[zenbiddist]

This was a critical board in the last match:

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South opened a limited canape 1♥ and revealed a minimum with longer diamonds. NS bid on to 6♥, and West led the ♦2 (4ths) after an uncharacteristically long tank.

You put in the ♦T, which is covered. Over to you.

[Cyberyeti]

I'm guessing he led the 5, you have the 234.

Nobody leads from Jxxx on this auction, so I'm playing small just in case of stiff J (what do they lead from xxxx ?)

[gszes]

don't you just hate it when lho produces a card that is already in dummy:)? Anyway I am rising with the A at trick 1 so as to preserve some badly needed entries and who knows maybe the J will drop. Please always provide the bidding so we can make some logical conclusions about the opening lead (for ex: what made lho avoid a club lead?).
I am not making this hand if both reds break 41 and since dia appear to be a huge favorite to break badly I am going to need 32 hearts and since it seems certain lho has lead a risky short dia it almost an iron clad guarantee rho had the club A instead of the heart A (or K) that lho was hoping for so they could get a ruff.

trick 1 dia ace (u can let me know later if the j dropped stiff since the hand is easy that way and I will play on as if it did not).
trick 2 heart A
trick 3 heart J
trick 4 heart to the Q no sense in risking long trumps being with long dia there is little to no benefit (unless u won trick 1 in hand)
trick 5 spade and play the A or T as needed. We will need 3 entries back to hand to lead toward spades twice and get back to 5th dia. Note that if our assumptions about the opening lead are correct we need that spade T to provide us with our 12th trick 4d 3s 4h 1!D ruff. For those considering trying for AK and ruff a spade small to drop QJx (or trying for 2 spade ruffs) how can we get back to the 5th dia? We would be back to depending on the club A onside
trick 6 dia to K
trick 7 spade toward KT and take finesse if lho follows low
trick 8 winning spade and we pitch a club
trick 9 dia to Q
trick 10 ruff a dia
trick 11 ruff a spade
trick 12 play last dia
trick 13 let them have that one I am done and no more overbidding for me:))))) 29 bal opposite semi balanced sheeesh

[zenbiddist]

 Cyberyeti, on 2016-January-22, 08:34, said:

I'm guessing he led the 5, you have the 234.

Nobody leads from Jxxx on this auction, so I'm playing small just in case of stiff J (what do they lead from xxxx ?)

I fixed the ♦2 recurring.
Have a go taking the play from where it's given to, it's a good problem.

[zenbiddist]

 gszes, on 2016-January-22, 12:17, said:

don't you just hate it when lho produces a card that is already in dummy:)? Anyway I am rising with the A at trick 1 so as to preserve some badly needed entries and who knows maybe the J will drop. Please always provide the bidding so we can make some logical conclusions about the opening lead (for ex: what made lho avoid a club lead?).
I am not making this hand if both reds break 41 and since dia appear to be a huge favorite to break badly I am going to need 32 hearts and since it seems certain lho has lead a risky short dia it almost an iron clad guarantee rho had the club A instead of the heart A (or K) that lho was hoping for so they could get a ruff.

trick 1 dia ace (u can let me know later if the j dropped stiff since the hand is easy that way and I will play on as if it did not).
trick 2 heart A
trick 3 heart J
trick 4 heart to the Q no sense in risking long trumps being with long dia there is little to no benefit (unless u won trick 1 in hand)
trick 5 spade and play the A or T as needed. We will need 3 entries back to hand to lead toward spades twice and get back to 5th dia. Note that if our assumptions about the opening lead are correct we need that spade T to provide us with our 12th trick 4d 3s 4h 1!D ruff. For those considering trying for AK and ruff a spade small to drop QJx (or trying for 2 spade ruffs) how can we get back to the 5th dia? We would be back to depending on the club A onside
trick 6 dia to K
trick 7 spade toward KT and take finesse if lho follows low
trick 8 winning spade and we pitch a club
trick 9 dia to Q
trick 10 ruff a dia
trick 11 ruff a spade
trick 12 play last dia
trick 13 let them have that one I am done and no more overbidding for me:))))) 29 bal opposite semi balanced sheeesh

That's as much of the bidding as declarer can remember, it's not a recent hand. I like the assumption that the ♣A is offside because LHO led a singleton (if you had played low, RHO would have put in the ♦8). Any other inferences?

[nige1]

ZenBiddist tells us that this was a critical board in the last PABF match: South opened a limited canape 1♥ and revealed a minimum with longer diamonds. NS bid on to 6♥, and West led the ♦2 (4ths) after an uncharacteristically long tank. You put in the ♦T, which is covered. Over to you.

By heeding ZenBiddist's hints (or by peeking at defenders' hands), you might play RHO for 3 ♥s, 4 ♦s and ♣A.. For example, hope for something like the layout on the left.
Win opening ♦2 lead with ♦Q.
Cash ♠KA and ruff a ♠.
Cash ♥KA and ruff a ♠
Cross to ♦A and cash ♥J discarding a ♦ to reach

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In this 4 card ending, you lead dummy's last ♥
to execute a simple squeeze without the count.
You keep 2 cards in whichever suit RHO throws.
Finally, you lead that suit
to the sound of one hand (dummy) clapping .

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Another similar line is to play LHO for ♥T9(x). i.e
♦Q, ♠AK, ruff a ♠ with ♥Q, lead a ♥ covering LHO's card, ruff a ♠ with ♥K, finesse ♥ again, cash trump winners, for a similar ending.

Without ZenBiddist's hints, you would be unlikely to find either line

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[zenbiddist]

This is essentially the line my friend took - to strip RHO down to stiff-CA, and force him to lead from D98x in the ending. But he thinks that he missed a clue to improve his chances

[Fluffy]

What about playing for club ace to be onside?, 3 rounds of trumps ending in hand and lead a club up.

[nige1]

 zenbiddist, on 2016-January-24, 15:36, said:

This is essentially the line my friend took - to strip RHO down to stiff-CA, and force him to lead from D98x in the ending. But he thinks that he missed a clue to improve his chances

What was Zenbiddist's friend's line? and what improvement did he miss?

[zenbiddist]

Fluffy - he reasoned that the club hook fails because the guy leading a singleton doesn't have an ace. That also mean you can strip squeeze RHO without the count, but communications get awkward when you try to remove his idle cards - how do you end up in dummy to draw trumps after dealing with spades? It would be nice to have the HT.

So to figure out which layout to play for, he was wondering - what was the guy's lead-tank about? What was his second choice of leads?

Just hoping there's a strong enough inference to nail it. I'm obviously biased, having seen the layout

[Fluffy]

He was thinking aobut underleading ♣A, or cashing it, but both seemed ugly in the end so he led from his ♦xxxx

[nige1]

 Fluffy, on 2016-January-25, 08:50, said:

What about playing for club ace to be onside?, 3 rounds of trumps ending in hand and lead a club up.

If you distrust Zenbiddist's instincts and judge that LHO can hold ♣A, then a slight improvement is: Win the opening lead with dummy's ♦A, draw 3 rounds of trumps, and cash ♦K. If ♦s break then claim. Otherwise, lead a ♣ to ♣K.

[Fluffy]

I distrust his judgement, but I can't reverse the diamond finesse when I know its not going to work.

[nige1]

 Fluffy, on 2016-January-27, 06:38, said:

I distrust his judgement, but I can't reverse the diamond finesse when I know its not going to work.

Does Fluffy feel it's more likely that LHO holds ♦Jxxx than RHO holds ♦J(xx) and ♣A?