[eagles123]

My far better than me BBF member partner played this hand in Brighton. Interested in how others would play it though. Please show discretion if you know the deal

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K diamond lead, plan the play

[manudude03]

Win the ace, ruff a diamond, spade to the queen, ruff a diamond, draw the remaining trumps. Then play king of clubs and run the ten. Pretty much guarantees the contract as long as spades aren't 4-0 and clubs not 5-0 (and may be ok if either do happen).

[shyams]

manudude03, on 2015-August-19, 14:08, said:

Win the ace, ruff a diamond, spade to the queen, ruff a diamond, draw the remaining trumps. Then play king of clubs and run the ten play low club towards dummy and insert the 10.

If spades are 3-1, the two ruffs by East followed by three rounds of trumps means there's only 1 master trump in dummy and none in hand. I think a 4-1 split is slightly more likely to be {QJxx/x} compared to {Hxxx/H} and a low to the 10 without cashing the King allows slightly better odds of success.

[Cyberyeti]

shyams, on 2015-August-19, 17:03, said:

If spades are 3-1, the two ruffs by East followed by three rounds of trumps means there's only 1 master trump in dummy and none in hand. I think a 4-1 split is slightly more likely to be {QJxx/x} compared to {Hxxx/H} and a low to the 10 without cashing the King allows slightly better odds of success.

There are only 13 missing points, do you think the ToD is on 10 of them ? I think S has at least one club honour and it's unlikely to be single given the ToD so it shouldn't matter, if N shows out on the first club clearly you put the 10 in.

[mikeh]

It seems to me that ruffing a diamond at trick 2 means we are down on a 4-0 trump break. We cannot pull trump and concede a club since they will cash at least one diamond. My suggestion is to win the diamond, play a heart to the A and ruff a heart low.

Now lead a spade to the jack.

If both follow, ruff a heart, ruff a diamond, ruff the last heart and now ruff the last diamond and pull trump. We score 5 spades in hand, the heart A, 3 ruffs in dummy and the top clubs and the diamond Ace. This seems perfectly safe to me.

Now, if S shows out on the first spade, we are probably down but we have one slender chance. We ruff a heart as before, and cash dummy's last trump. We now lead a club. If RHO plays an honour, we are home. We win, draw trump, and take a club hook. We get 5 trump in hand, the red Aces, 2 heart ruffs and 3 club tricks.

[rhm]

The contract is cold on normal breaks in the black suits.
So cater for the case where the black suits do not break.

T1: ♦A
T2. ♠A

If both follow to the first trump

Draw trumps (win the second trump in hand) and play a club to the ten unless North plays an honor.
If North shows out or has a singleton club win the return in hand ruff a heart and a diamond in hand.
Play your last trump from hand, which will squeeze South between the ♥K and clubs should he have five.

If South shows out on the first trump:

T3: ♥A
T4: ♥ ruff
T5: ♦ruff
T6: ♥ruff high.
T7-9: ♠ K, J, T

These 4 cards remain:

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We know South started with a void in trumps and given his takeout double he is marked with the ♥K and is overwhelmingly likely to have started with three or more clubs.
If that is the case he is now left with 3 clubs and the ♥K.
Now exit with your ♥Q and see him squirm in the endplay.

This makes the contract even if spades are 4-0 and clubs 5-0.
Admittedly if no clubs have been discarded and South exits with an honor you may have a guess or a world-class South might discard a club from three.
Congratulate him and make sure he gets into the newspapers.
But if trumps break 4-0 I think that clubs do not break is more likely and I rarely play against world-class defenders having their brilliant day.
Anyway such a capable defender is more likely to discard the ♥K.

Rainer Herrmann

[andrei]

T1: win A♦
T2: small to A♥
T3: ruff ♥ small
T4: ruff ♦ small
T5: ruff ♥ small
T6: A♣

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T7: small ♣

makes every time N is not void in clubs, irrespective of where K♥ is: S is most likely to have it, but maybe he can find a double with: void JT9x(x) KQJx(x) QJxx

we are also down if S has 6 hearts or singleton club, but that would be very unlikely