[ahydra]

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IMPs, you're vul. The auction from South's 4C bid onwards might not be to everyone's liking but it's not that important here.

Easy problem: how does South justify his bold bidding on the ♦2 lead?

Harder (or at least more fun) problem: suppose instead North bids 6NT instead of 6D and you get the ♦7 lead from East.

Spoiler

Diamonds break 2 in West, 3 in East

ahydra

[gszes]

given the bidding it seems HUGELY unlikely rho can have 4 clubs so lets see if we can cater to lho having 4 clubs
trick 1 win the dia 9
trick 2 club k (assuming it holds)
trick 3 low club toward the ace (if clubs break 32 hand is over if rho had 4 clubs (ouch) hand is over the other way. we have 2 scenarios
1. rho ruffs the club
we pull a 2nd round of trump asap and it makes no difference if rho shows out on 2nd round or not cash the club A ruff a club with trump K come back to hand and claim (there may be technical things like cashing the spade AK to pitch a heart etc.
2. rho ducks the club
trick 4 win the ace
trick 5 lead a 3rd club
at this point we still have Kx of trumps in dummy to ruff our 4th club and proceed as noted above.


6n?
am I really going to lead a heart at trick 2 hoping lho has a singleton honor AND lho has 4+ clubs AND 6+ spades rather then rely on clubs breaking 32?? sigh only if this is set up as a play problem where taking the most likely path to success fails.

[Phil]

In 6♦ it looks normal to win a diamond in dummy and play ♣K, ♣. If RHO ruffs, he ruffs air. I suppose I should be careful and cash a high spade first before giving up a club- if East were 2=7=3=1, he can beat me by pitching two spades on the clubs and getting a spade ruff.

6N is sort of interesting, and I am not sure the fancy line of ♠AK, cash a 3rd diamond and one club, endplay East with a heart, take the forced heart return and sque eze West in the blacks is much better than just conceding a club. I cannot see a way to combine my chances. For instance, if I play ♣AK (getting the bad news, I need to cash my spades to strip East's exit cards and I have killed my communication. Obviously I cannot duck a club either.

Similarly, if I run diamonds, not touching clubs, I can comfortably pitch one spade from my hand but my hand gets squeezed on the 5th diamond and West is in no pain. I can pitch a club, but that gives up chances for 3-2 clubs.

Assuming West is always bidding with seven spades, and East might have six for the w/r preempt:

Squeeze line wins with East is 2=7=3=1. It fails when East has 2=6=3=2. Nothing works when East is 3=6=3=1 or 3=7=3=0.

If East looks very conservative, I'd try the squeeze, but otherwise I'd go for the simple line.

[ahydra]

Full hand was:

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So in 6D you play as Phil described - win ♦K, ♠AK, ♣Kx, if East discards you win Ace and play another ♣x, then later ruff a club high to set them up. In 6NT you need the squeeze, which you may find if you cash the CK and note the fall of East's Q.

FWIW I was East and I am not particularly conservative w/r

Unfortunately neither our team nor the opps had any need for such heroics as they were both in 5D.

ahydra

[gszes]

We have a winner - low heart at trick 2 hoping for lho to have stiff heart honor 6+ spades and 4+ clubs NOW let me see a show of hands=== how many will try for this rather than relying on a 32 club split?