[inquiry]

The auction went astray here somewhere. North reversed, south made a game forcing 3♣ raise over the reverse (see MikeH's pinned thread on reverses, south Jumped to Roman Key card Blackwood and then choose the less safe 7♠ over the very easy 7♣ contract. Well, it wll be a great matchpoint decision if South can pull this contract off. Not surprisingly, the opening lead was a small trump, won in dummy with the ACE as East follows suit. (you can click the next button to see this, trick one). How would you play as south and why.

This one is a bit more difficult than play 012 in practice, but I don't know why. So lets say it is equal to play 012.

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[Antrax]

This seems pretty easy, no?

Spoiler

Trump to hand, ♦A, ruff ♦ with K, club to hand, draw trumps, claim pitching the fourth diamond on the fifth club

[shyams]

Antrax, on 2014-May-21, 01:45, said:

This seems pretty easy, no?

Spoiler

Trump to hand, ♦A, ruff ♦ with K, club to hand, draw trumps, claim pitching the fourth diamond on the fifth club

Wouldn't it be better to

Spoiler

...not play 2nd round of trump at trick 2? Instead ♦A,low ♦ ruff with ♠K, ♠6 to draw trumps etc. You avoid risk of a 4-0 club split

[Antrax]

Good point. 4-0 clubs is more likely than 8-0 diamonds

[kenberg]

I just got to this one.4+1+2+5=12 so we need one ruff. If spades are no worse than 4-2 and the first diamond stands up, we are home. S can, in fact, do this arithmetic before the dummy hits so his choice of 7♠ may have been very rational if this was mps.

[kuhchung]

I think Ben's sense of difficulty is way off

[inquiry]

kuhchung, on 2014-May-23, 12:11, said:

I think Ben's sense of difficulty is way off

Well, anything I can solve must be easy, because I am not that good. But why do you think this? You think this one is Easier than 012 or harder than 012. I think it is easier but my few students have tended to miss this one but not so much 12.

[kenberg]

I suppose what some would do is draw trump, cash the clubs, take the top diamonds and finesse the heart.

Before you decide they are idiots, let me tall you that when I started playing I was told not to underlead a King. OK, I led the King. Well, not twice.

People starting bridge are fed a lot of well intended stuff. I really think that students should be encouraged, at the beginning of every hand, to at least consider where the required number of tricks are coming from.Of course sometimes this won't be feasible there will be too many unknowns. But here, a quick count shows 12 winners, assuming only that spades are 4-2 or better. OK, we need 13. What's available? A heart finesse or a Diamond ruff. Gee, which is the better chance? Getting that far is progress. Next, why not ruff high? Not only won't you be overruffed, you will have an easy time with drawing trump afterward.

Here is a question for anyone who teaches this hand, or similar hands, and has students go down: Of those who went down, how many of them began by counting to 12 and realized, before playing a card, that they needed 13? My guess is that most of those who failed to make this did not start in this proper fashion. With this hand, it's not tough to see that one more trick is needed. In some hands, it's tougher. First you ask the right question, then, maybe, you find the right answer.

Some people live by rules. Always draw trump. Always return partner's suit. Eight ever, nine never. Etc. They think this way, they plan to continue to think this way, they wish to be taught this way. It's going to be a tough job helping them advance. But others, many others, will get enjoyment from the varied situations and will appreciate the guidance. Good luck.

[kuhchung]

inquiry, on 2014-May-23, 13:06, said:

Well, anything I can solve must be easy, because I am not that good. But why do you think this? You think this one is Easier than 012 or harder than 012. I think it is easier but my few students have tended to miss this one but not so much 12.

I think this hand is much easier to spot than the dummy reversal, but my comment mostly applies to some of the other ones where I think you definitely underestimated how hard it is to endplay and/or squeeze

Don't get me wrong. I love your threads, and I love seeing play problems on the forum. Thanks for all of these.