[Cyberyeti]

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You get the comedy start as it goes A♠-Q-K-2, W switches to a club, what next ?

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You play 3N from S after 1N-2♣-2♦-3N

You win the third diamond with it looking like W has 5, so you play clubs assuming if anybody has 4 it's E, but no, after ♣AQ, W has 4 of them too (E pitches a spade), now what ?

[eagles123]

hand 1 it helps to know what club but I'll win Ace and run a high diamond throwing a club to see where the Ace is and then try and make a guess on the heart depending on who has the Ace D. club honours look like they're splitting so we can place W with A - ? - ? - Q/K - if they also have the Ace of diamond then it's A A A (K/Q) vs A Q A (KQ) and the 2nd looks more likely as AAAK isn't a weak no trump and AAAQ may upgrade with some shape so.. tldr; West has ace of diamond heart to Jack East has ace of diamond heart to king

board 2 cash third club and then play on hearts; depends how the hearts split. If three rounds split then we have a marked endplay - if hearts dont split then spade finesse i guess.

[Cyberyeti]

eagles123, on 2016-January-16, 14:19, said:

hand 1 it helps to know what club but I'll win Ace and run a high diamond throwing a club to see where the Ace is and then try and make a guess on the heart depending on who has the Ace D. club honours look like they're splitting so we can place W with A - ? - ? - Q/K - if they also have the Ace of diamond then it's A A A (K/Q) vs A Q A (KQ) and the 2nd looks more likely as AAAK isn't a weak no trump and AAAQ may upgrade with some shape so.. tldr; West has ace of diamond heart to Jack East has ace of diamond heart to king

board 2 cash third club and then play on hearts; depends how the hearts split. If three rounds split then we have a marked endplay - if hearts dont split then spade finesse i guess.

Board 1: Club is lowish, you suspect K/Qxx(x), this is the right technique

Board 2: right idea but slightly faulty execution, what if hearts were 5-2 (a heart is pitched on the third club) and you take the spade finesse which loses and a spade comes back, you playing the 10 or 8 ?

[nige1]

You get the comedy start as it goes A♠-Q-K-2, W switches to a club, what next ?




IMO, finesse ♣J. Win ♣ return. Ruff a ♣. Draw trump. Guess ♥s.

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You play 3N from S after 1N-2♣-2♦-3N
You win the third diamond with it looking like W has 5, so you play clubs assuming if anybody has 4 it's E, but no, after ♣AQ, W has 4 of them too (E pitches a spade), now what ?




IMO, deep finesse ♠ twice.

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[brutus61]

Cyberyeti, on 2016-January-16, 12:47, said:

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You get the comedy start as it goes A♠-Q-K-2, W switches to a club, what next ?

---

You play 3N from S after 1N-2♣-2♦-3N

You win the third diamond with it looking like W has 5, so you play clubs assuming if anybody has 4 it's E, but no, after ♣AQ, W has 4 of them too (E pitches a spade), now what ?

First hand: I would play the J club since E has 2 count left in hand they either have Q club or Q heart. If the J walks you know who has Q heart(E)

Second hand: It is simple. First of all W did not have NT count but, since that was their bid, they have 12 count(which means E is void of count). Lead a heart to south and finesse the spade through W leading a low spade. W has the K and most likely the J but they are most likely in a doubleton. E and W had no business bidding. In the unlikely event that W does not have the king then E has to lead a heart or spade back in which case you take out with S and finesse again. W must have 2 heart(J high?) and 2 spade.

[Cyberyeti]

brutus61, on 2016-January-17, 03:23, said:

First hand: I would play the J club since E has 2 count left in hand they either have Q club or Q heart. If the J walks you know who has Q heart(E)

Second hand: It is simple. First of all W did not have NT count but, since that was their bid, they have 12 count(which means E is void of count). Lead a heart to south and finesse the spade through W leading a low spade. W has the K and most likely the J but they are most likely in a doubleton. E and W had no business bidding. In the unlikely event that W does not have the king then E has to lead a heart or spade back in which case you take out with S and finesse again. W must have 2 heart(J high?) and 2 spade.

Hand 1 - read the yellow highlight, it was a weak no trump.

Hand 2 - this was your unopposed auction

[kenberg]

Second hand:
Oops. I forgot a spade was pitche from board at T3, so the spade pitch on the club is less telling than I thought. Ignore much of what is here.





I am thinking that you are playing in a tough game. I accept that you can play the diamonds as 5-3 and you have seen the clubs are 4-1 so E has nine card in the majors. Could he have five hearts and thus four spades? He sees three hearts on the board and knows from the auction that I have at most three so it appears safe to pitch two hearts if declarer plays three rounds of clubs. Moreover he sees four spades on the board so a spade pitch on the second club does not look safe and indeed isn't. If declarer reads it, he leaves hearts alone and loses two spades to E, establishing the long spade for his ninth trick.

So: If E started 4=5=3=1 then on the second club he realized that pitching hearts might (or might not depending on the exact layout) leave him endplayed and so he begins a deceptive line to have declarer think he began 5=4=3=1.

Or something!


Anyway, most of my opponents are not all that much better than I am and I am pretty sure that if I were 4=5=3=1 I would pitch two hearts on the clubs and hope I can cope. Maybe if, as E, my spades were KJ94 I would rethink this, but if partner has the T then a. I think I can cope with the endplay and b. declarer, seeing i can cope with the endplay (since he doesn't have the T in this suppose setting), might go to setting up his long spade if I pitch a spade.


Add to this the fact that I don't really see how to cope with E having five hearts w/o giving up on my certain result of winning when he has five spades,so I think that after the spade pitch i just play him for at most four hearts and run the endplay.

I assume I am missing something but, well, I am missing it.


PS I like the idea of play problems in general and this one in particular.

[Cyberyeti]

Hand 2:

This was down the club, not a particularly tough game.

The subtlety to this one was intended to be the endgame.

What I had in mind was more or less what Eagles said, but once you get down to:

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with the hearts originally 5-2

Rather than simply taking the spade finesse, where you have to guess whether W has 9x or Jx ater E wins the K♠ cashes a heart and pushes a spade back, the right card to lead is the 8, if W fails to cover you duck, otherwise you beat his card, when one comes back, you play the 10 losing only to J9 doubleton. The 10 has the same effect, but the 8 makes an overtrick from KJ.

And yes the spade discard is from KJ9x in practice.

[kenberg]

Yes, I saw that it was right to not lead small toward the Q. I guess leading the T is as good:TJQK, put up the 8 on the return.

[Cyberyeti]

kenberg, on 2016-January-17, 11:31, said:

Yes, I saw that it was right to not lead small toward the Q. I guess leading the T is as good:TJQK, put up the 8 on the return.

It is, but drops an overtrick as I said above to KJ tight so 8 is better.

[Fluffy]

Hand 1 lets count points, play ♣J.

I will assume East will not underlead ♦A nor fail to cover ♦K next, so I should get a good count on the points for guessing hearts.


Hand 2.

cash third club, I assume East has at least 5 spades for his early spade pitch, most likely 5431. If East pitches a second spade play a spade to the queen (unless West discards) and play for 4th spade to be good after losing 2 to East. Otherwise cash ♥AKQ and play a spade to the queen Endplaying him.

[Cyberyeti]

Fluffy, on 2016-January-17, 18:27, said:

Hand 1 lets count points, play ♣J.

I will assume East will not underlead ♦A nor fail to cover ♦K next, so I should get a good count on the points for guessing hearts.


Hand 2.

cash third club, I assume East has at least 5 spades for his early spade pitch, most likely 5431. If East pitches a second spade play a spade to the queen (unless West discards) and play for 4th spade to be good after losing 2 to East. Otherwise cash ♥AKQ and play a spade to the queen Endplaying him.

Hand 1: Why is what you do any better than winning the first club and tabling K♦ pitching your club ? although it seems to have the same effect.

Hand 2: He pitches a heart next, as pointed out upthread, taking the spade finesse is the inferior play, you should lead the 8 just in case he was 4531. Broadly speaking if you finesse, you lose to whichever of the 3 Jx or 9xs is wrong when you play the 10 or 8. Leading the 8 intending to run it loses only to J9.

[Fluffy]

Cyberyeti, on 2016-January-17, 19:01, said:

Hand 1: Why is what you do any better than winning the first club and tabling K♦ pitching your club ? although it seems to have the same effect.

Hand 2: He pitches a heart next, as pointed out upthread, taking the spade finesse is the inferior play, you should lead the 8 just in case he was 4531. Broadly speaking if you finesse, you lose to whichever of the 3 Jx or 9xs is wrong when you play the 10 or 8. Leading the 8 intending to run it loses only to J9.

I learn more from the clubs.

[eagles123]

actually thinking about it fluffy is of course right, jack of clubs is a lot better because East can only return a club or else the hand is over and then we can still make our diamond play and have a full count of the points.

[Cyberyeti]

eagles123, on 2016-January-18, 03:28, said:

actually thinking about it fluffy is of course right, jack of clubs is a lot better because East can only return a club or else the hand is over and then we can still make our diamond play and have a full count of the points.

Provided by this play, E doesn't work out what you're up to and not cover K♦ now (he can tell you have 9 spades and 2 clubs). Also it doesn't help if E wins the K. AAQQ and AAAQ are both possible for W. In this case it works well as E wins the Q.

[Fluffy]

Don't forget about ♣J holding.

[Cyberyeti]

Fluffy, on 2016-January-18, 09:09, said:

Don't forget about ♣J holding.

So not going to happen, if you have ♣KQ and you know declarer has 9 spades, are you really not leading an honour ? (in a local club)