[eagles123]

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The bidding is almost unrepeatable, and NS had a mix up with 3s, with South thinking it was natural and North thinking it was "4th suit forcing". Anyway You're in this spot which you'd rather not be in!

West leads the 2♣ (4th best leads) to the Ace and your 6, and the 4 of clubs is returned to your King and West's 5. At this point if trumps split, we can cross to dummy, draw two rounds of trumps, return to hand with a spade, draw the remaining trumps and hope for the heart finesse to work. However, disaster, we play a trump to the 6, K, 2, but on the second round of trumps It goes Q 4 3 and west pitches the 3 of spades.

Is there any way to make the contract now? Clearly we need the heart finesse to work, but is there anyway to avoid giving East a trump trick with their T8742? What hand do we need them to have? Does the opening lead make this possible?

Regards,

Eagles

[Cyberyeti]

I think I'd have hooked the heart at trick 3, come back to hand with a spade and repeated the finesse. In N/B you won't get a false card ♥K popping up so you can potentially crossruff the whole hand without ever finding out how the trumps break. It looks like Jxxxx/Ax in the club suit.

[ahydra]

Cyberyeti, on 2017-August-21, 17:10, said:

It looks like Jxxxx/Ax in the club suit.

Where's the ♣3? I reckon W started with J952 and East A43.

Spoiler

We envisage an end position where East is left with three trumps 10xx and you AJ9, with the lead in dummy. Lead anything you like off the table, overruff as cheaply as possible and claim.

We can get there via SA, H to J, SK, H to Q, HA throwing a spade, CQ throwing a spade, but it seems we need East to have exactly 2353 without HK so he's forced to follow to the CQ and all the hearts. Notice that if East has only two hearts, he can ruff the third one and you have no entry to get back to cash any more. Additionally, two rounds of spades have to stand up.

You might try to do cater to East being 3352 by cashing the CQ after the first heart finesse, with the plan that if East ruffs, you overruff and draw trumps then repeat the heart finesse; if not, throw a spade and continue as before. But East will foil you by throwing a heart away on the CQ! Now he can ruff the third round of hearts, leaving you eventually stuck in hand with a losing spade.

So we need East to be 2353 exactly. And as per my comment outside the spoiler, this does seem a possibility - but if it's the only way to make the contract, we should go for it, right? (These kinds of end positions feel amazing as declarer when you pull them off, particularly in a slam, but horrible as East when you're forced to follow!)

ahydra

[Cyberyeti]

ahydra, on 2017-August-21, 21:09, said:

Where's the ♣3? I reckon W started with J952 and East A43.

Sorry, was that edited ? if not I misread it, but my point was it looked like W had plenty of clubs so you can safely ruff a couple without fear of an overruff.

You could play:

Trick 3: heart hook
4: spade to A
5: K♠
6: heart hook and if K♥ hasn't appeared, you're in shape
7: A♥ (ruffed or overruffed if necessary)
8: spade ruff
9: club ruff or overruff
10: spade ruff
11: club ruff with 9 and claim the AJ

If the K♥ appears on the second round, remember W doubled 3♠ you need him to be 5224 or diamonds 5-1, cash 2 trumps, pitch a spade on the top heart, pitch a spade on the club or heart winner. You can cope with 2353, 2452, 3352. You go down to 3433 but is that likely with the double of 3♠ ? or where E has a singleton spade and W has not opened Q10xxxx, Kx, x, Jxxx.

[GrahamJson]

As the play went you can make it if west has Kx in hearts. Come to hand with a spade, finesse the QH and cash the Ace. If the king falls you discard three spades (including the king) on QC and the J10 of hearts. You are then in dummy with your three diamonds sitting over East's. This line assumes that clubs are 4-3 and spades 6-1, as suggested by the play and bidding. If you think clubs are 5-2, and hence spades 5-2, you need to cash both spade honours before taking the heart finesse.

[GrahamJson]

On reflection you don't need to make any assumptions about the black suits. Just finesse the HQ then cash QC. If east ruffs you can over ruff, draw trumps and cash out, assuming doubleton KH with west. If east follows you cash HA, again felling the king, and run hearts. Job done.

[nige1]

eagles123, on 2017-August-21, 16:43, said:

The bidding is almost unrepeatable, and NS had a mix up with 3s, with South thinking it was natural and North thinking it was "4th suit forcing". Anyway You're in this spot which you'd rather not be in!
West leads the 2♣ (4th best leads) to the Ace and your 6, and the 4 of clubs is returned to your King and West's 5. At this point if trumps split, we can cross to dummy, draw two rounds of trumps, return to hand with a spade, draw the remaining trumps and hope for the heart finesse to work. However, disaster, we play a trump to the 6, K, 2, but on the second round of trumps It goes Q 4 3 and west pitches the 3 of spades.
Is there any way to make the contract now? Clearly we need the heart finesse to work, but is there anyway to avoid giving East a trump trick with their T8742? What hand do we need them to have? Does the opening lead make this possible.

If you would like to explore different solutions, double-dummy, then you can experiment with the likely layout in the spoiler below

Spoiler

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[johnu]

It's good to see so many N/B players actively participating in the forum.

[eagles123]

nige1, on 2017-August-23, 08:26, said:

If you would like to explore different solutions, double-dummy, then you can experiment with the likely layout in the spoiler below

Spoiler

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yes nige is correct with the distribution - I guess the moral of the story is when things look hopeless, think about what could go right - and here the layout was perfect for me, and brought in 100% of the matchpoints

[Cyberyeti]

eagles123, on 2017-August-24, 12:29, said:

yes nige is correct with the distribution - I guess the moral of the story is when things look hopeless, think about what could go right - and here the layout was perfect for me, and brought in 100% of the matchpoints

In practice couldn't you also have got all the matchpoints in 3♠x(x)= ?

[eagles123]

Cyberyeti, on 2017-August-24, 13:03, said:

In practice couldn't you also have got all the matchpoints in 3♠x(x)= ?

umm I guess