[Zloty]

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West leads A of ♥

All vulnerable

Any solution?

Kind regards.

[Endymion77]

Ruff in hand. Draw one round of trump:

1) if both follow, cash ♣A, duck a club. Win the return, ruff the last low club with the Q, and draw trump;
2) if diamonds are 4-0, you need clubs to break 4-2 so cash AK clubs, ruff a low club with the Q and draw trump.

[MrAce]

Endymion77, on 2014-January-20, 05:39, said:

2) if diamonds are 4-0, you need clubs to break 4-2 so cash AK clubs, ruff a low club with the Q and draw trump.

I think your line is pretty decent, especially the way you played clubs, we can improve your line imo, regarding the need of finding clubs 4-2 when trumps are 4-0

Perhaps we should not have cashed a trump before we establish a spade trick and/or an entry to dummy.


Ruff, and cash ♣ A, then play ♠ Q (we probably can/should play ♠ Q before ♣ A)

If this holds cash a diamond and see 4-0 break, then play small club (cl A and then small if we did not cash A previously)
If someone takes ♠ A, they will have to play something, say they played

a- a spade back; win in dummy and play club and play low if RHO ruffs, or simply just play a diamond to hand after winning 2nd spade and duck a club
b-a heart back; cash a diamond and if 3-1 now you have extra chances to establish hearts if they are 4-3 in addition to other chances. If 4-0, assuming RHO holds 4 of them, cross to dummy with ♠ K and play 2nd club to hand and win it if he discards and ruff small club with Q dia, if he ruffs 2nd club then play small and claim

c- a diamond is back; you know what to do.

[lamford]

I cannot improve on Mr Ace's line, and only have the feeling of déjà vu to report. In more ways than one, as Garozzo once had something like the following hand in the Bermuda Bowl 1955.

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In Six Spades, he won the heart lead and played ace and ducked a diamond, guarding against the actual 5-1 break in diamonds. I know the hand appeared in Bridge Magazine in late 1999 or early 2000, as the same theme was found by the Welsh player Tony Haworth. The latter received a ten-year ban for substituting his own cards instead of the ones provided by the organisers. I think the exact pips were the same, but not the ones above. The moral - if you are going to cheat, change the pips and suits!

[mikeh]

I ruff, cash one club and lead a spade to the K. The spade A is almost certainly onside, and I don't want to lead the Q, have West duck it, and then have to lead another.

I intend, once in dummy, to lead a club from dummy. This never loses compared to ducking a club from hand and gains when, unexpectedly, East follows to the 2nd club. Those redoubled overtricks are not to be sneezed at

The theme of ducking a trick in a suit, in order to prevent a high honour from being ruffed, is very old in bridge literature.

I could pull a round of trump early, and I think that doing so neither hurts nor improves my chances.

[MrAce]

mikeh, on 2014-January-21, 14:17, said:

I ruff, cash one club and lead a spade to the K. The spade A is almost certainly onside, and I don't want to lead the Q, have West duck it, and then have to lead another.

If it is ducked you do not play 2nd spade. Now you can afford to cash a trump to see how they break, having already 1 spade trick in pocket. And play small club if you already cashed club A before, if not cl A and small cl now..

Basically you do not care who has the spade A.

mikeh, on 2014-January-21, 14:17, said:

I could pull a round of trump early, and I think that doing so neither hurts nor improves my chances.

It will definitely hurt your chances when 4-0 diamonds and 5-1 clubs and E has spade A. Assume you cashed a trump and played small spade to K and E has the A. Now E takes your K and plays a red suit...probably heart and now you lost trump control. Why would you jeopardize a redoubled contract for the sake of making overtricks anyway ?