[FrancesHinden]

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Declarer is a known lunatic.
You lead the 6 of diamonds, Jack, Ace, low
Partner switches to a low heart which declarer ruffs.
Declarer cashes the king of diamonds and plays a diamond.

How are you planning to beat this?

[dave_w]

We will need declarer to be something like Qxxxx - Kxxx KQxx.
Declarer has one Diamond trick, 5 Spades, 1 Diamond ruff and 3 Clubs (declarer can swap tricks by ruffing a 2nd Diamond but promoting a trump trick).
I think if declarer miss plays the hand we can tap him off (Declarer has to play ♠AK and a Club and he's home, but if he trys to ruff another Diamond (ie doesn't cash the top Spades) then he might go down (win the club, force declarer who now can't draw trumps because they are blocked and will end up a trick short).

I suspect it's cold but I discard a Heart. If declarer plays a Club, I'll win and force him.

[mikeh]

I couldn't come up with a hand that even remotely resembles the auction and still gives us a legitimate chance of beating this absent an error by declarer.

I slightly prefer a different construction than Dave's: declarer as Qxxxx void Kxx KQxxx.

However, he ought to have pulled trump and driven out the club.

If he has this hand, then we pitch on the diamond: he now cashes 2 trump and plays a club. We win, give partner a ruff and partner leads a diamond to promote our trump J.

I don't see any layout on which ruffing with the 10 or the J helps.....even if he is xxxxx void Kxx KQxxxx, he overruffs, and plays 2 rounds of trump.

[FrancesHinden]

Sorry about this, I ran this through a double dummy solver and it does turn out to be cold once we didn't lead a low club at trick 1.
Declarer does indeed have the (insane) Qxxxx - Kxxx KQxx but it's still cold even if he ruffs a fourth diamond in dummy. I should have posted it as a declarer play problem, because the ending on some lines is actually quite sweet (you are sort of squeezed o this trick).

I played for Mike's layout and was told off by my partner afterwards. But it looks like we were doomed to lose a bundle of imps.

[mikeh]

FrancesHinden, on 2012-April-23, 12:12, said:

Sorry about this, I ran this through a double dummy solver and it does turn out to be cold once we didn't lead a low club at trick 1.
Declarer does indeed have the (insane) Qxxxx - Kxxx KQxx but it's still cold even if he ruffs a fourth diamond in dummy. I should have posted it as a declarer play problem, because the ending on some lines is actually quite sweet (you are sort of squeezed o this trick).

I played for Mike's layout and was told off by my partner afterwards. But it looks like we were doomed to lose a bundle of imps.

I almost posted that I thought the best lead would have been the club Ace, since the auction strongly suggests a 9 or even 10 card club fit, and I'd hope for a stiff heart in declarer's hand....but I am pleased to see that this lead wouldn't have succeeded...a low club is just too tough to find, since declarer rates to be able to win this and pull trump.

[han]

mikeh, on 2012-April-23, 08:52, said:

I slightly prefer a different construction than Dave's: declarer as Qxxxx void Kxx KQxxx.

However, he ought to have pulled trump and driven out the club.

If he has this hand, then we pitch on the diamond: he now cashes 2 trump and plays a club. We win, give partner a ruff and partner leads a diamond to promote our trump J.

If he has the hand you gave him and plays as you said, then partner doesn't have any trumps left to ruff with?