[lmilne]

I found this one in an old chat with my friend Andy Hung. I didn't get it at the time but 2 years later my brain somehow clicked!

Give it a try.

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♥Queen led. You play the ♠Ace, all follow.

[PhantomSac]

pull trumps, AK of diamonds, if RHO has the stiff diamond then ruff a heart, strip clubs, HK pitch a diamond.

If LHO has the stiff diamond, HK A ruff, strip clubs play a heart pitch a diamond

[manudude03]

If diamonds are 3-2, we're making on any sensible line. We really have a choice of 2 lines that cater for possible 4-1 diamond breaks.

We can eliminate hearts and clubs and then duck the first diamond making when someone wins with a singleton. The problem there is once we start eliminating, it shouldn't be too hard for the hand with 4 to find the crocodile coup, so we are essentially banking on singleton queen (and not with stiff trump).

The other line which I prefer requires West to have 4 diamonds along with the presumed ♥J. For this, we draw 2 rounds of trumps, and then duck the first diamond without eliminating hearts and clubs. If a diamond is returned then win, run the ♥K, and then ruff a club in dummy to start rattling off your own trumps. If a club was returned, ruff the club first, then we can decide if we want to trump-squeeze East. However, if that was working, East would probably have returned a diamond breaking up the trump squeeze, so I would just play for the squeeze against West unless East was sufficiently short in both black suits.

edit: Justin's line above is a lot better imo.

[lmilne]

Dammit Justin. You were supposed to go for the double trump squeeze!

It's an "isolate the throw-in card" rather than an "isolate the menace" hand. My brain at the time was obsessed with squeezes but I think I'm thinking about all the possibilities more logically these days

[alok c]

.

[ahydra]

What's the contract?!

ahydra

[nige1]

lmilne, on 2015-May-12, 08:11, said:

I found this one in an old chat with my friend Andy Hung.
I didn't get it at the time but 2 years later my brain somehow clicked!
Give it a try.
6♠ by South. ♥Queen led. You play the ♠Ace, all follow.

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PhantomSac, on 2015-May-12, 08:23, said:

pull trumps, AK of diamonds, if RHO has the stiff diamond then ruff a heart, strip clubs, HK pitch a diamond. If LHO has the stiff diamond, HK A ruff, strip clubs play a heart pitch a diamond

lmilne, on 2015-May-12, 08:41, said:

Dammit Justin. You were supposed to go for the double trump squeeze!

Thank you for the pretty problem, lmilne!
The double squeeze is superficially tempting:
Ruff the ♥lead. Cash ♠KQ. Duck a ♦.
Win the return and reduce to the 3-card ending on the left.
If ♦ were 3-2 then claim.
If RHO guards ♦, then lead ♥T, ruffing out RHO's ♥A.
If LHO guards ♦, then lead ♥K ruffing out RHO's ♥A and pinning ♥J
The flaw in this line is that when you duck a ♦, cruel opponents can return a ♦ to deprive dummy of a vital entry

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[WesleyC]

I've been given this hand no less than 5 times in the past 2 years!

I'm pretty sure it was Ash who gave it to me the first time (and I got it wrong).

[alok c]

If from bidding & first five rounds of play(one H,two S & two D),EASTs distribution is 2-5-4-2,west is to be endplayed in club.

[Lovera]

It's a preliminary squeeze.

[KurtGodel]

If you trust your card reading, just duck at trick one (pitching a diamond). Double trump squeeze will result in 12 tricks on any layout (diamonds not 5-0). If you don't, take Justin's line.

It's a trap!

[nige1]

KurtGodel, on 2015-May-14, 18:18, said:

If you trust your card reading, just duck at trick one (pitching a diamond). Double trump squeeze will result in 12 tricks on any layout (diamonds not 5-0). If you don't, take Justin's line.

It's a trap!

The trap is a switch to ♦, at trick 2

[KurtGodel]

nige1, on 2015-May-14, 20:14, said:

The trap is switch to ♦, at trick 2

Dang, fair enough. I feel like a muppet now

[lmilne]

WesleyC, on 2015-May-13, 07:10, said:

I've been given this hand no less than 5 times in the past 2 years!

I'm pretty sure it was Ash who gave it to me the first time (and I got it wrong).

I was first given this hand by Ash as well! The version he gave me had the A/K of diamonds divided so less squeezes work.

I put the AK in dummy to tempt people into the double trump squeeze, glad I trapped a few people lol!

[000ffj]

PhantomSac, on 2015-May-12, 08:23, said:

pull trumps, AK of diamonds, if RHO has the stiff diamond then ruff a heart, strip clubs, HK pitch a diamond.

If LHO has the stiff diamond, HK A ruff, strip clubs play a heart pitch a diamond

Great!The declarer can choice any opp to endplay depends on the distribution of diamonds after elimination.