[shyams]

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I thought I'll share this instructive deal. The bidding was simple, and the play to the first four tricks is shown (Click NEXT to see the play so far).

There are layouts where it is impossible to score 10 tricks. So my focus was 10 tricks whenever possible. What is my best line? What assumptions do we have to make? If it helps

Spoiler

Opps play standard carding (hi-low is even count). If you decide to ruff a club in hand, West discards ♦6 on it

I couldn't decide if this should be posted in Int/Adv or here. I think adv or better will find it too easy. In our match, both tables scored 4♠-1 for a push.
ADV/EXP, please hide your responses using "spoiler" option

[Zelandakh]

Should we not have eliminated the clubs first and then exited to the last trump? Maybe their next red suit lead helps us.

[eagles123]

maybe ruff a club, K diamonds chucking heart ruff a diamond and exit a spade?

and hope for the best in hearts which i guess is ducking if they exit an honour and playing for KQ tight if they don't?

obv if they don't exit a heart we get a ruff/discard

Eagles

[shyams]

Zelandakh, on 2014-May-30, 03:43, said:

Should we not have eliminated the clubs first and then exited to the last trump? Maybe their next red suit lead helps us.

I thought the club elimination followed by trump exit wasn't best -- I'm happy to be told it was a superior line.
In any case, on this deal it didn't work.

Spoiler

West wins the 2nd trump and exits with a low ♥. East wins the ♥Q and returns ♥9

.

[Cyberyeti]

Spoiler

The best chance is to catch E with K10/Q10/KQ tight of hearts or Kx/Qx and for him to fail to unblock.

I would have eliminated the clubs, cashed the A♥, spade to the A, lead a diamond. W flies the A.

If he plays a diamond I take the K, ruff a diamond, exit a heart or trump

If he plays a heart, E is endplayed on winning their honour

If E unblocks then leads the 10♥ I'm ducking.

Cashing the spade makes no difference to this.

Edit:- actually this might be slightly coloured by knowing who holds the clubs, it might be more flexible to start as you do.

Spoiler

I would have entered dummy with the club rather than the trump and led a diamond. I'm not sure if this makes a difference, but I might not want whoever wins the diamond to be able to cash the spade winner before I endplay them with it.

W flies the A, now you play pretty much as above, eliminate minors and play ♥ Ax

This may work against ♥Hx either side

[inquiry]

Interesting problem. I think it is misplaced in this forum, but maybe I am overlooking something. It looks like just trick one was given, I would have won the first club in dummy so as to lead a diamond from dummy (south) at trick two, so I will change where the first trick is won in my answer.

Spoiler

After winning the ♣ in dummy at trick one, I will try guess the diamond suit correctly. It will not be hard for West to duck the ♦A because for all he knows, it probably doesn't cost a trick. If he goes up with ♦A I "probably" would be able to discard a losing club from South on the ♦K (he knows I have the ♣K but not that I have only two clubs). Let's assume that I can't guess that right and to make it simple, I go up with the ♦King and it loses to the ACE and East then continues with a club, which I win in hand now.

What do we need at this point? Well, trumps better be split 2-1 to hold our trump losers to one trick. We have lost the expected diamond and our diamond honor isn't high. So we have to manage not to lose two hearts (same applies if you guessed the ♦J and East still won the ACE, the extra diamond really doesn't help).

So we win the second club in north. Ruff a diamond, Cash the ♠Ace, ruff the club and ruff a diamond coming to this position.

Position after seven tricks, winning two clubs, losing a diamond, ruffing one club in north, ruffing two diamonds in south and winning the ♠A (not in that order), leaving five cards in each hand with lead in South.

They still hold the top spade. One option is to lead a low heart towards your hand, playing West for ♥Kx, ♥Qx, or ♥KQ. You can make but it will require you to guess if he pops up with an honor. In two of the cases (Kx or Qx) you must win the ace and play a heart towards dummy's Jack. In the other case, you must duck either this or the next round of hearts. However, during our play, we can EASILY rule West out for having a doubleton heart (See below) so we must choose a different line.

There is remote chance that East has x=T9=Axxx=QJTxxx where a spade out to West forces the ♥K exit from him. then low the jack picks up the ♥T9 doubleton from East will not have x=KQ=Axxx=QJTxxx because he would have bid over 1♠. But this line also works on other doubletons for East (any two low hearts) because you simply duck the ♥K exit by West and then let the next heart run to the jack. West will not lead low from KTxx or K9xx (or similar) as that allows you a chance to make an un-makeable contract.

The problem is when ♥ honors split, West can always win by exiting a low heart and East unblock the high heart. So you need to play West for two spades and the ♥KQ. If East ends up with two spades, you will have to play him for 2=1=4=6 with singleton heart honor. This is necessary because when he wins the second spade and leads a high heart, you have to duck in both hands and hope he has no more hearts to lead. This also works if East's singleton heart is the ten, because West can not afford to overtake when we duck in dummy.

IF you think it is too much to ask that East be 2=1=4=6 with stiff heart honor (KQ or T), or West to have both top heart honors. you can always play for poor defense by cashing the ♥Ace early. If you choose that line, try a line like this... win first club in dummy, lose the diamond. Win next club in hand, ruff a diamond, heart to Ace, ruff a diamond, spade ace, then ruff a club and exit a spade. It is harder for East to unblock from ♥Kx or ♥Qx on such a line of play. Still if East has six clubs, when you ruff the club, he will have a full count on your hand so he should be able to find the unblock if he is any good.

---

[slothy]

If someone can tell me how to implement a Spoiler I will do so. Cant see it on the editor .

I agree with Ben, i think it is misplaced in this forum, simply because it is not that easy a problem and requires to make certain assumptions about card placements maybe beyond the ken of a beginner/intermediate, at least that is my feeling.

Going through the hand i agree with Ben. I am winning the first club in dummy to play a ♦ immediately. I certainly want to clear up the ♦ position straightaway and clear the ground for an elimination. As seen in the movie West wins. Would be hard for him to duck if he did have the Ace, as no loss of a diamond trick, by ruffing them in dummy, may see declarer home - irrespective of the ♥ holdings.

As it is known that the A of ♦ is with West, not going to go through the analysis when it is not, although fairly similar and same assumptions apply.

The key assumption now is the ♥ holdings. I am playing for East to hold honour x in ♥, more likely than stiff or KQ tight. Alternatively, stiff ♥ and Hx in ♠. For 2 reasons: it is a legitimate play if East has a stiff !S and Hx in ♥. Also, if he has 2 ♠ and H x in ♥ he has to have the foresight of unblocking his ♥ honour, otherwise he will be endplayed.

IF West exits with a ♣ or ♦ winning, cashing A of ♥ eliminating ♦ and ♣ and A of ♠ and exiting ♠. If he exits ♥, winning the A and proceeding as before.

We are playing for an ending where West has Hxx in ♥ and East down to stiff honour, with declarer having no cards in the side suits, and West on lead. East could not profitably uunblock his honour. If West cashes his ♥ honour he sets up Souths J, if he plays a low ♥ East is endplayed, and a minor suit card gives declarer a discard of a losing ♥, whilst ruffing in dummy.

If East had 2 ♠ and a singleton ♥ he has to furnish declarer with a ruff and sluff immediately. If he had 2 ♠ and Hx in ♥ and unblocked his ♥ honour, time to put him on your Friends List to ask him for a game later.

[jmcilkley]

This looks an unlikely contract to make but opps could play it wrong. After the first 4 tricks you know you have lost a trump and the Ad so you need to lose only one heart trick - not easy unless the opps help. I agree to eliminate the clubs and then exit with a trump and now opps have to lead a red suit. If diamonds are played I would try the J as 50% seems my best bet. Maybe even better than 50% as if W did not have the Qd would he have played the A on tghe first round? Hope fully W has the last trump and if a heart is played i would duck in dummy and hope!

shyams, on 2014-May-30, 03:24, said:

---

I thought I'll share this instructive deal. The bidding was simple, and the play to the first four tricks is shown (Click NEXT to see the play so far).

There are layouts where it is impossible to score 10 tricks. So my focus was 10 tricks whenever possible. What is my best line? What assumptions do we have to make? If it helps

Spoiler

Opps play standard carding (hi-low is even count). If you decide to ruff a club in hand, West discards ♦6 on it

I couldn't decide if this should be posted in Int/Adv or here. I think adv or better will find it too easy. In our match, both tables scored 4♠-1 for a push.
ADV/EXP, please hide your responses using "spoiler" option

[blackshoe]

Extrapolating from other code:

Spoiler

Just put "spoiler" (without the quotes) in square brackets in front of the spoiler, and the same thing except /spoiler after it.

Yep, that works.

[shyams]

Both inquiry and slothy made a useful point about winning the opening lead in South hand and immediately leading the ♦ singleton. That line is significantly superior in that it stops opponents from cashing a spade winner prematurely.

The full hand is hidden below

Spoiler

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and slothy's line of playing East for ♥Kx or ♥Qx is spot on.

The "textbook situation" I alluded to was that North should play the ♥A right away to reduce the chance for opponent to unblock. On the actual layout, the contract was 100% assured once the second club was returned. Even an unblock does not help.

Instead, if the layout was

Spoiler

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... and declarer plays as shown (click NEXT all the way), East is much more likely to find the right play of chucking the ♥Q under North's ♥A.

IMO, playing for one opponent to hold ♥KQx is worse because we don't have any intermediate cards in hearts. It may have been a legitimate option if dummy began with ♥J1085.

Edit: The GIB button is a useful feature to show what works and what doesn't. I use it often to find what I did wrong!

[gszes]

Spoiler

Step 1 is to try and imagine a holding that will allow you to make your
contract. We have 1 unavoidable trump loser we also seem to have 1 diamond
and 2 heart losers (ouch) so how do we manage to survive? we can try for a
defensive misguess by leading toward the dia K (note that there is no benefit
leading toward the J because even if it forces the ace we have only 1 pitch and
we need two to avoid 2 heart losers) and hoping lho will duck and if that fails
we can try for an end position where EITHER opp starts with Hx or HH

And you wonder why they give declarers a chance to think before playing the hand:))))

trick 1 win the club KING in dummy
trick 2 lead a dia toward the K and hope lho has the ace and ducks If that works the
hand is over. In this case sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh lho wins so one of our
options is over. It is important to make the diamond play EARLY in the hand before the
opps know much because it gives them a greater chance to misguess.
trick 3 win the club return in hand
trick 4 heart ace (again make this play as soon as possible hoping RHO
with Hx fails to unblock--a VERY tough play if they began with Kx)
trick 5 spade to A
trick 6 ruff the last club
trick 7 diamond K
trick 8 ruff the last diamond
trick 9 lead a trump.
BOTH of our hand look like
xx
xx
void
void
except the south hearts are Jx

the opps minor suit holdings are irrelevant and both are
void in spades
and whichever opp won the spade must lead a heart
well if lho wins the spade and EITHER OPP began with
Hx HH the hand is over unblock or not because we must
get a ruff and a sluff or our heart J
If rho wins the second spade we still have a chance
(though smaller) if the opp with the 2 hearts failed to
unblock the hand is over if it was LHO with the 2 honors
they could have unblocked and we still make. If RHO began
with HH there was nothing they could do and we make if they
began with HT they could unblock the H but when they lead
T we merely duck and once again we get either our J or
a ruff/sluff. SO if we have a chance this LOP ONLY FAILS
when RHO began with 2 trumps Hx (not the T) in hearts AND
unblocked the H under the A. As a side bonus this LOP also works
any time either opp began with a singleton H in hearts.

[Cyberyeti]

deleted, you made the point the line of play on the hand was inaccurate without changing the cards played.

[blackshoe]

shyams, on 2014-May-31, 16:49, said:

Edit: The GIB button is a useful feature to show what works and what doesn't. I use it often to find what I did wrong!

So I pushed on the GIB button. I saw a bunch of "1s" and some equal signs. What is this telling me?

[shyams]

blackshoe, on 2014-May-31, 19:07, said:

shyams, on 2014-May-31, 16:49, said:

Edit: The GIB button is a useful feature to show what works and what doesn't. I use it often to find what I did wrong!

So I pushed on the GIB button. I saw a bunch of "1s" and some equal signs. What is this telling me?

The colour of the numbers matters as well -- red numbers are undertricks, green ones are overtricks, and green equal sign is "contract makes". The red "1s" indicate that if the card is played, the double dummy outcome is down 1.

[blackshoe]

shyams, on 2014-June-01, 01:02, said:

The colour of the numbers matters as well -- red numbers are undertricks, green ones are overtricks, and green equal sign is "contract makes". The red "1s" indicate that if the card is played, the double dummy outcome is down 1.

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.