[The_Badger]

More for intermediate/intermediate plus players, I feel, than advanced/expert. (If advanced/expert solve this please use a 'spoiler'. Thanks) Again from a 1960s magazine. I have amended the bidding to reflect modern trends. Hint for solvers: the breaks are not favourable, but not extreme either. West leads ♥K, East follows with the ♥2, and West will continue on trick 2 with ♥Q if you duck the lead as declarer.

---

[gszes]

Spoiler

the idea being to finesse the spade 9 after ducking 2 rounds of hearts trying for 4 spades and 5 other side tricks

[johnu]

This is somewhat similar to this hand recently posted.

Similar hand

[Cyberyeti]

gszes, on 2018-December-31, 19:23, said:

Spoiler

the idea being to finesse the spade 9 after ducking 2 rounds of hearts trying for 4 spades and 5 other side tricks

Spoiler

If W is on the ball, he'll play an honour from Hx(x) to prevent you ducking a spade to E, if it goes 10-Q what next ?

[The_Badger]

johnu, on 2018-December-31, 19:42, said:

This is somewhat similar to this hand recently posted.

Similar hand

There are similarities, John, but that's where the similarity ends

Cyberyeti's on the right track. I purposely left out whether it is MPs or IMPs. It's easy peasy for 10 tricks if ♠ break 3-3, but that aren't going to happen Hint for solvers: the breaks are not favourable, but not extreme either.

[dokoko]

Cyberyeti, on 2018-December-31, 20:03, said:

Spoiler

If W is on the ball, he'll play an honour from Hx(x) to prevent you ducking a spade to E, if it goes 10-Q what next ?

Spoiler

I guess you can't win the hand if West has ♠Jx or Tx but by a defensive error. You might try for a cannibal squeeze (often called "suicide") by winning the 2nd trick and playing ♥10, but if W refuses to cash his hearts there is no squeeze.

[The_Badger]

dokoko, on 2019-January-01, 02:39, said:

Spoiler

I guess you can't win the hand if West has ♠Jx or Tx but by a defensive error.

You do not need anything as sophisticated as a cannibal/suicide squeeze or a defensive error to make this contract. If you try to construct the East/West hands with the hints given above, it's a lot easier to find your way to the ninth trick.

[Cyberyeti]

The_Badger, on 2019-January-01, 05:55, said:

You do not need anything as sophisticated as a cannibal/suicide squeeze or a defensive error to make this contract. If you try to construct the East/West hands with the hints given above, it's a lot easier to find your way to the ninth trick.

My first thoughts if W plays ♠ 10 or J were to try to find E with QJx in one of the minors and try to duck a trick to him using the spade entries, I don't see a way of rectifying the count for a squeeze if I keep the spade entry, I may be able to duck a trick to QJ109, but I can't duck the second trick I need to, and it looks like there can be no triple squeeze as it seems E is 43(42) in that case so W controls the other minor.

Yes I can make double dummy if E has QJ109x2 in the minors and W has the spades, but I'm not going to.

[Ranmit]

From the hint, it seems to be that spades and both the minors are breaking 4-2, with E having 4 in spades and 1 minor. *IF* I know this, then I duck first 2 rounds of hearts, attempt a spade to the 9 and if W plays high, play the AK of the minors and exit in whichever minor E appears to have. E will take 2 tricks in the minor but will then have to lead a Spade into the dummy, and we make 9.

However, there is no a priori reason to believe that both the minors are splitting 4-2, and from the aggressive bidding it rather looks like at least one suit maybe 5-1. If I were playing this game, I probably see myself just playing AKQ of spades (if W interjects with a high spade card), hoping for the best

Whats the solution?

[nige1]

The_Badger asks "More for intermediate/intermediate plus players, I feel, than advanced/expert. (If advanced/expert solve this please use a 'spoiler'. Thanks) Again from a 1960s magazine. I have amended the bidding to reflect modern trends. Hint for solvers: the breaks are not favourable, but not extreme either. West leads ♥K, East follows with the ♥2, and West will continue on trick 2 with ♥Q if you duck the lead as declarer."
My guess:

Spoiler

Win the 3rd ♥ discarding a ♦, say, and lead a ♠
If LHO plays low, then finesse ♠9, making if ♠ no worse than 4-2.
If LHO plays an honour, as here, then win ♠A and
Lead a minor, say ♣s, ducking if RHO plays ♣Q.
Otherwise win ♣A and cash ♠KQ, making if ♠JT drop in 3.
If ♠ aren't good, then hope RHO is at least 2344, (as in the diagram on the left)
Then the major winners have squeezed RHO, without the count, in the minors.
Lead the minor that RHO has abandoned, ducking if RHO plays the queen.
Otherwise, play the suit from the top.
On the given layout, you could also have succeeded with a double finesse in ♠
-- but only if you peeked

---

Spoiler

The point about about ducking RHO's minor Queen is that you can sometimes succeed if you guess well in other cases like that on the left.

---

[cherdano]

You can also make if LHO is 2=5=3=3 - after three rounds of hearts and West inserting J/T from Hx in spades, just play three spades from the top and play three rounds of whichever minor LHO is discarding. Anyway, I don't think this is an intermediate+ problem - there are quite a few combinations to consider, and I think anyone who can make a well-informed decision on what to play for is at least advanced. It's a very ordinary play problem but one that would separate declarers in most fields.

[nige1]

I liked Cherdano's line, but, unfortunately, it seems to fail when LHO discards the same minor as declarer.
Anyway, it's a beautiful problem Thank you the_Badger.

[The_Badger]

Ranmit, on 2019-January-01, 10:09, said:

From the hint, it seems to be that spades and both the minors are breaking 4-2, with E having 4 in spades and 1 minor. *IF* I know this, then I duck first 2 rounds of hearts, attempt a spade to the 9 and if W plays high, play the AK of the minors and exit in whichever minor E appears to have. E will take 2 tricks in the minor but will then have to lead a Spade into the dummy, and we make 9.

However, there is no a priori reason to believe that both the minors are splitting 4-2, and from the aggressive bidding it rather looks like at least one suit maybe 5-1. If I were playing this game, I probably see myself just playing AKQ of spades (if W interjects with a high spade card), hoping for the best

Whats the solution?

Well done Ranmit. Here's the whole hand. And as you say...

---

...*IF* I know this

When the hand was played, West played the ♠10 when declarer led towards dummy. Declarer cashed the ♠AK and was about to play a third round of ♠s when East made an ill-timed compliment at the table to West "You're my favourite partner" in a voice that carried as much gloat as it did tribute.

Declarer stopped in his tracks, didn't play the third round of ♠s, and then proceeded to endplay East as you said in your post.

Poetic justice I think it's called

[ahydra]

I figured the endplay couldn't be the solution as you need to somehow divine East's exact shape, i.e. when you cash DAK CAK you can somehow guess which one they've run out of. You then get called up in front of the TD for inspecting the hand records prior to play, temporarily suspended from the club, and it becomes a nightmare...

That said, given East doesn't have a whole lot of HCPs for his raise to 2H, the odds favour something like the hand shown where the doubleton will be a Qx or Jx to give it away - and the comment certainly helps!

I figured that given this came from a book the solution would be the suicide squeeze, which (style points aside) I reckon would work the vast majority of the time in a club or even lower-level tournaments.

ahydra

[nige1]

ahydra, on 2019-January-02, 02:17, said:

I figured the endplay couldn't be the solution as you need to somehow divine East's exact shape, i.e. when you cash DAK CAK you can somehow guess which one they've run out of. You then get called up in front of the TD for inspecting the hand records prior to play, temporarily suspended from the club, and it becomes a nightmare... That said, given East doesn't have a whole lot of HCPs for his raise to 2H, the odds favour something like the hand shown where the doubleton will be a Qx or Jx to give it away - and the comment certainly helps!I figured that given this came from a book the solution would be the suicide squeeze, which (style points aside) I reckon would work the vast majority of the time in a club or even lower-level tournaments.ahydra

Ahydra is right that you won't find Ranmit's unlikely ♠-endplay, at the table, without a peek, or hand-record, or a road-map from a kind defender.
However, you also need a kind defender to co-operate in a fratricidal-squeeze
The more orthodox line has good legitimate chances. The minor-suit squeeze, 2 short of the count, is quite unusual and pretty

[Tramticket]

For me, the interest arises from the defence. Would I rise with the ten?! I hope I would, but ...

[Cyberyeti]

Next what happens when you play Ranmit's line after the coffee housing and discover that the ♠7 was in fact the ♣J. The resulting director call would be interesting.

[cherdano]

Tramticket, on 2019-January-02, 08:43, said:

For me, the interest arises from the defence. Would I rise with the ten?! I hope I would, but ...

Read Rodwell's book! "Danger hand high" is one of its most memorable chapters...

[Tramticket]

cherdano, on 2019-January-02, 09:32, said:

Read Rodwell's book! "Danger hand high" is one of its most memorable chapters...

Thanks, yes I have read it ... I'd better re-read! Which is a good idea anyway, so many great ideas.

[gszes]

Cyberyeti, on 2018-December-31, 20:03, said:

Spoiler

If W is on the ball, he'll play an honour from Hx(x) to prevent you ducking a spade to E, if it goes 10-Q what next ?

Spoiler

congratulate them on a good play and hope for a 33 break because anything else is guesswork at best or doomed