[cherdano]

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3NT by North. Play or defend?


P.S.: This hand came up in the BBF vs JEC match today. Not sure I have ever encountered such a beautiful double dummy problem outside a bridge book.

[Phil]

Great hand. I think I defend and lead a low heart.

[wanoff]

Best lead is a heart but I think it makes since W is squeezed on the last diamond.

[cherdano]

To paraphrase another poster, I am pretty sure neither phil nor wanoff deserve full credit at this point. There is more than one variation to consider...
P.S.: It might be most interesting on a heart lead, ducked, heart continuation.

[Cyberyeti]

wanoff, on 2015-February-21, 18:02, said:

Best lead is a heart but I think it makes since W is squeezed on the last diamond.

It's more complicated than that, it looks like dummy might have to make an embarrassing discard on the third heart at some point, but unfortunately E has to make an equally embarrassing discard first.

[Fluffy]

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If this position is reached I think declarer has no way to make.

[wanoff]

Fluffy, on 2015-February-22, 05:40, said:

If this position is reached I think declarer has no way to make.

Exactly, so you wouldn't duck the heart. Alternatively E or W could keep a heart instead as the exit card.

[helene_t]

I looks like there is a squeeze but I don't see it. Say we duck the lead and play diamonds, discarding for example a spade. In the six card ending, if W keeps ♠A ♥QJ ♣A72 and East keeps ♠K5 ♥5 ♣ J96, how can declarer make?

[wanoff]

ok I've changed my mind. If W avoids the squeeze and chucks three high hearts, E can squeeze dummy with ♥8.
Nice hand and I must remember not to post when I get back from the pub.

[sathyab]

Arend and I were at the table when this hand came up. It was so interesting, that I saved the hand to analyze it a teaching table later. Quite a few variations are truly double-dummy. If declarer doesn't follow the exact sequence of plays, defense can prevail, but single-dummy, defense finds it hard to exploit it. But there're some useful single-dummy angles too. For EW this feels like a chess problem "mate in 13 moves"

Declarer starts off by ducking the first ♥. Takes the second one, one high ♦ from hand and another to end in dummy. Now play the remaining high ♦ from dummy. ♣ discard by West is fatal double-dummy as we can see, but even single-dummy, West has to hope that partner has one useful card, the ♠K, as a ♣ card doesn't help directly. So let's say he pitches a ♠, East can spare a black card easily. On the next ♦, West can't still afford a ♣, but if he blanks his ♠A, it's over for the defense. Declarer plays a ♣ to the Q, cashes one more ♦. West still can't afford a ♣ discard, so a ♥ now. Declarer cashes high ♥ and tucks West in with a ♠ for a ♣ end-play.

So West's second pitch is a ♥. Defense hasn't given up on the hand yet, they can still get 2♥, 2♠ and a ♣. Now declarer plays a ♣ to Q, cashes the last ♦. West can not blank either of his black Aces, so has to pitch a ♥. After 5♦, two ♥ and a ♣, remaining cards are: West Ax Q - Ax. East in the meanwhile is down to Kxx - - J9 and dummy is QTx - - Kx. Now declarer cashes high ♥, East is forced to pitch a ♠, as does dummy. Declarer exits a ♠ and whoever wins the last ♠ is end-played to give declarer the game-going trick in ♣.

Single-dummy, should declarer give up on the finesse for ♣J ? Not clear. If he did, he could go down in the five card ending above when it was makeable.

[cherdano]

See also http://bridgewinners...-dummy-problem/
(And thanks to Sathya for the discussion!)

[nige1]

cherdano, on 2015-February-21, 15:32, said:

3NT by North. Play or defend?
P.S.: This hand came up in the BBF vs JEC match today. Not sure I have ever encountered such a beautiful double dummy problem outside a bridge book.

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Great problem, Cherdano. Deep finesse says you can succeed by winning a ♥ lead with ♥K and cashing ♦JQKA.

• If LHO discards a black card, then you lead a ♣. But
• if LHO throws 2 ♥s, then you play on the majors.

This avoids you end-playing yourself as in Fluffy's putative ending.

Simplified version with West on lead. At trick 1, East wins ♥K and leads a second ♥, forcing declarer to play for cherdano's pretty over taking squeeze.

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[helene_t]

helene_t, on 2015-February-22, 07:29, said:

I looks like there is a squeeze but I don't see it. Say we duck the lead and play diamonds, discarding for example a spade. In the six card ending, if W keeps ♠A ♥QJ ♣A72 and East keeps ♠K5 ♥5 ♣ J96, how can declarer make?

Of course, cash the ♥K before exiting with a spade. West can take his hearts but East's spade trick is gone and the club suit is frozen.

But W doesn't neet to keep three clubs afaics. So I would think declarer has to start, before playing out all the diamonds, by playing a low club to the queen. Now West can't afford to bare ♣A.

Without seeing the EW hands, the squeeze must have better chances of making DD than the finesse when one takes into consideration that the bidding suggests that W has come points. Even if East has ♣A so your ♣Q loses, you can still squeeze W if he has ♣J and at least one club honour. A hero E may duck the first club trick, maybe.

[inquiry]

helene_t, on 2015-February-23, 10:42, said:

..... when one takes into consideration that the bidding suggests that W has come points. Even if East has ♣A so your ♣Q loses, you can still squeeze W if he has ♣J and at least one club honour. .....

Did I miss something, why do we assume West has some points. The only bidding given was 3NT (I don't believe for a second the opening bid was 3NT),,,, what was the bidding?

[helene_t]

inquiry, on 2015-February-23, 15:13, said:

Did I miss something, why do we assume West has some points. The only bidding given was 3NT (I don't believe for a second the opening bid was 3NT),,,, what was the bidding?

At our table et went (south opened)
1♣*-1♥-1♠**-2♥
pass-pass-3NT

1♣=polish
1♠=transfer to nt (2♦ would have been nfb)

[helene_t]

Suppose declarer ducks the lead, wins trick two, plays a low club to the Q and plays the diamonds. In the five card ending:
- W bares ♠A: cash ♥K and throw W in with a spade.
- W bares ♣A: exit a club, ♣Q will be the 9nth trick (they can refuse to give us ♥K but in that case dummy gets a spade trick)
- W keeps only one heart: Play ♥K and dummy keeps black suit parity with East. Now exit spade, opps will have to bring us a club trick.

But what if W keeps three spades?

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If we play ♥K, dummy has to discard before West.
If we exit with a spade, East will take, return a heart, again squeezing the dummy.

So it seems to me that we must not duck the opening lead. Then we keep the small heart as a menace, forcing at least one opp to keep a heart parity.

Is that right?

[cherdano]

helene_t, on 2015-February-24, 17:35, said:

Is that right?

It is right that if declarer ducks the opening lead, and leads a club to the queen early, then West can beat him. But he can still make after ducking the opening lead...

[alok c]

cherdano, on 2015-February-24, 18:31, said:

It is right that if declarer ducks the opening lead, and leads a club to the queen early, then West can beat him. But he can still make after ducking the opening lead...

cash heart a come tohand via diamond lead club to q then cash four diamonds ending in six cards.west has to preserve two each in black suits.now exit with a spade.

[Free]

helene_t, on 2015-February-24, 17:35, said:

So it seems to me that we must not duck the opening lead. Then we keep the small heart as a menace, forcing at least one opp to keep a heart parity.

Is that right?

I don't think so. There are various lines of play depending on what West does. That's why you need to run ♦AKQJ first: you'll see what LHO discards after which you can anticipate. Ducking or not doesn't make much difference, because you can duck a ♥ later.

After ducking the 1st trick there is 1 constant: you have to play a ♣ to the Q at some point. But you can't do it too quickly, because you need the ♣Q as an entry for the 5th ♦!
1. If he discards at least 1 ♣, you can play a ♣ to the Q and score 2 ♣ tricks.
2. If he keeps his ♣s and discards ♠s instead, you can play ♣ to the Q, ♥K and endplay W
3. If he keeps his ♣s and discards ♥s only, you can play ♣ to the Q and develop a trick in ♠s (♣s are blocked and reds are eliminated)
4. If he keeps his ♣s and discards 1 ♠ and 1 ♥, you play ♣ to the Q and your last ♦ giving West a dilemma: ♥ discard means you can develop a ♠ (like in 2), ♠ discard means he'll get endplayed (like in 3)

The point of this hand is that neither West nor East can discard ♣s as long as we have a top ♥.

[cherdano]

Free, on 2015-February-25, 09:15, said:

After ducking the 1st trick there is 1 constant: you have to play a ♣ to the Q at some point. But you can't do it too quickly, because you need the ♣Q as an entry for the 5th ♦!

That's not true. If you always plan to play a club to the Q, then West can beat you by pitching hearts only, for the reasons explained by Fluffy. In any case, I think the solution is explained fairly comprehensively in the post on bridgewinners (linked above).