[rhm]

---

West leads the ♥K and switches to the ♠9
Plan the play.

(If you know the deal don't spoil the fun)

Rainer Herrmann

[MrAce]

In first look it looks easy as long as diamonds are not 5-1.

Win ♠ in hand, cash ♦A, ♠K to dummy, ruff a small ♦
Go to dummy with 3rd ♠ and play ♦Q and discard ♣ unless it is covered.

But this is way too simple for a Rainer problem. I must be missing something.

[rhm]

MrAce, on 2016-October-13, 02:17, said:

In first look it looks easy as long as diamonds are not 5-1.

Win ♠ in hand, cash ♦A, ♠K to dummy, ruff a small ♦
Go to dummy with 3rd ♠ and play ♦Q and discard ♣ unless it is covered.

But this is way too simple for a Rainer problem. I must be missing something.

Sorry,

I have to retract my problem. I played like you did.
The actual layout was

---

The only solution, which works is to win in dummy and play a diamond to the ace.
At trick 4 play a heart honor and when covered discard a club from dummy.

I found this solution appealing.
Unfortunately I now discovered it will not work when West is 1444.
In this case West can return a heart (not easy to see either).

Sorry
Rainer Herrmann

[MrAce]

Heh in the 2nd diagram you made South opened 1♣ and East is on lead.

[shyams]

rhm, on 2016-October-13, 02:46, said:

At trick 4 play a heart honor and when covered discard a club from dummy.

I found this solution appealing.

When I saw the problem, I thought exactly of this line. I thought the elegant part was that West is endplayed as early as trick 5.

A small addition (probably will not matter) is that I'd retain the ♠2 in hand & play any other pip at trick 1.

[MrAce]

shyams, on 2016-October-13, 03:23, said:

When I saw the problem, I thought exactly of this line. I thought the elegant part was that West is endplayed as early as trick 5.

A small addition (probably will not matter) is that I'd retain the ♠2 in hand & play any other pip at trick 1.

Unfortunately he is not endplayed.

What Rainer found appealing as a solution is a very bad solution IMO.
It is going down when W is 1444 as Rainer said, despite it may be hard defense to find.
But this is not why it is a very bad solution.
It is bad because you guys are going down simply when the ♣ A is on as well,

Is it too hard to imagine West and his double with

x
AKxx
KTxx
QJxx

?

I am always making when diamonds are 4-2 or better.

While you guys are trying to cater for 5-1 ♦,

• going down when they are 4-2 if they defend correctly
• going down in half of the 5-1 ♦ as well when East has ♣A
• going down when they are 4-2 and without any special defense when East has ♣A

[rhm]

MrAce, on 2016-October-13, 04:24, said:

Unfortunately he is not endplayed.

What Rainer found appealing as a solution is a very bad solution IMO.
It is going down when W is 1444 as Rainer said, despite it may be hard defense to find.
But this is not why it is a very bad solution.
It is bad because you guys are going down simply when the ♣ A is on as well,

Is it too hard to imagine West and his double with

x
AKxx
KTxx
QJxx

?

I am always making when diamonds are 4-2 or better.

While you guys are trying to cater for 5-1 ♦,

• going down when they are 4-2 if they defend correctly
• going down in half of the 5-1 ♦ as well when East has ♣A
• going down when they are 4-2 and without any special defense when East has ♣A

I agree the solution does not work.
But from your holding I doubt many would switch to trumps.
Attacking clubs looks normal to me.

Rainer Herrmann