[nige1]

League Match, yesterday.
Aggregate scoring.

Please press next
to see dummy and the 1st 2 tricks.

You ruff LHO's ♦K lead
You cash ♥A and LHO drops ♥Q.

How would you continue from here?
There are several winning lines but
IMO they are counter-intuitive.

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[nige1]

League Match, yesterday.
Aggregate scoring.

For completeness,...

When I showed this problem to John Matheson,
He ruffed the opening ♦ lead and
immediately ducked a ♥
That seems more sensible than cashing ♥A

But If you do cash ♥A at trick 2, it's surprising that things do get messy.

As the cards lay, 5♠ and 6♣ are easier contracts.

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[Cyberyeti]

nige1, on 2019-January-10, 10:41, said:

For completeness,...

When I showed this problem to John Matheson,
He ruffed the opening ♦ lead and
immediately ducked a ♥
That seems more sensible than cashing ♥A

This was my first thought too

[HardVector]

I'm kind of wondering why you are in 4h? The double of 3d was negative, right? So you know you have a spade fit and the hearts are really nothing to write home about so 4s seems automatic to me.

[nige1]

HardVector, on 2019-January-13, 16:28, said:

I'm kind of wondering why you are in 4h? The double of 3d was negative, right? So you know you have a spade fit and the hearts are really nothing to write home about so 4s seems automatic to me.

Agree with HardVector. At the end of the auction, however, I asked South what North's double meant and he didn't know.

[gszes]

rho made a TINY push to 4d while probably looking at FIVE diamonds. It seems to me rho WANTED us to bid more so I would prepare myself for a ton of bad breaks. I echo the 4s thought noted elsewhere. I have no real problem with laying down the heart ace following with a low club toward dummy at trick 3 with the intention of playing rho for KT9 and trying to limit their heart tricks to two along with a spade loser (most likely by starting with the ace and following low toward the 9).

[Cyberyeti]

gszes, on 2019-January-14, 15:21, said:

rho made a TINY push to 4d while probably looking at FIVE diamonds. It seems to me rho WANTED us to bid more so I would prepare myself for a ton of bad breaks. I echo the 4s thought noted elsewhere. I have no real problem with laying down the heart ace following with a low club toward dummy at trick 3 with the intention of playing rho for KT9 and trying to limit their heart tricks to two along with a spade loser (most likely by starting with the ace and following low toward the 9).

But that doesn't solve your problem necessarily, you play the trump from dummy, he wins the K and forces you again, now what ?

He will ruff the third club and force you again, you can draw his trump but as soon as you give up a spade, there is a diamond to cash.

[gszes]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-January-14, 15:34, said:

But that doesn't solve your problem necessarily, you play the trump from dummy, he wins the K and forces you again, now what ?

He will ruff the third club and force you again, you can draw his trump but as soon as you give up a spade, there is a diamond to cash.

You mean I might go down 1 in poor contract? yes indeed but to salvage some IMPS at trick 2 I think that's our best shot. I just do what I can with the information provided. I admit I probably would have ducked the first diamond and tried to make it from there myself but that was not the problem.

[Cyberyeti]

gszes, on 2019-January-17, 23:10, said:

You mean I might go down 1 in poor contract? yes indeed but to salvage some IMPS at trick 2 I think that's our best shot. I just do what I can with the information provided. I admit I probably would have ducked the first diamond and tried to make it from there myself but that was not the problem.

It's not that poor a contract, trumps break most of the time.

I'm not 100% sure it will make even if you duck the trump. The bit I can't get my head round is how the diamonds are breaking, with no raise to 5 from either side with a 12 card fit.