[pescetom]

MP

Rotated as requested to make declarer South.

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The ♥K is led and the dummy is not quite what you hoped.
But ten tricks are needed and others will be in the same boat, your plan now?

[mycroft]

Rotated to make declarer South. ♥K led.

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If I made a mistake, my apologies; the OP is correct.

[pescetom]

I rotated the OP as requested.


Now does anyone have an idea how to proceed?

[jillybean]

 pescetom, on 2024-April-17, 10:52, said:

The ♥K is led and the dummy is not quite what you hoped.

Isn't that what dummy is saying about your hand?

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

after the heart attack you have 5 loosers, 2H, 1D, 2S.
3 loosers cannot be avoided, the 2nd heart looser can be trumped, to avoid the
2nd trump looser you need to avoid not to loose to the Queen and 9 of trumps.

My guess is, that the double finesse maybe the percentage play, but I have been
wrong before with regards to play / defence problems, that I do not longer count
my failures.

In short enter with club, let the spade 8 run.
Alternative enter with club, play to the ten of trumps and guess, if the Ace or the
Queen of trumps are doubleton.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[pescetom]

 jillybean, on 2024-April-19, 11:34, said:

Isn't that what dummy is saying about your hand?

I was trying to interpret it from Declarer's point of view... I can see both sides and I'm not sure I condemn either.
Fortunately I was TD and did not have to face the post mortem.

But you are still ducking the question

[pescetom]

 P_Marlowe, on 2024-April-19, 12:27, said:

Hi,

after the heart attack you have 5 loosers, 2H, 1D, 2S.
3 loosers cannot be avoided, the 2nd heart looser can be trumped, to avoid the
2nd trump looser you need to avoid not to loose to the Queen and 9 of trumps.

My guess is, that the double finesse maybe the percentage play, but I have been
wrong before with regards to play / defence problems, that I do not longer count
my failures.

In short enter with club, let the spade 8 run.
Alternative enter with club, play to the ten of trumps and guess, if the Ace or the
Queen of trumps are doubleton.

Thanks for the On Topic reply
But I think you go down.
To start with, are you sure you need to (or can afford to) trump the 2nd heart loser?

[P_Marlowe]

 pescetom, on 2024-April-19, 12:38, said:

Thanks for the OT reply
But I think you go down.
To start with, are you sure you need to (or can afford to) trump the 2nd heart loser?

You dont need to trump it, and you can postpone it, you have club winners, that take
care of the heart, as long as you control trumps, ..., as written I would go immediately
after the trump and try to solve the trump problem.

And most likely the Queen of hearts is with East, i.e. the Jack is placed well.

[pescetom]

 P_Marlowe, on 2024-April-19, 12:45, said:

You dont need to trump it, and you can postpone it, you have club winners, that take
care of the heart, as long as you control trumps, ..., as written I would go immediately
after the trump and try to solve the trump problem.

I would see that the other way round: the clubs can take care of the heart, but perhaps only if done immediately - if we try to "solve" the trumps problem first they are going to take the heart.

But let's see what others have to say, thanks.

[pescetom]

This forum is dying, but that also focusses interest on the remaining posts... nevertheless this hand somehow never met the radar with only one member willing to comment in topic.
FWIW I think it has interest for intermediates in the initial actions and for advanced/expert when we finally get around to spades. No thoughts?

[smerriman]

OK, I'll bite on your line. It looks like hearts are 2-6, and I'll assume trumps don't break 4-1, since that's too hard for me otherwise.

Cash three top clubs, throwing the heart even if someone ruffs.

If they're 3-3, we can play to the T of spades. If East wins with the Q, then returning either red suit will help us get rid of a heart loser and we can just play trumps from the top. If they play 2 more rounds of trumps instead, we can still make with a diamond finesse.

If someone ruffs the 3rd club, hopefully they had trump length and that will give us some control back to take a trump finesse by playing the K of diamonds and ruffing the next. While doing so, the opponents may not be able to hurt us without taking the trump finesse for us or giving up one of their winners.

[pescetom]

 smerriman, on 2024-April-22, 20:15, said:

Cash three top clubs, throwing the heart even if someone ruffs.

Agreed and it looks like we can put that part to rest.
I think this is already a good reason to post this hand in the I&A forum, given that most of our intermediates failed to pitch the heart in time.
For the record, both opponents follow suit to the third club.

 smerriman, on 2024-April-22, 20:15, said:

If they're 3-3, we can play to the T of spades. If East wins with the Q, then returning either red suit will help us get rid of a heart loser and we can just play trumps from the top. If they play 2 more rounds of trumps instead, we can still make with a diamond finesse.

Anyone for a different split or line of play?
Here's what happens in this case

Spoiler

If we play to the T of spades, East wins with the A and returns Q of hearts which we ruff.
Now all we can do is throw in diamonds, but it only limits the damage: if they continue diamonds we cannot afford the third trump to ruff, if East returns hearts West will trump with the 5.

[smerriman]

Doesn't my line above work in that case?

Spoiler

If East wins the Ace (or queen as I listed) and returns a heart, just play trumps from the top.. and claim if both follow to the King, with our jack of hearts in hand as the 10th trick.

Unless trumps were 4-1, I guess, when that goes down. That's probably more likely now that East has 9 cards in the rounded suits, but double dummy tells me if East has the stiff A, the only way to make involves playing low on the first spade then cross-ruffing everything.. maybe this still handles every 3-2 break even when East can overruff clubs, I don't know, but I'll stick with my simple line of hoping it's not stiff.

[pescetom]

Here's the full board.

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 smerriman, on 2024-April-23, 13:04, said:

Doesn't my line above work in that case?
If East wins the Ace (or queen as I listed) and returns a heart, just play trumps from the top.. and claim if both follow to the King, with our jack of hearts in hand as the 10th trick.

Unless trumps were 4-1, I guess, when that goes down. That's probably more likely now that East has 9 cards in the rounded suits, but double dummy tells me if East has the stiff A, the only way to make involves playing low on the first spade then cross-ruffing everything.. maybe this still handles every 3-2 break even when East can overruff clubs, I don't know, but I'll stick with my simple line of hoping it's not stiff.

Trumps were 4-1 and that line goes down. I was curious whether anyone would have played for 4-1, but never mind.
It can be made in several ways that are of course more evident DD than they would be to most of us at the table.
Probably the most linear is just to run the 6, West playing low like us, the stiff Ace emerges.
Now they return ♥Q which we ruff and throw in a diamond.
We ruff the probable diamond continuation and now have ♠J8 ♥J ♣AK in hand, West will take only one more trump on any play.

What I found intriguing is that if West (who has information from the auction and known cards suggesting that East has one trump, quite possibly the Ace given his lack of points in hearts and clubs) covers the 6 with 9, it is fatal for us to cover 9 with T (but not with K).
I am curious about how Experts sitting West/South might read this situation.

[mikeh]

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