[Lord Molyb]

---

You're playing 4♥ as south on the auction, with north dealer:

P - P - 1♥ - 1♠
X - P - 2♥ - P
3♥ - P - 4♥ - AP

So west (LHO) overcalled 1♠.
West leads the ♥5 to the 10, Q, A. You try a trump to the king and west shows out.
Now what?

[gszes]

small dia toward the JT intending to pitch a club or a spade loser on 4th diamond.
Perfectly willing to lose a dia heart and one black suit card. Will make 4 or 5 depending
on the defense and lie of the cards

[gszes]

deleted duplicate post

[gszes]

deleted triplicate post sigh

[RSClyde]

Wait why did I play a second trump? That's not my play, I'm running the J of diamonds while in hand.
If that lives I'll try another, if it flushes the K then I'll play a trump, get the news, and cash the ace of spades. Now 2 more rounds of diamonds will be attempted putting east in the hot seat. If he refuses to ruff then I'll discard my spade and ruff a spade stripping the east hand. Now J and a heart will end play east. If he instead ruffs the diamond then I'll overruff collecting trumps and try for a strip squeeze against west which will only work if west has the club king (and doesn't unblock spades) or fails to swallow his partner his partner's honor in the end.

[HighLow21]

The recommended line can be set if West has a singleton diamond, otherwise cannot be set:

1. Low ♦ towards JT8. Do NOT lead to a black ace.
2. Assume whoever wins correctly returns a black card, taken by South's ace.
3. Play J♥ and another pitching spades.
4. Opponents take their black trick plus a heart and K♦. You take 3 diamonds, 5 hearts, and 2 black aces.

Other lines court greater dangers.

[HighLow21]

RSClyde, on 2013-November-11, 04:03, said:

Wait why did I play a second trump? That's not my play, I'm running the J of diamonds while in hand.
If that lives I'll try another, if it flushes the K then I'll play a trump, get the news, and cash the ace of spades. Now 2 more rounds of diamonds will be attempted putting east in the hot seat. If he refuses to ruff then I'll discard my spade and ruff a spade stripping the east hand. Now J and a heart will end play east. If he instead ruffs the diamond then I'll overruff collecting trumps and try for a strip squeeze against west which will only work if west has the club king (and doesn't unblock spades) or fails to swallow his partner his partner's honor in the end.

If West correctly ruffs the 3rd round of diamonds you have almost no choice but to go down. Dummy's winner will be entryless and your hearts are still blocked.

[RSClyde]

HighLow21, on 2013-November-11, 19:18, said:

If West correctly ruffs the 3rd round of diamonds you have almost no choice but to go down. Dummy's winner will be entryless and your hearts are still blocked.

That is not true. The king of hearts is an entry to dummy. As long as west didn't start with 4 hearts I can cash the diamond when I'm there.

[nige1]

RSClyde, on 2013-November-11, 04:03, said:

Wait why did I play a second trump? That's not my play,

At trick one, playing dummy's ♥K works even better

[RSClyde]

HighLow21, on 2013-November-11, 19:15, said:

The recommended line can be set if West has a singleton diamond, otherwise cannot be set:

He's going to have to ruff it with his good looks because he showed out on the second trump.

[RSClyde]

nige1, on 2013-November-11, 20:21, said:

♥ At trick one, playing dummy's ♥K works even better

why?

[Cyberyeti]

RSClyde, on 2013-November-12, 05:11, said:

why?

Not sure if it's better, but the lead is very unlikely to be from the Q unless W has 4, take the ♥K, lead the 10, if E follows, overtake with the J, cash the A and run J♦.

[RSClyde]

Cyberyeti, on 2013-November-12, 05:45, said:

Not sure if it's better, but the lead is very unlikely to be from the Q unless W has 4, take the ♥K, lead the 10, if E follows, overtake with the J, cash the A and run J♦.

That gives up on a trump coup when RHO has 4. There can't really be one with this many diamonds but I'd prefer to keep east afraid to ruff the 4th diamond. Everyone else seems way more anxious to draw trump than I am. I think rushing to unblock hearts is a "habit play".

[Cyberyeti]

RSClyde, on 2013-November-12, 09:13, said:

That gives up on a trump coup when RHO has 4. There can't really be one with this many diamonds but I'd prefer to keep east afraid to ruff the 4th diamond. Everyone else seems way more anxious to draw trump than I am. I think rushing to unblock hearts is a "habit play".

I'm just trying to make 4 which looks pretty good at this point, I didn't see it said anywhere that I was playing pairs.

5 hearts 3 diamonds and 2 black bullets appears sufficient.

[HighLow21]

RSClyde, on 2013-November-11, 20:08, said:

That is not true. The king of hearts is an entry to dummy. As long as west didn't start with 4 hearts I can cash the diamond when I'm there.

I had it reversed -- West showed out, not East. But my point still stands -- you need to clear hearts entirely to ensure 3 diamond winners. For that to be the case, the King of hearts will be gone. If you leave the K♥ there, you won't fare nearly as well in the long run--you might lose 2 trump tricks, for example. If you leave a single trump outstanding, a ruff of the 3rd round of diamonds leaves you stuck in hand and the diamond winner in dummy twisting in the wind.

The line I recommended works as long as the long-trump hand has K♦ singleton OR at least 2 diamonds. Period. The key is, get all the trumps out of the defenders' hands as soon as possible without using a black ace.

Should be about a 90% line and I am nearly positive there's no better line available. And this line has the benefit of not revising the OP's line of play.
-Tate

[HighLow21]

RSClyde, on 2013-November-12, 09:13, said:

That gives up on a trump coup when RHO has 4. There can't really be one with this many diamonds but I'd prefer to keep east afraid to ruff the 4th diamond. Everyone else seems way more anxious to draw trump than I am. I think rushing to unblock hearts is a "habit play".

No, it's the right play.

[RSClyde]

The only way it fails is if the overcaller also has 4 hearts so that he still has one after ruffing once and playing 2 rounds of trump, and no king of diamonds and the first diamond is ducked.
I'm not conceding a very frequent overtrick for an odd lay out.

[RSClyde]

Of course another possibility is to play ace and a club to the Q at trick 2/3. If that fails the diamond finesse must be on. Unless the guy overcalled 1S on KJ 5th and out. And you still have a trump to get you there for the spade pitch if the club works.

[HighLow21]

RSClyde, on 2013-November-12, 23:04, said:

The only way it fails is if the overcaller also has 4 hearts so that he still has one after ruffing once and playing 2 rounds of trump, and no king of diamonds and the first diamond is ducked.
I'm not conceding a very frequent overtrick for an odd lay out.

No, you could run into a diamond ruff by the hand short in trumps. You could run into a duck, as you noted, followed by a 3rd round ruff by LHO on a diamond return. (Remember, according to your line, only 2 trumps are drawn at this stage and you don't know how the outstanding trumps are divided.) Even if the diamond finesse succeeds, if the cover happens on round 2 you could find yourself stuck in dummy with no quick route back to hand to draw trumps short of your black aces, and using them exposes a loser.

I'm not saying your line won't make most of the time -- it will. In fact it will frequently get an overtrick. But it will also go down way more often than it has to.

Again, the low diamond line at trick 3 has the simplicity of making anytime RHO has K♦ OR at least 2 diamonds. Something around 90% even accounting for the bad trump split, you will have 3 diamonds, 5 hearts and 2 black aces. And even in the 10% case, check this out:

1. You lose trick 3 to the hypothetical K♦ with LHO.
2. You lose trick 4 to the hypothetical diamond ruff by RHO.
3. You win trick 5 and draw the final outstanding trump in trick 6.
4. You still have AQ♦ in dummy plus an entry card.

Making SIX hearts, two diamonds, and two black aces. I have no problem correcting my own errors in analysis: my line is actually 100%.

Also, final point -- fiddling around with the clubs is a blackeye-to-nothing gambit. If the club honors are wrong and a spade comes back, you are now more or less dependent on the diamond finesse or hearts 3-2.

[RSClyde]

If the hand with the short trump ruffs the 3rd diamond then I can cash the 4th diamond when in dummy because they will be out of trump.