[campboy]

A friend asked about the following claim from a league match. South, playing in hearts, claims the rest on a crossruff. She has ♥xxx ♣xx, and dummy has ♠Qxx ♥xx. However, West, on lead, has the ♥Q and a diamond to play afterwards. The ♠Q is not good, but it turns out that ruffing one club will set up the second. How many tricks do you give declarer?

The two directors involved disagreed, but the director who gave the ruling ruled in favour of the other team.

[ahydra]

Three tricks.

ahydra

[WellSpyder]

Maybe I have a tendency to be a little hard on declarers who make bad claims, but my initial reaction os to say that declarer has 3 trumps left after west cashes ♥Q, so that is the number of tricks he can make on a cross-ruff. I suppose you could argue that once the ♥Q is cashed it will be obvious to declarer that he hasn't enough tricks for a cross-ruff, and that given the lack of an entry to any later spade winners the only possible way to make all the rest of the tricks is to try to ruff out the clubs. So the only rational line for declarer is to ruff the diamond in hand, ruff a club in dummy, ruff a spade to hand and see whether the remaining card in hand is a winner. If you think it is irrational for this declarer to ruff the supposed diamond return in dummy then I guess you should award declarer 4 tricks.

[RunemPard]

Edit: Thought declarer was on lead...3 tricks

[mink]

I see no reason why a declarer who forgets about the ♥Q should be allowed to remember that he can set up a ♣ trick. So 3 tricks for him.

Karl

[Cyberyeti]

Provided declarer is any more than a beginner, 4 tricks. If the ♠Q is not good, it is no win to ruff in that hand and the extra trick then falls into your lap.

[blackshoe]

As Cyberyeti says, it's not a case of remembering the club position, it's a case of serendipity - provided that for the class of player involved failure to recognize that establishing a club winner is the only way to take the remaining tricks is not "normal". However, "normal" includes "careless or inferior", so I'm giving declarer three tricks.