[MickyB]

ST lead

---

[rhm]

T1: ♠A
T2: ♦A
T3: ♣T

If the ♣T wins, abandon clubs and ruff diamonds
Assume East wins and plays a ♠.

T4: ♠ ruff
T5: ♥ to king.

If this wins:

T6: ♣9
T7: ♦ ruff
T8: ♣A for a diamond discard.

Rainer Herrmann

[FrancesHinden]

The line chosen by my partner at the table was

Ace of spades
Ace of diamonds
Diamond ruff
Spade ruff
Diamond ruff
Spade ruff
Queen of hearts

He might have chosen a different line if something else had happened on the second round of spades (no-one shows out, but it looks likely that the spade length is on your left)
I believe closer inspection reveals that taking an early club finesse is a red herring.

[ewj]

that looks very good to me tbh...

[rhm]

FrancesHinden, on 2013-November-11, 16:36, said:

The line chosen by my partner at the table was

Ace of spades
Ace of diamonds
Diamond ruff
Spade ruff
Diamond ruff
Spade ruff
Queen of hearts

He might have chosen a different line if something else had happened on the second round of spades (no-one shows out, but it looks likely that the spade length is on your left)
I believe closer inspection reveals that taking an early club finesse is a red herring.

As the opener says you are in a solid game and the immediate cross ruff springs to mind and looks obvious at first.
You are automatically down when hearts are 4-0 and the king of clubs offside.
I could agree with the above if this were all there is, what argues against the cross-ruff line.
However, closer inspection reveals there are other, less obvious but more likely distributions, where the cross-ruff line does not work like

---

West over-ruffs the third spade and switches to clubs.
Trump promotion plays are easy to overlook and the main threat to the cross ruff line. This type of declarer problems are fiendishly difficult to analyze.
The club finesse has attraction, because West is very unlikely to hold a singleton club after the opening lead.
I readily admit that I do not know what is best, but you have done nothing to prove your claim that the club finesse is a red herring though your claim probably indicates that your line did work on the actual layout while others went down.

Rainer Herrmann

[WellSpyder]

I wondered why I didn't recognise the hand, but having trawled through the hand records I see that we bid to 5♦x the other way, so no-one faced this play problem at our table. 5♦x is OK if 4♥ makes, less so if it doesn't, so I hope most people manage to find a line to make 4♥....

[FrancesHinden]

FrancesHinden, on 2013-November-11, 16:36, said:

He might have chosen a different line if something else had happened on the second round of spades (no-one shows out, but it looks likely that the spade length is on your left)

I already said that you might choose to change your line if you think there is spade shortage on your left. What happens on the first couple of rounds of spades may help you here.

rhm, on 2013-November-12, 04:40, said:

As the opener says you are in a solid game and the immediate cross ruff springs to mind and looks obvious at first. You are automatically down when hearts are 4-0 and the king of clubs offside.

No you aren't

[FrancesHinden]

rhm, on 2013-November-12, 04:40, said:

I readily admit that I do not know what is best, but you have done nothing to prove your claim that the club finesse is a red herring though your claim probably indicates that your line did work on the actual layout while others went down.

Rainer Herrmann

I said an early club finesse is a red herring. You should decide what is going on in spades first. You may not need the club finesse and taking it has some risks.

[benlessard]

How about As Kh ?

If they win and return D, ruff a D ruff a S pull trumps C finesse.

If they duck you duck a club and its over (assuming W would lead a stiff if he had 1)

To go down you need K offside and trumps 4-0.

[jddons]

benlessard, on 2013-November-12, 16:48, said:

How about As Kh ?

If they win and return D, ruff a D ruff a S pull trumps C finesse.

If they duck you duck a club and its over (assuming W would lead a stiff if he had 1)

To go down you need K offside and trumps 4-0.

[benlessard]

Im going to go down if clubs are 4-1 and the guy who ruff clubs has Axx in trumps ducking the K of H is not an auto play.

[rhm]

benlessard, on 2013-November-13, 16:51, said:

Im going to go down if clubs are 4-1 and the guy who ruff clubs has Axx in trumps ducking the K of H is not an auto play.

Clubs can only be 5-1.
But a good line. Looks better than cross ruffing in my opinion

Rainer Herrmann