[inquiry]

Scoring: IMP


West North East South

          -     1♦    1♠  
Pass 3♠    Pass    4♠  
  Pass  Pass  Pass  
 

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C8 C3 CA C5
CQ C6 C4 CJ
CK CT C2 C7
D6 DQ D5 D2
SA S2 S4 S8
S6 S3 ST H7

Hi, I have started helping Jillybean with her bridge (no doubt her game will sufferr greatly because of this). Here is a hand from actual paly.

Your RHO cashes three clubs and exits a diamond. Answer the following questions.

1) Who has the heart king? Why?

2) What is the minimum number of diamonds EAST holds? Why?

3) How many suire tricks do you have?

4) IF the heart hook isn't going to win, where is the 10 th trick coming from?

5) How are you going to manage not only to set up the 10th tricks, but be able to get to it to cash it?

Yes, this is a beginner/intermediate forum. Yes the play here is farily complex... but your are alreadying having lessons on this type of play in the BIL, and here is one that is not horrible difficult to think your way through... Take it one step at a time.

ben

[myfish]

hi,assume east open the bidding

1. east is more likely to have ♥K,as NS have 27 HCP,so EW have 13
east without the ♥K at max only have 10HCP which is not enough to open
the bidding

2. from the bidding (1D),east has at min 4 card D

3. 9 tricks

4. squeezes(hope i spell it correct )

5. just draw all the trump,discard a H in dummy,E is in trouble,if he keep 2H &2D
cash DA in hand,and then dummy all high

if E keep 3D&1H,play ♥A drop the ♥K and all high again

P.S i guess E have 1-4-4-4/1-3-5-4

however i don't have E exact count.......

[inquiry]

myfish, on Sep 30 2004, 11:02 AM, said:

1. east is more likely to have ♥K,as NS have 27 HCP,so EW have 13 east without the ♥K at max only have 10HCP which is not enough to open the bidding

2. from the bidding (1D),east has at min 4 card D

3. 9 tricks

4. squeezes(hope i spell it correct )

5. just draw all the trump,discard a H in dummy,E is in trouble,if he keep 2H &2D cash DA in hand,and then dummy all high if E keep 3D&1H,play ♥A drop the ♥K and all high again 

Well done myfish, in the vernacular, you are no FISH.. maybe a shark?

Yes, first question who has the heart King should be easy to answer. Your opponents hold AKQ club, K of hearts and jack of diamonds. East would hardly have an opening bid with AKQ of clubs and diamond JACK. So without peeking, you can "see" the heart king behind the heart ACE. So no matter how tempting it is to lead the heart QUEEN and finessee west for the heart king, don't do that because it can't work. Much better than playing WEST for the heart king is to simply bang donw the heart ace and hope the heart king is singleton (but there is a better play than that too, as myfish points out).

2. As for diamond lenght. IF East had 5H he would open a heart, and east showed out on the second round of spades. So he had one spade, and at most four hearts. He has already shown up with three clubs. So he is 1-4-5-3, 1-4-4-4. or shoter hearts and longer diamonds. But anyway, he has at least 4 diamonds.

3. The nine tricks are easy to count.. 5S, 3D, 1H... you need one more. It is important to remember, you already figured out the one more can not come from a heart finessee.

4. East would not have thrown a heart from Kx, and if EAST had two hearts, that means he would have had six diamonds and WEST would have lead his singleton diamond to try for diamond ruff anyway. So EAST had at least 3H to begin with. So dropping heart king is not the way to go. But since EAST had 4+ Diamonds and the heart king, he can be squeezed in the red suits.

5. This is an interesting simple squeeze as you may have to sacrafice one of your winners due to the blockage in the position. But, you can gain two extra ones. Run all your trumps but one, coming to this basic ending ....

Lead in south. West's hand is immaterial. On the spade ACE, dummy will discard the small heart. Waht is EAST to play? If heart. Cross to the ACE of hearts, then come back to the queen of diamonds. You will not win the diamond King, but he QJ of hearts more than compensates. If East discards a diamond, Win the diamond queen, and cross to the heart Ace.

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