[BunnyGo]

I played this hand with Phil online against two random (but seemingly decent) players.

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Comments on the XX, or is that reasonable? Either way, you now have to play it:

Lead is the heart A:

1) HA, S4, H3, H4
2) C3, C5, CA, C2
3) D3, D7, DQ, D5

Now what?

[ArtK78]

I think that playing the ♠K now gives you the best chance to maintain control of the hand while running the minor suits.

Presumably, East wins. No matter the continuation, you should be able to maintain control of the hand.

If spades are 5-0 things may get dicey, but I still think you should be able to force East to ruff in on the run of the diamonds while maintaining control of the hand.

Playing a low spade off dummy may cause a problem, as the ♠K may be used up with heart ruffs.

I have not tried to go through the rest of the play in detail, but the basic plan is to be able to pull two rounds of spades and run the rest of the minor suit winners, allowing East to score three trump tricks.

On the subject of the redouble - it seems greedy, but it does make for a better story.

[rogerclee]

This is a good example in just visualizing endpositions, which is almost always easiest by working backwards. If you can reach a position where RHO is trump-tight then you are good. So initially you are aiming for a 5 card endposition that looks something like

K9 void Qxx void

opp

Q7x void x x

without losing any tricks. Can you do this? Sure, having unblocked T/9 of clubs (just a matter of technique), go back to your hand again in clubs. If diamonds are 2-2 then you will have reached the desired position by just finishing clubs and ruffing a heart in dummy. If diamonds are 3-1, then can we do anything? Assuming we knew that from the start, we could get our RHO down to AJT8x x in the majors having lost no tricks, but he could brute force his way to 4 tricks from this position thanks to his 8 of spades.

We can't ever play spades if they're 5-0, not hard to see that RHO will then just have 4 trump tricks by force.

[quiddity]

rogerclee, on 2012-February-10, 12:02, said:

This is a good example in just visualizing endpositions, which is almost always easiest by working backwards. If you can reach a position where RHO is trump-tight then you are good. So initially you are aiming for a 5 card endposition that looks something like

K9 void Qxx void

opp

Q7x void x x

without losing any tricks. Can you do this? Sure, having unblocked T/9 of clubs (just a matter of technique), go back to your hand again in clubs. If diamonds are 2-2 then you will have reached the desired position by just finishing clubs and ruffing a heart in dummy

What happened to your fourth spade and dummy's fourth diamond?
You can reach a 6 card endposition when RHO is 5323 and your last club is good:

K9 void Qxxx void
opp
Q7xx void x x

and lead a diamond. RHO must ruff or be endplayed by the club.

I don't like the redouble; the double was probably based on trumps and your trumps are pretty mediocre.

[BunnyGo]

rogerclee, on 2012-February-10, 12:02, said:

This is a good example in just visualizing endpositions, which is almost always easiest by working backwards. If you can reach a position where RHO is trump-tight then you are good. So initially you are aiming for a 5 card endposition that looks something like

K9 void Qxx void

opp

Q7x void x x

without losing any tricks. Can you do this? Sure, having unblocked T/9 of clubs (just a matter of technique), go back to your hand again in clubs. If diamonds are 2-2 then you will have reached the desired position by just finishing clubs and ruffing a heart in dummy. If diamonds are 3-1, then can we do anything? Assuming we knew that from the start, we could get our RHO down to AJT8x x in the majors having lost no tricks, but he could brute force his way to 4 tricks from this position thanks to his 8 of spades.

We can't ever play spades if they're 5-0, not hard to see that RHO will then just have 4 trump tricks by force.

Very nicely solved and a clear explanation to boot.