[BunnyGo]

This hand was an example in the Rodwell Files. The hand as presented had a declarer error giving the defense a way out (the lesson of the hand was that the defense didn't find it...), but the author didn't mention the declarer error giving the defense a chance. I found it very interesting.

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The lead is the King of spades, won by the Ace, East playing the 9.

Hearts are 1-2 (West pitches a spade). Now what?

Edit: For those with the book, the hand appears on page 95. I'll post the full hand and my answer (hopefully the correct one) later.

This post has been edited by BunnyGo: 2011-August-06, 15:00

[nige1]

BunnyGo wrote "This hand was an example in the Rodwell Files. The hand as presented had a declarer error giving the defense a way out (the lesson of the hand was that the defense didn't find it...), but the author didn't mention the declarer error giving the defense a chance. I found it very interesting. The lead is the King of spades, won by the Ace, East playing the 9. Hearts are 1-2 (West pitches a spade). Now what? For those with the book, the hand appears on page 95. I'll post the full hand and my answer (hopefully the correct one) later."

Intriguing. Grasping at straws: On the auction, It seems likely that RHO has the minor suit aces. Maybe the defensive error was RHO squandering ♠9 from ♠94.. You could play RHO for at least six diamonds. Win ♠A, ♥ KQ, and lead a ♦ to ♦Q. Presumably, RHO wins ♦A and leads a ♠. but LHO has to win and lead a ♣ allowing declarer to make if If LHO has at least one of ♣JT.
Suppose, however, that opponents can cash ♦A, a ♠ and exit safely in ♦. Then cash ♦s, If LHO follows, you can lead a ♣ to ♣K and another ♣ towards dummy. If LHO has ♣JT doubleton (or even ♣Jx if he failed to unblock on the first round) then you succeed. I look forward to the real solution.

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[xxhong]

Looks like west may have problems when holding DTxx and CJ(T)x. So you just draw two rounds of trumps and play S. West may not know which suit to switch.
D can be wrong when declarer holds xx Qxxxx A9x Jxx. C can be wrong in the actual hand.
If east wins that spade trick, he may not know which suit to attack either with DA8xx and C AJ(T)xx, here D can be wrong if partner holds QTx, because low D would cost a trick if declarer takes the finesse of D8 and forces out DT. C can be wrong the in the actual lay out.

BunnyGo, on 2011-August-06, 12:50, said:

This hand was an example in the Rodwell Files. The hand as presented had a declarer error giving the defense a way out (the lesson of the hand was that the defense didn't find it...), but the author didn't mention the declarer error giving the defense a chance. I found it very interesting.

---

The lead is the King of spades, won by the Ace, East playing the 9.

Hearts are 1-2 (West pitches a spade). Now what?

Edit; For those with the book, the hand appears on page 95. I'll post the full hand and my answer (hopefully the correct one) later.

[BunnyGo]

So here's the whole hand as presented by Rodwell:

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The lesson was that West should have dropped the Jack of clubs under the King.

However, I think that the declarer played the hand wrong. There is little hope of picking up the clubs for just one loser, and I don't think there's much hope of an endplay, but it's likely that West has a club honor (T,J or A), with at most two clubs. I think the play should be as follows:

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I should say that I just now realized why my line isn't good (count your losers ). The reason I thought this was better was that it would never give West the chance to unblock. It's clear to me now that you need to hope that West has a doubleton T or J (or both!) and doesn't find the unblock. Anyways, hope you found this as interesting as I did.

[jonottawa]

I feel less dumb about not finding some brilliant coup as declarer now.