[Gerben42]

This hand came up in the Governor's Cup in Jakarta.

Scoring: IMP

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You reach 4♠ without intervention (yes 4♥ would have been easier), and receive the lead of ♦3 (3rd and 5th). You cash 2 top Diamonds discarding ♣ and play a small ♠ to the 9, West discarding a ♣!

Take it from here.

[mike777]

Gee whiz am I not suppose to ruff a D at trick three and bang down the ace of h at trick 4. if then all small I bang down the K of H ?

It seems in the books with long trumps the experts all take a ruff early, oh well.

[Fluffy]

duck a Heart now. IF East has 3♦ and ♣A he cannot shortnen me more than once. Losing 1♠,1♥,1♣

[kfgauss]

Gerben42, on Sep 13 2005, 01:08 PM, said:

This hand came up in the Governor's Cup in Jakarta.

Dealer: East Vul: E/W Scoring: IMP

♠ 63 ♥ 942 ♦ AK742 ♣ K73 ♠ AQJT94 ♥ AKT73 ♦   ♣ T4

You reach 4♠ without intervention (yes 4♥ would have been easier), and receive the lead of ♦3 (3rd and 5th). You cash 2 top Diamonds discarding ♣ and play a small ♠ to the 9, West discarding a ♣!

Take it from here.

I'm fairly certain I can't make if hearts are 4-1. If hearts are 3-2 (one way or the other) there's the issue of either letting East score 2 low ruffs and the spade K (in addition to their heart trick) or driving out some spades early but then losing control, but there are solutions in certain cases:

I'll assume diamonds are 5-3 (i.e. 5 with West). I need something like 3 hearts with East or the combination of 3 hearts and the club Ace with West. (Or ♥QJ to fall doubleton of course.)

I cash ♥AK and play a third heart. Say West wins. Then I need ♣A with West. If West returns a low club, I rise with the K, tossing a heart, and I lose just 2 hearts and a spade. If West returns ♣A, I can duck (tossing a heart) and if another club is returned, I again lose only 3 tricks. If a diamond is returned, this strips East's last diamond, I ruff, and play spades until East wins and must return a spade (then my heart wins) or a club (then my club K wins).

If West returns a diamond, then this similarly strips East of his last diamond. I ruff with the ♠10 to prepare to overruff my ♠4 with dummy's ♠6. I play a heart pitching a club and East must ruff or it's easy. He returns a club or it's easy (drive out spades) and now I ruff with the ♠J and exit my last heart, pitching dummy's last club (if he doesn't ruff this, I exit spade 4 for the endplay in spades). He ruffs and must return a club... which I then ruff low in hand and with the 6 on the board to set up my trump coup, on the board at trick 12.

If East has the third heart, everything works the same way, but this time I don't care who has ♣A.

Nice problem!

Andy

[kfgauss]

Fluffy, on Sep 13 2005, 02:03 PM, said:

duck a Heart now. IF East has 3♦ and ♣A he cannot shortnen me more than once. Losing 1♠,1♥,1♣

If West can rise with ♥Q or ♥J, this line fails.

Andy