[thepossum]

Dear all

This may be obvious to better players than me but how do you know to cash the Ace of hearts on trick six before leading another spade on this defence. Cost me many IMPs. It should go down one. Is this obvious or ???? I wasnt alone missing it. Is it a play picked by a good defender or just luck?

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[akwoo]

I don't figure it out at the table.

But, looking at it, all the information is there. If you just calculate, you can see what will happen and what you can do to prevent it. (It's also true, especially at IMPs, that cashing one high heart is clearly free, so maybe you should do it anyway.)

This is like asking how good chess players spot the 5 move forced sequence winning a knight that you and I miss. There isn't some magical answer. They just calculate over the board faster and more accurately than you or I do.

[sfi]

Cute hand. Definitely not a novice/beginner defence, and you haven't beaten it after cashing exactly one heart and returning to spades unless I am very much mistaken. You still have a fairly difficult play to make.

In an open field I would expect to make this game most of the time.

[ahydra]

This is figure-out-able, but very tough. The key info is:

- declarer has 3 diamond tricks left
- declarer started with 4 spades (from partner's S9 top of doubleton return)
- declarer must have the CA for his bidding
- your side still needs 3 tricks.

Suppose you exit a spade. On the first two diamonds you will throw two more spades, but what then? You'll either be forced to throw a winning heart (which you can't afford), set up declarer's long spade, or bare your CK. The latter might work, e.g. if declarer also holds CJ and finesses, but it's worth looking for a better option.

If you cash two hearts then exit a spade and wait for your club trick, it will never come, as you've set up dummy's long heart.

So the only option left is to cash one heart. The squeeze situation still exists, but now you have an out: play partner for the HQ, and chuck the HK on the third diamond.

I think I could figure this out at the table, but only on a good day, and it would take me a while. It's a great example of thinking through the hand as a whole and the discards you'll have to make early on. If you watch pros on vugraph, they often think for a long time on the first discard.

ahydra

[pescetom]

ahydra, on 2019-February-05, 02:34, said:

I think I could figure this out at the table, but only on a good day, and it would take me a while.

Like many of us. It's a neat problem but I think it belongs in I/A rather than N/B.

[kuhchung]

wow nice hand

[thepossum]

Dear everyone

Thanks for all the comments. I dont feel so bad missing it now. Sorry if its on the wrong forum. I just thought maybe I had made some beginner errors which I could have avoided.

regards Possum

[kuhchung]

This is very hard!