[cencio]

A mirror hand

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[Cyberyeti]

Nice hand

Spoiler

Win 2nd spade, draw 3 trumps, cash 2 diamonds and play 3 rounds of clubs, whoever wins can cash their winner and is then forced into giving a ruff and discard. Why you should guess to cash diamonds and play clubs rather than the other way round is not clear to me

[mikeh]

Obviously we win the 2nd spade and pull trump. We will need a minor miracle to make this, since we only have 9 tricks on top, assuming hearts behave. We have to assume that, else we have zero hope. The extra trick has to come from getting a ruff...yet we are mirrored: so we need an opponent to be on lead in a 2 card end game, where he has two in the same suit, and we are void in both hands...with one trump in each.

Who we plan to throw in depends on the trump split. If LHO has only 2 trump, we need him to be 5=2=2=4 or 5=2=4=2, and we eliminate the doubleton minor and hope that he can't get out of the way in the 4 card minor. Probably the best bet, if he has 2 trump, and pitches a spade, is to guess which his long suit is, and cash those winners first, hoping that he fails to unblock...the earlier one cashes winners, the more difficult it is for any but WC defenders to see the need for an unblock.

If LHO follows to 3 trump, then he is likely 5=3=3=2 or 5=3=2=3 (of course he might have a short minor).

Now we can infer that RHO has a 5 card minor. If we are planning on throwing LHO in, we cash the winners in his short minor, and then play AK and a 3rd round in the other. If we have guessed correctly: whoever wins this is toast. If LHO, he has a spade to cash but must then lead his last spade for the ruff-sluff. If RHO, then he has a minor to cash (LHO's short minor) and then gives us the ruff-sluff.

Is there anyway to guess better than mentally flipping a coin?

If LHO has only two trump, and pitches a spade, then there really is nothing we can do other than hope. But if LHO follows to three trump, RHO has a pitch to make. He will be 2=2=5=4 or 2=2=4=5 (or some 6-3 minors).

It is a virtual certainty on these hands, except against WC defenders on top of their game, that RHO will throw from his longer minor!

So if he throws a diamond, play LHO to have a doubleton (or singleton) and cash the top diamonds then play AK and a club. If he pitches a club, cash the AK of clubs then play three rounds of diamonds.

[fromageGB]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-April-29, 07:01, said:

Spoiler

Win 2nd spade, draw 3 trumps, cash 2 diamonds and play 3 rounds of clubs, whoever wins can cash their winner and is then forced into giving a ruff and discard. Why you should guess to cash diamonds and play clubs rather than the other way round is not clear to me

But...

Spoiler

East of course throws his ♣Q under the ace

[mikeh]

fromageGB, on 2019-April-29, 10:39, said:

But...

Spoiler

East of course throws his ♣Q under the ace

so what?

[Cyberyeti]

fromageGB, on 2019-April-29, 10:39, said:

But...

Spoiler

East of course throws his ♣Q under the ace

Spoiler

YOu completely miss the point, if W wins the third club, he cashes a spade and the diamond loser disappears, if W wins it he casehes the diamond and the spade loser disappears

[nudnikbp]

After North raises to 2H, shouldn't South bid 3NT to offer North a choice of contracts?

[bluechip10]

Initial thoughts: Duck the first spade; pull trump; cash the ace and k in the side suits. What do we know? LHO has 5 spades, 3 hts, 2 dia and 3 clubs. We know that RHO is down to minor suits. So, RHO can be endplayed if he is lazy enough to play the Q of clubs after two rounds taken by the K and A of clubs. Therefore, play a diamond and see what happens. This line gives you the best chance to make. If RHO cashes the Q of clubs after getting the diamond, he is endplayed. If he ducks, LHO wins and cashes a spade to set.

[mikeh]

bluechip10, on 2019-May-01, 15:49, said:

Initial thoughts: Duck the first spade; pull trump; cash the ace and k in the side suits. What do we know? LHO has 5 spades, 3 hts, 2 dia and 3 clubs. We know that RHO is down to minor suits. So, RHO can be endplayed if he is lazy enough to play the Q of clubs after two rounds taken by the K and A of clubs. Therefore, play a diamond and see what happens. This line gives you the best chance to make. If RHO cashes the Q of clubs after getting the diamond, he is endplayed. If he ducks, LHO wins and cashes a spade to set.

I suggest you read cyberyeti's spoiler. You will see, if you pay careful attention, that the contract cannot be set if LHO has 5 spades and 3 hearts, provided that you correctly guess which minor he is short in. You cash the AK of that suit, in order to remove his ability to exit in that suit if he wins the third round of the other minor.

Say he was 5=3=2=3: you win the second spade, cash 3 trumps, cash the top 2 diamonds and play 3 rounds of clubs. Assume LHO wins (don't worry: we'll look at what happens if RHO wins). You have played 2 spades, 3 trump, 2 diamonds and 3 clubs, or 10 cards. So everyone has 3 cards left.

He has J10x void void void and you have x x x void opposite x x x void.

He can cash the spade, for his 3rd trick, but now has to lead another spade, giving you a ruff-sluff (by the way, being able to formulate this sort of picture in one's mind...to mentally play off most of the tricks and to then picture not only what we have left but what the opps probably have..is the gateway to becoming not merely a good declarer but a great declarer. Virtually all squeezes and end-plays operate out of this approach...at least, those that are not purely accidental).

So, let's let RHO win the 3rd club. He is also down to 3 cards, but of course has no spades.

He has void void Qx Q (or equivalent). We have, in each hand, the same x x x void. So he can cash his diamond, but then has only clubs left: and has to give us a ruff-sluff.

This works even if LHO has a stiff minor (or even a void!). The key is to cash the winners in the suit in which LHO is short, then to reduce to this 3 card ending. No matter how the cards lie, so long as you can remove LHO's short minor from his hand, before throwing him in, whoever wins the throw-in will shortly be giving you a ruff-sluff. If it is LHO, he cashes a spade first. If it is RHO, he cashes the winner he holds in LHO's short minor, but the result is identical.

The only real contribution I made was to help you figure out, if you were at the table, which minor LHO was short in, assuming he had 3 trump. Many years ago a very strong US expert, Ed Manfield, wrote a brilliant article in The Bridge World in which he pointed out that defenders routinely pitched from 'useless' 5 card side suits, and that, in some esoteric situations the 5th card was far from useless. More to the point, recognition by declarers of this tendency, which is just as prevalent today outside of the very highest levels of the game, will help with inferential count, which in turn is an essential technique for good declarer play.

Here, on the 3rd trump, if RHO was 2=2 in the majors, he has to pitch a minor and virtually every player you are likely to encounter in real life will pitch from the longer minor (unless they've read this post)