[FrancesHinden]

This was a cute hand from the transnationals. I'm sure everyone on the forum will get it right, but it was fun at the table.

---

West leads ace and jack of trumps, all follow to both rounds. Plan the play.

[lamford]

I am not sure it can be made if East has four clubs, so I will try playing him for 6-2-2-3, in which case I can play a diamond, win the diamond return, cash the top clubs, discarding a spade and ruff a club, cash the ace of spades, just in case East is 5-2-3-3, ruff a diamond and exit with the fourth round of clubs, discarding a spade and also then discard a spade from North on the fifth round.

[nige1]

rubbish deleted

[Hanoi5]

I think it's a Morton's fork. Fraces would love that.

[gnasher]

Hanoi5, on 2011-October-31, 05:04, said:

I think it's a Morton's fork. Fraces would love that.

The diamond holding screams "Morton's Fork", but the only such line I can see is: diamond to the queen, ♣AK throwing a diamond, club ruff, ♠A, diamond exit. That gains over Lamford's line if the shapes are 0283=6205 or 1273-5215, but loses when they're 0265=6223, 0256=6232 or 1255=5233. Maybe I'm missing something.

[ArtK78]

Gnasher's line is clearly right. West should have no more than one spade. So, follow gnasher's line and throw West in. If he has a club left and plays it, you hope it is the high club or that East has no more than 3 clubs. Pitch spades from both hands. Then West is endplayed.

This line works whenever West has no more than one spade (nearly certain), the ♦A (nearly certain) and has 5 clubs or must win the 4th round of clubs. It also works in the rare cases that West is 1-2-7-3, 1-2-8-2 or 0-2-8-3 and didn't lead the ♦A to give his partner a ruff, as West is endplayed immediately on winning the ♦A.

[AlexJonson]

Edit - Whoops ignore all this! I ran out of trumps in North eliminating clubs.


Ruff out the club suit, Ace of spades, diamond to the King and Ace, throw West in on the third diamond (discard spade). Planning to lose two diamonds and a heart. Fails when West is 1255 and East wins the third diamond.

Edit:

In fact since I win the 2nd round of hearts in South, I can play a diamond to the Queen and still eliminate clubs, discarding a diamond on the King. Now I always make when I exit in diamonds - dummy reversal effectively.

[gnasher]

ArtK78, on 2011-October-31, 06:36, said:

Gnasher's line is clearly right.

I don't think you should call it my line, since I posted it as an example of something that doesn't work

But I now agree with you that it does, in fact, work.

[rhm]

gnasher, on 2011-October-31, 05:43, said:

The diamond holding screams "Morton's Fork", but the only such line I can see is: diamond to the queen, ♣AK throwing a diamond, club ruff, ♠A, diamond exit. That gains over Lamford's line if the shapes are 0283=6205 or 1273-5215, but loses when they're 0265=6223, 0256=6232 or 1255=5233. Maybe I'm missing something.

I think it only looks like "Mortons Fork", but isn't.
What do we know?
The opening lead seems to me incomprehensible with a singleton ♠ and the bidding makes no sense. West is clearly void in ♠.
Likewise with a ♠ void and 7 or more ♦ to the ace, I also think the trump lead makes no sense. West would simply try for a defensive cross ruff.
No, West is clearly 6-5 in the minors (either way).

West can not escape the minor suit end-play.
Cash ♣A , ruff a ♣ and cash the ♠A. Simply play a ♦ to the king. West must return a minor suit card.
You now eliminate the ♦, discard a ♠ from dummy on the ♣K and throw West in with the fourth ♣, discarding another ♠ from dummy.
West must give you a ruff and discard, where you dispose your last ♠ from dummy.

Rainer Herrmann

[ArtK78]

rhm, on 2011-October-31, 15:30, said:

I think it only looks like "Mortons Fork", but isn't.
What do we know?
The opening lead seems to me incomprehensible with a singleton ♠ and the bidding makes no sense. West is clearly void in ♠.
Likewise with a ♠ void and 7 or more diamonds to the ace, I also think the trump lead makes no sense. West would simply try for a defensive cross ruff.
No, West is 0=2=6=5 with good ♣.

West can not escape the minor suit end-play.
Cash the ♣ tops discarding a ♠ from dummy and ruff the third round of ♣. Cash the ♠ace. You have now 2 small ♠ in both hands. Simply play a ♦ to the king.
West must return one minor, which you ruff and eliminate. You now throw him in with the other minor suit discarding a ♠ from the other hand.
West must give you a ruff and discard, where you dispose your last ♠ from the hand, which was left with a single ♠.

Rainer Herrmann

If West is 0-2-6-5, then the Morton's Fork play discussed above still works.

[kemperb]

(Post deleted.)

[rhm]

deleted

[rhm]

ArtK78, on 2011-October-31, 15:39, said:

If West is 0-2-6-5, then the Morton's Fork play discussed above still works.

What about West being 0=2=5=6?
(I modified my original post above to cater for this layout)

Rainer Herrmann

[gnasher]

ArtK78, on 2011-October-31, 06:36, said:

Gnasher's line is clearly right. West should have no more than one spade. So, follow gnasher's line and throw West in. If he has a club left and plays it, you hope it is the high club or that East has no more than 3 clubs. Pitch spades from both hands. Then West is endplayed.

When I read this earlier, I thought it made sense, but I've changed my mind again. After two rounds of hearts, a diamond to the queen, ♠A, ♣AK throwing a diamond, club ruff, diamond exit, the position is:

---

If West plays back a club, you can't discard a spade from the South hand, because you have to follow suit.

[lamford]

gnasher, on 2011-October-31, 05:43, said:

The diamond holding screams "Morton's Fork", but the only such line I can see is: diamond to the queen, ♣AK throwing a diamond, club ruff, ♠A, diamond exit. That gains over Lamford's line if the shapes are 0283=6205 or 1273-5215, but loses when they're 0265=6223, 0256=6232 or 1255=5233. Maybe I'm missing something.

I think it very unlikely that West is 0-2-8-3, but my line still works. Play ♦K, win diamond return, ♣A, ♣K throwing spade, club ruff, diamond and East shows out, so you just discard a spade from South and spades from each hand on the next diamond. A mirror of the club play. Cashing the ace of spades first is fine too. And if West is the unlikely 1-2-7-3, then it still works, but now you do need to cash the ace of spades, and when you play the diamond you have a complete count so you discard the spade. So my line works in all five layouts. I cannot see a way to make it with clubs 4-4, unless West has the unlikely ♣QJ109 or fails to unblock with QJ10x.

[phil_20686]

gnasher, on 2011-October-31, 05:43, said:

The diamond holding screams "Morton's Fork", but the only such line I can see is: diamond to the queen, ♣AK throwing a diamond, club ruff, ♠A, diamond exit. That gains over Lamford's line if the shapes are 0283=6205 or 1273-5215, but loses when they're 0265=6223, 0256=6232 or 1255=5233. Maybe I'm missing something.

You are - if you play a diamond to the Q and it holds and east is 6-2-1-4 you can play ak clubs pitch a diamond ruff a club and exit with a spade towards the 9, you never lose a diamond and lose two spades instead. East has one safe club exit, but if he uses that you can return the 9 of spades into has HH, or if he returns a top spade you can win and promote a spade by force.

[Hanoi5]

I now think the club endplay makes more sense. West didn't lead the singleton spade so he must be void, and having only 2 hearts that means 11 cards in the minors which could be 6-5 or 7-4.

[dboxley]

If lho has only 3 clubs it's a simple endplay.

[gnasher]

dboxley, on 2011-November-04, 00:04, said:

If lho has only 3 clubs it's a simple endplay.

You think he's 0=2=8=3?

[rhm]

phil_20686, on 2011-November-03, 06:42, said:

You are - if you play a diamond to the Q and it holds and east is 6-2-1-4 you can play ak clubs pitch a diamond ruff a club and exit with a spade towards the 9, you never lose a diamond and lose two spades instead. East has one safe club exit, but if he uses that you can return the 9 of spades into has HH, or if he returns a top spade you can win and promote a spade by force.

I think all these lines erroneously assume that East is short in ♦, in which case West could have beaten the contract of the top.
We know West to be void in ♠. Yet he led and continued trumps although he even had trump control in form of the trump ace.
Would West do this with seven or more ♦s?
Anyway this clearly marks West with good ♣.
Would it really be a surprise to find that West overcalled on something like ♠-,♥AJ,♦AJxxx,♣QJxxxx ?

Rainer Herrmann