[Hairy_Scot]

Scoring: IMP

1♥ p 1♠ p
1NT p 4NT p
5♥ p 5NT p
6♦ p 6NT p
p p

---

E leads 7♦.

How do you play and why?

Any comments on bidding?

[rogerclee]

Play back a diamond at trick 2, win any return and cash three hearts. Assuming the hearts don't break, finesse the spade and play for a double squeeze around clubs.

By the way, the bidding was bad. South's hand is not good enough to invite, and 4NT is not blackwood, and I'm not sure why you would bid 5NT with the south hand even if 4N was blackwood.

[Hairy_Scot]

rogerclee, on Jan 25 2009, 04:36 PM, said:

By the way, the bidding was bad. South's hand is not good enough to invite, and 4NT is not blackwood, and I'm not sure why you would bid 5NT with the south hand even if 4N was blackwood.

This was a pick-up game on BBO.
I agree that south was probably a bit ambitious with his 4NT and that he probably did intend it as quantitative, but once north has interpreted it as blackwood ace asking I think south is justified in continuing along that line since there were no guarantees that north would pick up on any bail out bid.

[Fluffy]

I agree with roger about the bidding, but about the play, you have to discard something from hand on ♥K before you set up the double squeeze.

I think I'd ather cash as many clubs as possible before testing hearts. Assuming 3 ♦ tricks at the start, ♣A, ♣Q, ♣K, ♥AQ. This will only squeeze East if he has 4 hearts and ♠Qxxx(x) probably there is something better.

[gnasher]

If I could rely on them to take the second diamond, I'd win the diamond and play another one back. Win the diamond return, unblock the hearts, and test the clubs ending in South.

If ♣10 is good, cash it, then play a spade to the ace and test the hearts. If West has four hearts, use the minor-suit breaks to decide whether to take the spade finesse or play for West to have been squeezed in the majors. If East has four hearts, don't bother with the spade finesse - East will have been showup-squeezed.

If ♣10 isn't good, play a spade to the ace and cash ♥K, throwing ♣10 unless it's become a winner. If hearts aren't 3-3, I'll need the spade finesse and either:
- One player to be 4-4 in the majors, or
- West to have four hearts and East to have ♣10.

One small complication with this line: if they take the second diamond and play a spade, you should win the ace, rather than running it around to the jack.

One large complication: they may duck the second diamond, to prevent my rectifying the count. The only away around this that I can see is to duck the first diamond myself, and finesse on the second round of the suit. This risks looking silly if they've led from an honour and hearts were breaking, but a lead from an honour isn't that likely on this bidding - people will usually look for a passive lead when both opponents sound balanced.

[Fluffy]

Actually if you trust ♦7 to be the top of nothing, ducking solves a lot of problems, you can cash ♥K and discard your third diamond from hand before touching clubs or spades.

[Hairy_Scot]

Footnote on the bidding:
Of the 16 tables playing this hand, 8 got into 6NT on bidding similar to that shown.
6 of the 8 made, 2 failed -2
Of those stopping in 3NT, 1 made+4, 3 made +3, 3 made +2, and 1 made 3NT.

My example was the only one to receive 7♦ lead. The other easts led either K♦, 9/10♠, and in one case 9♣.
Where south was dec the leads were 6♥ / 2♣.
The 2 that failed 6NT got 10♠ and K♦.

See the full horror here :-

Spoiler

http://online.bridge...name=hairy_scot

[dburn]

Fluffy, on Jan 25 2009, 06:58 AM, said:

Actually if you trust ♦7 to be the top of nothing, ducking solves a lot of problems, you can cash ♥K and discard your third diamond from hand before touching clubs or spades.

Well, not if your third diamond is the ace, perhaps.

[Fluffy]

Yeah I meant dummy, reversed north&south makes me make mistakes.

Anyway if you see the movie you will realice ♦7 was not preciselly top of nothing lol.

[H_KARLUK]

Normal line is to play low. If this tricks holds and clubs also hearts breaks kindly I think there is 13 tricks. If not under same conditions 9 quick tricks and after a dia lead 10 is ready. So clubs or hearts may provide next. I prefer to test hearts 1stly.

About bidding : I do not see any reason not to start with 2 clubs.

Ohh srry is this post really presents a problem ?

[Hairy_Scot]

H_KARLUK, on Jan 26 2009, 11:59 AM, said:

Ohh srry is this post really presents a problem ?

Not a problem as such.

Just curious as to how others might handle this.