a general rule. In a posed bridge problem the answer is never take the finesse. The opponents have been playing for a year we are told. I would think that the default, with those who have been playing for a week, would be that if a suit is bid and raised this is an attractive lead, but I can see why a player might rethink this against a strongly bid NT when he holds Kxx(x). But I wouldn't expect him to rethink it so far as to prefer a lead of the K from Kx.


Anyway, the opponents have 17 highs. Seems to me Jxxx(x) and an outside Ace justifies a raise to 2♦ so I have been assuming this as the hand. If so, once both my diamond transportation and my spade transportation are destroyed, I don't see ho to make this.


So maybe it's time to rethink my assumptions. I guess if the lead was from KQx I can do this, but that's silly. Or so it seems to me. I will try to clear my mind and simply look at it as a problem w/o guidance, since perhaps the guidance, misunderstood, is giving me a blind spot.

Later, man. The day is just dawning.

[PhilKing]

 kenberg, on 2013-January-10, 06:44, said:

If the Queen were the King (sounds like the beginning of a joke about royals) ...

A famous priest is more likely to be of help here.

[kenberg]

OK guys, you got me convinced that I should be able to do this! So don't tell me. I take back the request for a solution. I will take the hint about the priest with a grain of salt. That's a pun.

[han]

 Fluffy, on 2013-January-10, 04:18, said:

you might see it better if ♦Q was ♦K

Good hint!

[kgr]

 quiddity, on 2013-January-09, 15:54, said:

Anyway, I think LHO is such a favorite to be 4432 (no negative double from RHO, the spade lead, the lack of a diamond lead even after the raise) and RHO is such a favorite to hold an ace for the raise (2:1 that it is an ace rather than the ♦K, and if he held only KJxxx of diamonds he might have preempted or passed) that I would play for that layout at the table and hope for a defensive error. So I would duck the opening lead, and if RHO gets in with an ace and leads a diamond I would fly ace ...

Looks like a good start to me.

[kenberg]

If I play W for the KQ of spades and E for the K of diamonds, as per hint, then yes I can surely do it, as per hint(s).


I seem to have lost the ability to hide things, so spoiler comments are below in plain sight.











Either 4+0+2+3 or 2+2+2+3, depending on the choice made. Hence Bishop Morton and his fork. Win the spade, lead a small club. If the Jack wins, lead the spade spot toward the board. W must duck, else we have our four spade winners with time and entries in clubs to get them. If W goes up, this is the 4+0+2+3 case. After he ducks, we have two spades and we develop the clubs and hearts for the 2+2+2+3 case. . Simple enough. If the first club is taken by the ace and a red card comes back we will win and now we can get to hand with a club and lead a spade. Same result.

Given the non-diamond lead I could not imagine the king being on my right.So I spent my time figuring how to endplay W, with all of the problems that have been mentioned.

The tricky aspect here is that you can almost succeed with the King offside, and you can succeed if the opponents don't get it right. But after the spade lead, yes, it always makes as long as you play for the King of Diamonds onside.

Moral: If the King must be onside, it is onside.

[JLOGIC]

So what is the solution

[mike777]

ty for post.




my first guess is west has something close to:

KQxx..Axx...KJxx...xx


I guess the opp will get one s, one h, one d and one c and I need to endplay west somehow.....just not sure how....


perhaps I should take the first spade and try for some kind of endplay later.... and not duck trick one.

so I will try....AS and club from dummy?

[y66]

SA then small club planning to lead a small spade toward dummy and eventually use dummy's clubs as entries to set up and cash a 3rd spade.

After that lead, I think I can always take 3 spades + 2 hearts + 1 diamond + 3 clubs or 2 spades + 2 hearts + 2 diamonds + 3 clubs if LHO has KQxx Axxx Kxx xx or KQxx xxxx Kxx Ax or KQxx Axxx xxx Ax.

If RHO gets in with the CA or HA and leads diamonds, I will play the ace and continue my plan.