[Tramticket]

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IMPs. Contract: 6NT by W. Lead: ♠7 - opponents' convention card shows 4th highest from an honour, second highest from a poor suit.

West is playing this very pushy 6NT slam (a little less than half the field were equally optimistic). There is no opposition bidding - you have shown a balanced 21-22 without a four-card major.

What line?

[Cyberyeti]

Well I presume the 10 would have been led from Q1097 so this looks like 97x(x)(x) so I play low expecting the 10 to be inserted. He must have a safer lead than Q97 or Q107.

I win and duck a heart.

Will hope for a triple squeeze, or hearts 3-3 and the opening lead being from 5 or a black suit squeeze.

[Tramticket]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-July-22, 01:57, said:

... so this looks like 97x(x)(x) so I play low expecting the 10 to be inserted.

I win and duck a heart.

Yes, I played low and ducked a heart. South won with the Jack and returned the ♣J

Cyberyeti, on 2019-July-22, 01:57, said:

Will hope for a triple squeeze, or hearts 3-3 and the opening lead being from 5 or a black suit squeeze.

I tested hearts, but north shows out on the third round (having started with ♥Q3), discarding ♠4. All follow to three rounds of diamonds and this is where I think that i went wrong ...

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[Cyberyeti]

I play the 4th diamond, what does north discard ?

[Tramticket]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-July-22, 03:24, said:

I play the 4th diamond, what does north discard ?

Low club

[cherdano]

I would have played hearts from the top, at least against good opponents. There is no chance West would lead from ♠Q against this auction, so I am essentially down when hearts don't yield three tricks. Hence I'd rather not give up on the extra chance of ♥HH somewhere.

Having ducked a heart and with hearts not splitting, I would play for ♠Qx with South. Pitch a spade in the end position, play spades from the top and squeeze South in hearts/clubs.

[Cyberyeti]

cherdano, on 2019-July-22, 03:47, said:

I would have played hearts from the top, at least against good opponents. There is no chance West would lead from ♠Q against this auction, so I am essentially down when hearts don't yield three tricks. Hence I'd rather not give up on the extra chance of ♥HH somewhere.

Having ducked a heart and with hearts not splitting, I would play for ♠Qx with South. Pitch a spade in the end position, play spades from the top and squeeze South in hearts/clubs.

not sure if ♥HH or ♠Qx are better odds, but yes I agree pitch a spade on the 4th diamond, and play KJ to catch south in the non simul double. I suppose you could cash one top heart and then decide whether to go for HH or not, is N really finding Q from Qx ?

[Tramticket]

Thanks Cherdano and Cyberyeti.

I didn't spot the possibility of dropping ♥HH. That gets the heart chance to close to 50% I think.

South did hold ♠QX:

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At the table I played off ♣K before cashing the 13th diamond. Not a success.

Four of the declarers got it right, including one "big name" partnership.

[cherdano]

Cyberyeti, on 2019-July-22, 04:26, said:

I suppose you could cash one top heart and then decide whether to go for HH or not, is N really finding Q from Qx ?

Yes that seems right in practice - I missed that.

[nige1]

Tramticket 'Four of the declarers got it right, including one "big name" partnership.'
+++++++++++++++++++++
Cherdano and Cyberyeti, suggest a good line. playing ♥A and another.
GIB says that, at double-dummy, the defenders can't prevent their double-squeeze,
even if they lead ♣s twice.

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[Tramticket]

nige1, on 2019-July-22, 09:04, said:

Tramticket 'Four of the declarers got it right, including one "big name" partnership.'
+++++++++++++++++++++
Cherdano and Cyberyeti, suggest a good line. playing ♥A and another.
GIB says that, at double-dummy, the defenders can't prevent their double-squeeze,
even if they lead ♣s twice.

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Yes, one declarer made 6NT as East on the ♣J lead.

[HardVector]

I'd start with a low spade from the board at trick 1. If it's 4th best, the 8 will win, problem solved. If, as I expect, the 7 is from a weak suit, I win the ace and duck a heart. This will set the stage for a number of squeezes including a possible double squeeze if north holds hearts/clubs and south holds spades/clubs.

Edit: Oops, miscounted. There are only 10 tricks. You need to find 2.