[dcvetkov]

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Bidding I believe is irelevant and contract is 6NT by North. You receive a 8♦ lead and cover with 9, RHO covers with 10, and you win with J. Prospect do not look too good, but what is your plan?

P.S. Very good star player went down with this hand, while it is of course easier double dummy, i think she could have done better.

[Apollo81]

Heart to the jack and spade to the ten, if it wins, play ♠Q, if it wins, play West for 4 spades and run hearts pitching a club and 3 diamonds, potentially squeezing him in various ways. Not going to think about other possibilities without finding out what happens on the spade play(s).

[mikeh]

I play a spade at trick 2, to the K.

If it wins, I play a spade to the 10 next.. if I can get 2 spade tricks while losing only 1, I have lots of chances, including 3-3 spades or the club K onside. Exactly how I combine those chances depends on the defence

If the spade K loses to the Ace, then my line again depends on the defence, but I am going to assume that the club K is onside... giving me 11 top tricks and I will already have lost a trick so the count is rectified.

Say they return a spade. I pop the Q... I do not hook the 10. I then run the hearts.

I hope the 4 card ending has me with 10 void Ax x and dummy with void void Q AQx and that I can read the end position.

Give LHO the spade J and the club K, and he has to reduce to J void void Kxx while RHO has to keep 2 diamonds, so can't hold clubs. Now when I cash the diamond A, LHO is crushed.

If RHO has the spade J, then in the 4 card ending, he has to keep that card and 2 diamonds and only one club, while LHO holds Kxx of clubs and an immaterial 4th card.

Now, the club hook and cashing the club Ace crushes RHO.

There are other variants depending on the defence. Note that my constructions suggest a brilliant defence available to RHO should he win trick 2 with the spade Ace: he can and maybe should switch to a club into the AQ... obviously, not if he holds the K

[Cascade]

A spade at trick two is better than a spade to the ten at trick three since you win if east has AJ doubleton.

[dcvetkov]

I must admit I expected this hand to excite more responces. Maybe it is too easy;)

You need club finesse to work to bring your total to 11. I must say I am not sure what the best line is mathematically. Your 12th trick can come from spades ( 2 spade tricks) or diamonds ( Kings drops doubleton) or some sort of squeeze.

So your options are
1) try for 2 spade tricks by finessing the 10
2) try for 2 spade tricks by guessing the doubleton ace
3) try for 2 spade tricks by guessing doubleton jack
4) drop the doubleton king of D with RHO
5) something else

You know from the lead that King of D is with RHO. If he also has the Ace of spade, you can almost envision the ending, where his last 3 cards will be Kx♦, and A♠. There is no clue who has the ace of spades, but I believe proper play at is cross to the J♥, and low spade to queen. If that wins (RHO has to duck, and you have to congratulate LHO if he ducks smoothly the ace), then the play is clear
- take the club finesse, cash the ace, cross to hand with ♥, and run the hearts. You have to guess RHO distribution, at the end, but he is most likely to keep A♠ and Kx♦, unless he blanks the Diamonds King early with a poker face. Now spade to the ace, endplayes RHO to lead diamond from Kx. Classis strip squeeze.

And if Queen of spades loses? There are many variation after that, but contract became less makeable. Anyone who can work it out, please post.

[awm]

I don't see why this is the right line. Your plan is to play spade to queen, and admit that you have very few chances if this loses. But even if the spade ace is onside, you are far from cold -- in fact your next play is club to queen! So you're relying on two finesses (and even if both win, you're still not cold, although chances are very good).

Compare this to spade towards ten. If the spade jack is onside, you are close to cold. Either east wins the ace over the ten, in which case you try to squeeze west in ♠/♦, or the ten holds, in which case you play a top spade, making either if ♠3-3 or if you can squeeze or strip squeeze west in ♠/♦.

[FrancesHinden]

dcvetkov, on Mar 13 2008, 05:31 PM, said:

I must admit I expected this hand to excite more responces. Maybe it is too easy;)

You need club finesse to work to bring your total to 11. I must say I am not sure what the best line is mathematically. Your 12th trick can come from spades ( 2 spade tricks) or diamonds ( Kings drops doubleton) or some sort of squeeze.

You have missed out the possibility of playing spades for 3 tricks, which needs the suit 3-3 with the jack onside. The SJ onside is just as likely as the CK onside, so surely any line that 'assumes' a spade finesse and looks for a twelth trick from there is as good as a line that 'assumes' a club finesse?

[mikeh]

dcvetkov, on Mar 13 2008, 11:31 AM, said:

I must admit I expected this hand to excite more responces. Maybe it is too easy;)

You need club finesse to work to bring your total to 11. I must say I am not sure what the best line is mathematically. Your 12th trick can come from spades ( 2 spade tricks) or diamonds ( Kings drops doubleton) or some sort of squeeze.

So your options are
1) try for 2 spade tricks by finessing the 10
2) try for 2 spade tricks by guessing the doubleton ace
3) try for 2 spade tricks by guessing doubleton jack
4) drop the doubleton king of D with RHO
5) something else

You know from the lead that King of D is with RHO. If he also has the Ace of spade, you can almost envision the ending, where his last 3 cards will be Kx♦, and A♠. There is no clue who has the ace of spades, but I believe proper play at is cross to the J♥, and low spade to queen. If that wins (RHO has to duck, and you have to congratulate LHO if he ducks smoothly the ace), then the play is clear
- take the club finesse, cash the ace, cross to hand with ♥, and run the hearts. You have to guess RHO distribution, at the end, but he is most likely to keep A♠ and Kx♦, unless he blanks the Diamonds King early with a poker face. Now spade to the ace, endplayes RHO to lead diamond from Kx. Classis strip squeeze.

And if Queen of spades loses? There are many variation after that, but contract became less makeable. Anyone who can work it out, please post.

I haven't done the math, but I am certain that the line I suggested is significantly better than the line you say is 'too easy'. As Frances points out, you may not need the club K onside, so any line that caters to the spade hook winning (which may thereby gain 2 tricks, not the 1 gained from the club hook) has to be superior.. and when one can, to a modest degree, combine chances.. the odds in favour of that line increase

[dcvetkov]

Okay, Okay

I admit I am biased with double dummy, and the fact that I "know" that club finesse is working, and that I count that as trick # 11. I am still not sure that small spade to 10 or spade to King and spade to 10 is vastly superior play.... you can lose to doubleton Jack and fail the hand at trick 2, while the finesse of clubs was on all the time.
I said that once the queen of clubs holds, chances for the endplay improve considerably.

BTW, Jack of spades is offside, RHO has Axx of spades and LHO Jxx.
Maybe if there is an example of single dummy and double dummy play, this is the one.

[mikeh]

dcvetkov, on Mar 13 2008, 03:23 PM, said:

Okay, Okay

I admit I am biased with double dummy, and the fact that I "know" that club finesse is working, and that I count that as trick # 11. I am still not sure that small spade to 10 or spade to King and spade to 10 is vastly superior play.... you can lose to doubleton Jack and fail the hand at trick 2, while the finesse of clubs was on all the time.
I said that once the queen of clubs holds, chances for the endplay improve considerably.

BTW, Jack of spades is offside, RHO has Axx of spades and LHO Jxx.
Maybe if there is an example of single dummy and double dummy play, this is the one.

So, unless RHO ducks the King of spades, and few players will be able to do so in tempo, playing as I suggested makes the contract provided that one reads the endgame.. and I would expect to be able to do so more often than not.

[jdonn]

Playing on spades in some fashion right away seems clear. Sorry but anything involving an early club finesse is clearly wrong, as it needs more.