[m1cha]

Everyone played 3NT with this board in a local cllub the other day but it turns out 7♦ can be made against a 5-0 trumps break. Can you find out how?

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Never mind the auction, some of it is fantasy. So is the lead of ♣2, it's meant to reduce your worries about the ♣Q and keep focused on the real problem. Anyway, West wins the trick with ♣J and continues with ♦4 to ♦Q only to find out that North has a void. Take it from here. You must avoid to lose a trick to ♦J7632 at South. What's the plan?

You need the spades finesse? Yes, it works.

Hint:

Spoiler

Obviously you have to finesse in diamonds Since you don't have any small trumps in dummy, you have to finesse in trumps by playing side suits. Twice! You have to get rid of excessive trumps in your hand before you do. There is one card in dummy that must not be touched before everything else has been set up and that's ... [oops]

Spoiler

♦K which is indispensable to reach dummy in trick 11.

Full hand:

Spoiler

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[mikeh]

The club lead is silly. Given the auction North surely has a heart lead from KQ: he has to have those cards to get to 11 hcp.

Try making your contract with a heart lead, assuming that you don't start out playing for 5-0 diamonds.

Also assume best defence.

I assume you start by winning the heart, crossing in clubs, and hooking the spade to pitch a heart. Now cash the diamond and find the bad break.

One has 3 major suit winners and at most 6 diamonds in hand, assuming you can elope with the small ones, so need 4 tricks from clubs. Clearly you can't take 4 winners...you need 3 winners and a ruff. You want to end with a 3 card ending in which declarer has A10 in trump and a club, and dummy has 2 major suit losers and a top diamond. We ruff the club, as RHO under-ruffs, and then lead a major card off dummy through RHO's Jx into our A10.

The club lead doesn't just give you the club Q, which you already knew, but it preserves a vital heart entry, so it is a real kludge that makes the hand silly.

So at the point of the bad split, we are in dummy. We can almost surely ruff a heart without risking South pitching a club....North won't have 6 hearts.

So we are in hand with void void A1098 J10x and in dummy we have xx xx Q A9

We need to score two more ruffs in our hand and then, after doing so, get back to dummy so as to have the coup. We need the club ruff as the last entry, so we need 2 club entries to dummy and only have one against good defence (which any good player would see, since your line would make it clear that you were attempting a coup).

Lead the club J or 10: north ducks. Lead the x and North inserts the Queen. Kiss your coup goodbye. Say you lead low and north is asleep and allows the 9 to win. Even now you are on a guess. You need to preserve the club A to get back again. If North was 5=5=0=3, and you lead a heart, RHO pitches a club and down you go. If north was 6=4=0=3, and you lead a spade...same thing. So even with bad defence, you're on a guess.

The club lead, of course, gives you that vital extra entry. Win in hand, hook the spade, cash a diamond, and a spade, pitching a heart, ruff a spade, praying that south can't pitch a club, cross to the heart Ace, ruff a heart, cross to the club King then back to the Ace, ruff a major, ruff a club in dummy and one has played and won 11 tricks and are in dummy.

So note that this line is also somewhat fanciful in that one needs North to be 5=5=0=3 and not 6=4=0=3

[dokoko]

mikeh, on 2019-January-18, 15:21, said:

I assume you start by winning the heart, crossing in clubs, and hooking the spade to pitch a heart. Now cash the diamond and find the bad break.

Good technique is to ruff a heart, then play a diamond to the queen. IMO this should be a routine move at the table by an expert declarer.

[nige1]

Win the ♣ lead with dummy's ♣9.
Cash ♦K, finding that RHO has 5 ♦s.
Enter hand with ♣K.
Finesse ♠Q.
Cash ♠A, discarding a ♥.
Ruff a ♠.
Cross to ♥A.
Ruff a ♥.
Cross to ♣A
If you've survived this far, then you can claim on a cross-ruff
(Over-)ruff a major.
Ruff a ♣.
(Over-)ruff a major.
On ♥K lead, you can't afford to test ♦s at trick 2. because against best defence, you need both ♦s as dummy-entries
(When you lead a cunning ♣3 towards dummy, a wakeful LHO can bounce ♣Q.so you only have one ♣ entry to dummy)
But you can still succeed (at double-dummy) by ♥A, ♣K, finesse ♠Q, ♠A, ♥ ruff, ♦Q, ♠ ruff, ♣J (not ♣3) etc

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[nige1]

A variant, with the short ♦ hand declarer. With perfect defence, defenders can now defeat 7♦.
- LHO must lead a trump.
- RHO must bounce up ♣Q, when declarer leads ♣2 from dummy (as MikeH points out)

On any other lead e.g. ♥K, at double-dummy, declarer can make 7♦ ...
♥A, ♣K. Finesse ♠Q. Discard a ♥ on ♠A. Ruff a ♥. Cross to ♦K. Ruff a ♥.
Lead ♣J (not ♣2!) so that you can take 2 ♣s ending in dummy.
Claim on a cross-(over-)ruff.

If the overcaller is 5503 (as in the OP) rather than 6403 (as here), then there is no defence, at double-dummy. Because, even on a trump lead, declarer can ruff a ♠ before rufflng a ♥.

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[m1cha]

mikeh, on 2019-January-18, 15:21, said:

The club lead is silly. Given the auction North surely has a heart lead from KQ

I know. But this was a real-life hand and I didn't want everyone to worry about the ♣Q. I guess I should have moved the ♣Q to dummy and ♥Q to South to make it a better problem.

mikeh, on 2019-January-18, 15:21, said:

So note that this line is also somewhat fanciful in that one needs North to be 5=5=0=3 and not 6=4=0=3

Such things happen. Yes, with the first two tricks as I originally gave them, the problem only works if South has three spades. And 3 or 4 clubs of course.