[nullve]

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Team match. West leads the ♦A. Plan the play.

[nige1]

Nullve "Team match. West leads the ♦A. Plan the play."
++++++++++++++++++++++

My guess:
♦ ruff,
♠J to ♠A whether East covers or not.
♣A, ♦ ruff, ♣ ruff,
Exit in ♠. Hoping
- ♣Q drops in 3 or
- East is end-played.

---

[shyams]

I feel this contract is not making unless I can trick opponents into helping.

The opening lead has deprived me of an entry to dummy. So I think I will manufacture this late entry.

I ruff the ♦A in dummy, cross to hand in ♣ and lead a low ♠. For our side, the sequence of trump plays is irrelevant --- one loser is unavoidable. However, if West holds something like ♠K3 ♥-- ♦AQJ109876 ♣Q32, a duck by West is unthinkable. From West's perspective, I appear to be making some sort of desperation/silly play to trap West into sacrificing the trump trick.

If West goes up with the King, I have two entries to dummy --- one to set up the club suit and the other to use it.

[mikeh]

Ruff the opening lead and lead a spade.

The problem is what to do if east plays low.

If you think that Lho has to be void for his bidding, you let the 9 float. If west wins his presumed stiff honour, he returns a heart and you’re down if east has the almost surely marked heart king.

If you think that trump are 2-1 (or if lucky enough that east has KQ tight or is foolish enough to split from KQx) then you win the spade A, cash the club, ruff the diamond King, ruff a club and play a spade. Edit: if east does split, then you need him to own the heart king as well, since he will shift to a heart when you drive out the spade. Since I can’t construct an opening hand for west with nothing in spades and at most 10 hcp, if no heart king, I think you’re down if east splits. So maybe my description of splitting as foolish was foolish. Anyway, another reason to play spades as 2-1. End edit.

You make if clubs are 3=3 or the Queen is doubleton.

I would want to be at the table, despite my notorious lack of table feel. However, my inclination, on paper, is to think that most easts would double with KQx in spades and a bidding partner. While west clearly doesn’t have much defence, equally clearly he felt he had an opening hand, and not a preempt. So I’d expect to take the second line I suggested.

The theme of ruffing a winner isn’t common, but it’s not ultra-rare. Most people miss it because they mentally count the winner as a trick, and so sort of have it ‘in the bank’ when counting ways to get to the total needed. You have to unthinking the idea that ‘I have a diamond trick’. As is invariably the case when these points are missed, the play is MUCH easier to find if we had xx in diamonds.

[mikeh]

 shyams, on 2020-July-07, 18:02, said:

I feel this contract is not making unless I can trick opponents into helping.

The opening lead has deprived me of an entry to dummy. So I think I will manufacture this late entry.

I ruff the ♦A in dummy, cross to hand in ♣ and lead a low ♠. For our side, the sequence of trump plays is irrelevant --- one loser is unavoidable. However, if West holds something like ♠K3 ♥-- ♦AQJ109876 ♣Q32, a duck by West is unthinkable. From West's perspective, I appear to be making some sort of desperation/silly play to trap West into sacrificing the trump trick.

If West goes up with the King, I have two entries to dummy --- one to set up the club suit and the other to use it.

West will win his stiff Queen (more likely than the King on the auction)
and lead a heart

And if spades are 3-0, east wins and returns either a spade (the other honour) or a diamond...probably a diamond unless his partner’s lead of the Ace denied the King (as it would for many experienced players).

[mikeh]

 nige1, on 2020-July-07, 17:27, said:

Nullve "Team match. West leads the ♦A. Plan the play."
++++++++++++++++++++++

My guess:
♦ ruff,
♠J to ♠A whether East covers or not.
♣A, ♦ ruff, ♣ ruff,
Exit in ♠. Hoping
- ♣Q drops in 3 or
- East is end-played.

---

As my post shows, I agree with your basic idea, but I don’t find your construction remotely plausible, and of course you need diamonds 8-2 to have the endplay

I can’t imagine any expert bidding as west did with that hand.

[pilowsky]

It looks like if Nige(1) is right, then West's functional fixation on the glory of their diamonds led to their downfall. Reconstruction of the hand as presented by Nige1 - which looks reasonable, shows that the optimum is EW in 6Dx but that on the DA lead 6S= is possible. Unfortunately, on a ♦A lead only 5S can be made.

Here is the pbn file.

Here is the lin file.

After the lead of ♦A I would call this a "Squeeze - Endplay"

South ruffs the lead and plays a round of trumps collecting the singleton ♠K in West. And then plays the ♦K and ♣A to rectify. This leaves a nice long tube of trumps in hand.

Now, South plays the ♠2 to the ♠J which East wins and any card that East plays gives the contract to South.

A Club is collected in dummy disposing of a heart loser followed by the ♥A

A low heart gives the ♥Q then the ♥A and ♣K,

and the ♥K gives the ♥A, ♥Q and ♣K.

Obviously there is absolutely no doubt at all that I would have seen all of this in an instant, the moment that dummy went down. Possibly 2 days before. Even if it's completely wrong.

[FelicityR]

---

I still agree with mikeh that the bidding looks nonsense for expert level but you can make the contract on the following layout. Small hint: the ♦K is actually a useless card that you can't discard anything on so what must you do instead?

[pescetom]

 FelicityR, on 2020-July-08, 11:12, said:

I still agree with mikeh that the bidding looks nonsense for expert level but you can make the contract on the following layout. Small hint: the ♦K is actually a useless card that you can't discard anything on so what must you do instead?

After ruffing the diamonds lead (hearts would defeat) and playing spades to the Ace, you can discard on the ♦K at trick 3 if you like, then cash ♣A and play spades to the ♠Q in E.

[nige1]

Nullve is an excellent card-player but says he failed to make this slam. Hence the construction is a layout where the contract is makeable but an expert declarer might take a wrong view. The main chance is to develop a 3rd ♣ trick.

[mikeh]

 pescetom, on 2020-July-08, 13:10, said:

After ruffing the diamonds lead (hearts would defeat) and playing spades to the Ace, you can discard on the ♦K at trick 3 if you like, then cash ♣A and play spades to the ♠Q in E.

And then east returns a diamond. I’d be extremely surprised if any expert held 9 diamonds and bid as did west here.

[johnu]

 mikeh, on 2020-July-08, 14:53, said:

And then east returns a diamond. I’d be extremely surprised if any expert held 9 diamonds and bid as did west here.

That would be a sluff-ruff so South could pitch a heart while ruffing in dummy, and pitch the other losing heart on ♣K.

Yes, 9 diamonds with West is almost impossible (and East would have bid 3♦ with a doubleton) and nige1's "example" has highly skewed the discussion. Why does East have to have ♥K, and why does West have to have a singleton spade?

[mikeh]

 johnu, on 2020-July-08, 15:39, said:

That would be a sluff-ruff so South could pitch a heart while ruffing in dummy, and pitch the other losing heart on ♣K.

Yes, 9 diamonds with West is almost impossible (and East would have bid 3♦ with a doubleton) and nige1's "example" has highly skewed the discussion. Why does East have to have ♥K, and why does West have to have a singleton spade?

Count your trump....or more precisely, count dummy’s trump. Your ruff-sluff Doesn’t help much when dummy is void in trump😊

[johnu]

 mikeh, on 2020-July-08, 17:02, said:

Count your trump....or more precisely, count dummy’s trump. Your ruff-sluff Doesn’t help much when dummy is void in trump😊

LOL, serves me right for editing bridge analysis while trying to straighten out an Amazon order that was going sideways.

[FelicityR]

I think the key to this hand (as has been demonstrated so far) is to construct a hand where the bidding for E/W looks reasonably sound. This layout looks kind of plausible but doesn't because surely East would double 6♠? But a quality East player might be thinking along the lines that the ♠s under declarer are only worth one trick, the opponents are void in ♦s, and any finesse for declarer in ♥a and ♣s is favourable. I would be grateful for other's comments here. The key probably for this hand is to make an assumption whether the opponent's ♠s are 2-1 or 3-0 from the outset. Or is it possible to combine both chances? Interesting hand.

---

[nullve]

 FelicityR, on 2020-July-09, 01:18, said:

Or is it possible to combine both chances?

Yes! There is a line that works both against this (IMO plausible) layout and the actual one.

[FelicityR]

 nullve, on 2020-July-09, 02:55, said:

Yes! There is a line that works both against this (IMO plausible) layout and the actual one.

This is enjoyable torture - if such a thing exists. I've just spent another hour trying to solve it. Better let the real experts take over and see if they can work it out. I might have another look at the problem later. Thanks for posting, nullve

[nullve]

Ready to facepalm?

[FelicityR]

 nullve, on 2020-July-11, 04:48, said:

Ready to facepalm?

I'm ready to see the hand. I'm a bit surprised no-one else - better than me - tried to establish the distribution and the play that succeeded. I have looked at this again, but just can't see a solution that quite works without knowing the exact distribution and position of some cards at the table. Please enlighten me, and others, nullve

[nige1]

Taking up the gauntlet grasping at straws and assuming layouts like FelicityR's

Start ♦ ruff, ♣A, ♦ ruff
- If West has singleton ♣Q, then run ♠J unless covered.
- Otherwise cash ♣K. If West follows with ♣Q then run ♠J unless covered.
- If West has singleton ♣T then the defence can usually succeed (e.g. if West has 2 black singletons and ♥K, then he can exit in ♦s -- the ruff-sluff is useless to declarer)
- But if West has a ♠ void, (e.g. as on left) then you can ruff out ♣Q, cross to ♥A, cash your good ♣ and take the ♠ finesse.
- Otherwise hope ♠ 2-1 and either ♣ 3-3 or East is end-played

But, I'm puzzled. Most of the time, I'd expect Nullve to make on such layouts.

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