[kfay]

Here's a fun hand that I held during the prestigious Ann Arbor sectionals that were held this past weekend.

Scoring: IMP

(2♠)-2NT-(P)-3NT
All Pass

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Who's your money on?

[Fluffy]

I ain't thinking much, but I think defense prevails, declarer has only 8 tricks, and no timing to develop a ninth.

on a normal club lead declarer can duck a heart, after winning the club queen just exit with ♥K+♥ and declarer can't score 3 diamond tricks I think.

There is another line wich is to duck 2 clubs and rectify the count better.

Defence must duck ♥Q to avoid being squeezed, and now after diamond finese West might be subject to some sort of step-stone squeeze, with some balancing ability on the diamonds.

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Now I think declarer prevails.

[Apollo81]

I think West will lead a heart, and East will switch to the ♣J. If declarer plays East for ♣KJ109 or ♣KJ107 then he is going down (he presumably ducks, wins the continuation, ♦K, ♦J letting it run). If declarer plays East for ♣KJ10x or ♣J1097 or ♣J109x then he not duck a club, and he has a chance to make.

Who has the ♣7?

[kfay]

Opponents made it easy on me when the play began as Noble described:

T1: ♥10 to A
T2: ♣J to Q
T3,4: ♣K ♥A

I ducked all of these and when a heart came to my J at T5 I had a straight squeeze against West in the reds.

P.S. Is there a name for this squeeze? Since in the end I overtook the ♦J dropping both the 10 and Q. Or is it just simple since you could regard it as just a squeeze of the 10 against the 9?