[pclayton]

Here's a fascinating hand I watched on VG yesterday.

Scoring: IMP

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You play in 4♥. LHO butts in with a Sandwich NT showing at least 5-5 in the blacks. Your partner decides not to play for penalties and you end up in a tenuous 4♥ contract.

LHO leads the ♦10, A, 2, 4.

Plan the play for the first few tricks.

[xcurt]

pclayton, on May 6 2008, 10:33 AM, said:

Here's a fascinating hand I watched on VG yesterday.

Dealer: North Vul: N/S Scoring: IMP

♠ T3 ♥ 5 ♦ AK8653 ♣ AKQ7 ♠ AQJ92 ♥ AT9863 ♦ 4 ♣ 5

You play in 4♥. LHO butts in with a Sandwich NT showing at least 5-5 in the blacks. Your partner decides not to play for penalties and you end up in a tenuous 4♥ contract.

LHO leads the ♦10, A, 2, 4.

Plan the play for the first few tricks.

This is a BRUTALLY complicated hand!!! I'm pretty sure I can make whenever LHO has 5125 shape. I'm not sure about other shapes.

DK, D ruffed, CAK, and a H to the T. Now if LHO started with Kxxxx, J, Tx, JT9xx, the position will be as shown, with LHO to lead, and with us needing 6 of the remaining 8 tricks:

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On a club return we cash the CQ and DK, ruff a diamond and play ace and a spade. We have HA98 over HKQ7, duck trick 11 and claim.

On a low spade return we fly T and play as above.

On the SK return we win and play a spade to the T. RHO has to ruff, else we round up as above. If RHO returns a trump we win and drive out his trumps. If RHO returns a plain card we cash the remaining plain card winner in dummy, ruff a diamond, and we are left with HA98 over HKQ7 again.

If RHO has all three trump honors, and the HT holds we cash the SA and play the H9 back.

If RHO has all three trump honors and splits we win the HA and cash the SA. The position is now, with us to lead, and with us requiring 4 of the remaining 7 tricks:

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and we play a high trump from hand. RHO is now caught as follows.

RHO can allow us to make two trump tricks, drawing RHO's trumps simultaneously, after which we just drive out the SK. LHO can then either let us take the two high spades in our hand or the two winners on the table.

Alternatively, RHO can return a plain card upon winning a trump, allowing us access to the two winners on the table. Now a plain suit lead from the table lets us make two trump tricks.

The point of the variations where LHO has a stiff H honor is to force the defenders to assist in stripping RHO of diamonds, then force RHO to ruff our spade loser, simultaneously endplaying him in trumps.

[pclayton]

I think this is a reasonable analysis and you very are close to being right, except this line seems to fail when LHO is 2=1 in the reds, which seems more likely with the lead.

Hooking the heart is fine, but you have to strand dummy's diamond winner, else LHO ruffs with the baby trump. After LHO wins the trump he puts you back on the board with a club. Cash the clubs (if you want, it doesn't matter, ruff a club, cash the ♠A, and exit a middle heart to RHO. RHO then puts you on the board, to cash the diamond, ruff a diamond (you now have trump parity with RHO) and exit the spade for the endplay.

[xcurt]

pclayton, on May 7 2008, 01:51 AM, said:

I think this is a reasonable analysis and you very are close to being right, except this line seems to fail when LHO is 2=1 in the reds, which seems more likely with the lead.

Hooking the heart is fine, but you have to strand dummy's diamond winner, else LHO ruffs with the baby trump. After LHO wins the trump he puts you back on the board with a club. Cash the clubs (if you want, it doesn't matter, ruff a club, cash the ♠A, and exit a middle heart to RHO. RHO then puts you on the board, to cash the diamond, ruff a diamond (you now have trump parity with RHO) and exit the spade for the endplay.

Yes I was still trying to figure out if I could cater 5215 and 5125. I did want to play for 5215 but didn't see how right away. I don't think we can make if LHO has 6 clubs or RHO has 6 hearts. Don't hold me to that though I haven't analyzed all the variations. LHO is very unlikely to have 6 spades on the auction, so I agree your line is optimal.

Thanks for posting a very interesting hand!

EDIT--

Phil's line fails to 5125 since in the 5-card ending RHO holds --, K7x, QJ, -- and declarer holds QJ, A86, --, --, with RHO to lead and declarer needing all but one of the remaining tricks. RHO can exit a trump putting you in the wrong hand. Conceding a spade is give-up (rho ruffs the next spade), and when you play 3 rounds of trumps LHO keeps one high card in each black suit, then keeps the black suit dummy kept when RHO plays the DQ to the DK on the table at trick 12. So you do have to take a position on the distribution early in the hand.