[lamford]

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Rubber Bridge

Karapet, the Unlucky Armenian, always wears belt and braces when he opens 1NT, but he unluckily went for 1000 here. West's double was DONT, and he led the ten of spades. Could Karapet have avoided going for 1000?

RR, North, redoubled to show two touching suits, but Karapet decided to stand it.

[PeterAlan]

The trick target is 6, and a suit contract can't be the answer because of ruffing possibilities. I can't quickly see how to deal with 6-0 ♠s - 3 discards is the problem - and need my sleep, but no worse than 5-1 can be dealt with.

Say ♠s 5-1. The lost tempo means that it does the defence no good to switch, so assume the hand with 5 ♠s has the other Aces too and persists with ♠s whenever in.

When declarer first wins a ♠, play a ♣:

• If this is ducked, switch to a red suit; defence must win (or declarer switches back to ♣s, making 2 ♠s, 1 red card and 3 ♣s). On winning the next ♠, play the other red suit, which the defence must also win. Discard one red card and one club on the defence's 2 long ♠s and make 2 ♠s, 3 red cards and 1 ♣
  
  
• If the ♣ is not ducked, win the next ♠ and play a red suit, which the defence must win (or declarer cashes 3 ♣s for 6 tricks). Discard one card from each red suit on the defence's 2 long ♠s, and make a minimum of 2 ♠s, 1 card in the red suit played and 3 ♣s

NB: With ♠s 6-0 the defence still need one trick in the other suits in addition to their Aces to get to 8.

[nige1]

'lamford ' Rubber Bridge. Karapet, the Unlucky Armenian, always wears belt and braces when he opens 1NT, but he unluckily went for 1000 here. West's double was DONT, and he led the ten of spades. Could Karapet have avoided going for 1000? RR, North, redoubled to show two touching suits, but Karapet decided to stand it.
++++++++++++++++++++
Unless Karapet guesses defenders' distribution, he doesn't seem to be able to guarantee 6 tricks.

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[LBengtsson]

nige1, on 2020-October-29, 05:12, said:

'lamford ' Rubber Bridge. Karapet, the Unlucky Armenian, always wears belt and braces when he opens 1NT, but he unluckily went for 1000 here. West's double was DONT, and he led the ten of spades. Could Karapet have avoided going for 1000? RR, North, redoubled to show two touching suits, but Karapet decided to stand it.
++++++++++++++++++++
Unless Karapet guesses defenders' distribution, he doesn't seem to be able to guarantee 6 tricks.

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West bids 2♠ (6♠+ with DONT here. So ♠ spade suit break 5-1 only, -400 score.

[lamford]

nige1, on 2020-October-29, 05:12, said:

'lamford ' Rubber Bridge. Karapet, the Unlucky Armenian, always wears belt and braces when he opens 1NT, but he unluckily went for 1000 here. West's double was DONT, and he led the ten of spades. Could Karapet have avoided going for 1000? RR, North, redoubled to show two touching suits, but Karapet decided to stand it.
++++++++++++++++++++
Unless Karapet guesses defenders' distribution, he doesn't seem to be able to guarantee 6 tricks.

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You are right, and I think Peter is wrong. After a spade lead, East showing out, declarer leads the ♣K and now West wins and clears the spades. South can cash three more clubs but in the ending with ♥KQJ ♦KQJ he has to guess which red suit to play, or he gets squeezed by the last spade if the red aces are split. And it does not help him to not cash the clubs. as this squeeze operates with four losers! I think Karapet cannot avoid going for 1000, as, with his luck, he will never get a 50-50 guess right.

[PeterAlan]

lamford, on 2020-October-29, 10:46, said:

I think Peter is wrong.

What do you think I had wrong, Paul? I gave a solution for ♠s 5-1 and said that I was finding 6-0 problematic and why. I began to look at layouts like Nigel's, but at 4:30 wasn't going to spend more time on it before going to sleep. I'm very glad that he has come up with that construction, and congratulate him.

[lamford]

PeterAlan, on 2020-October-29, 12:28, said:

What do you think I had wrong, Paul? I gave a solution for ♠s 5-1 and said that I was finding 6-0 problematic and why. I began to look at layouts like Nigel's, but at 4:30 wasn't going to spend more time on it before going to sleep. I'm very glad that he has come up with that construction, and congratulate him.

Sorry, incomplete, not wrong.

[Douglas43]

Looking on the bright side, most of us would open 2NT

[lamford]

Douglas43, on 2020-October-30, 11:51, said:

Looking on the bright side, most of us would open 2NT

some might even open 2C and rebid 2NT, but the K-R is 21.7 so I agree with 2NT. The North hand has a K-R of 1.0. I struggled to see where the point comes from ...

[smerriman]

lamford, on 2020-October-30, 18:13, said:

I struggled to see where the point comes from ...

Two points for the club shortness (minus one globally). Good luck getting club ruffs in no trumps though..