[manudude03]

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IMPs scoring, you overbid the hand somewhat to 6D, now you need to justify your bidding. You get the ♣A lead. Plan the play.

[HardVector]

Well, it looks like you need the diamond finesse to work (or guess that the K is singleton offside), so that puts 3 + maybe the Q or J of clubs in east. That would lead me to play east for the Q of hearts and west for the ace. A heart discard on the K of clubs and the 4th spade won't do any good, you will still have to get the hearts right.

[ahydra]

What's opps 1C and NT range?

Edit: if I ruff, spade to A, DJ, does anything exciting happen?

ahydra

[smerriman]

Like HardVector says, it seems logical to play East for ♦K and ♥Q, but even assuming those two cards you still have entry issues.

Start with a ruff, ♠A, ♦J, presumably covered, and draw trumps.

If diamonds are 2-2, all is fine.

If diamonds are 3-1, finessing West for the ♠J wins if that is onside, but loses if not. Playing the top spades wins if they are 3-3, or if East has ♥Qx.

Not sure which is more likely. I'll probably go with the latter, though it seems like it could potentially be useful to cash all but 1 trump first - maybe West will helpfully discard something other than a club. At least would help me calculate the odds better.

[manudude03]

ahydra, on 2018-May-29, 00:10, said:

What's opps 1C and NT range?

Edit: if I ruff, spade to A, DJ, does anything exciting happen?

ahydra

1C is 3+ clubs, they play a 15-17 NT. As for the jack of diamonds.

Spoiler

It is not covered. They break 1-3.

[smerriman]

If it's not covered that appears to gift me an extra entry to dummy and solves all of my problems, so I just play a heart to the ten now and make whenever East has the (non-singleton) queen.

Unless East is clever and did that specifically to get a heart ruff in which case I concede.

[Tramticket]

Ruff, spade to the ace and then a low heart to the Jack (playing East for the ♥Q. If West ducks, the hearts are 3-2 and you can cross to the ♠K to repeat the heart finesse. You will have an entry with the fourth heart to take the diamond finesse.

If West wins the first heart with the ace then:
- if he plays a club he gives you an entry.
- if he plays a diamond he takes the finesse for you (rise with the J).
- If he plays a heart, hearts are 3-2 and you have an entry, as above.
- If he plays a spade, he takes a finesse for you and the ♣K / 4th spade will provide homes for two hearts.

[Ishudav]

HardVector, on 2018-May-28, 20:47, said:

Well, it looks like you need the diamond finesse to work (or guess that the K is singleton offside), so that puts 3 + maybe the Q or J of clubs in east. That would lead me to play east for the Q of hearts and west for the ace. A heart discard on the K of clubs and the 4th spade won't do any good, you will still have to get the hearts right.

I agree with all of this, except "A heart discard on the K of clubs and the 4th spade won't do any good." Without the second discard, we have to play E for the HQ OR W for the singleton Q. With it, we have to choose between finessing E for the HQ OR for the HA.

[Winstonm]

My initial thought was that my LHO has opened a hand based mostly on majors, thus Jxxx, Axx(x), K, Axxx(x) seems both consistent with the bidding but also the opening lead. This would leave RHO with xx, Q(x), xxx, QJxxxx(x) So that is what I will play for.

[Phil]

Tramticket, on 2018-May-29, 02:16, said:

Ruff, spade to the ace and then a low heart to the Jack (playing East for the ♥Q. If West ducks, the hearts are 3-2 and you can cross to the ♠K to repeat the heart finesse. You will have an entry with the fourth heart to take the diamond finesse.

If West wins the first heart with the ace then:
- if he plays a club he gives you an entry.
- if he plays a diamond he takes the finesse for you (rise with the J).
- If he plays a heart, hearts are 3-2 and you have an entry, as above.
- If he plays a spade, he takes a finesse for you and the ♣K / 4th spade will provide homes for two hearts.

You noticed the contract is 6 ♦, not 6 ♥, right?

[Phil]

I guess Id ruff with low in hand so I can pick up K98x onside. Play the spade Q to the ace- might need the extra entry via a finesse and I can always pitch my spade on the club.

Now dJ. If 40 onside, it gets covered. Hook spade, hook diamond, spade over and diamond pray for stiff heart Q on right.

If diamonds are more tame and 22 or 31 I will unblock beer. If 31 draw trump in hand hook spade, h9 and claim when hQ is on.

If trump are 22 I can use a pip and return to dummy. Run the h9. LHO wins and returns a spade. I have to guess if sJ is on and hearts 41 or spade J is off and hearts 32.

[Winstonm]

Isn't the real issue of this hand the heart suit? If hearts cannot be played for 1 loser, nothing else really matters. To do that most likely means West holds the ace and East the queen. From that point, is there a hand that is consistent with the bidding where East holds the diamond K and West leads the Club ace?

The two issues to resolve IMO are: would West lead A in this auction from AQxxx(x) and, if not, would he open with Jxxx, Axx, x, AJxxx?

[smerriman]

Phil, on 2018-May-29, 16:15, said:

Play the spade Q to the ace- might need the extra entry via a finesse and I can always pitch my spade on the club.

Hm, I'm probably missing something but I don't get it. This way, you're put to a guess with a 2-2 trump split, and need the spade J onside with a 3-1 trump split. Keeping the Q like in my line works with all 2-2 trump splits, and puts you to a guess with a 3-1 split. Surely that's more likely than handling a rare 4-0 trump split?

[Phil]

smerriman, on 2018-May-29, 17:00, said:

Hm, I'm probably missing something but I don't get it. This way, you're put to a guess with a 2-2 trump split, and need the spade J onside with a 3-1 trump split. Keeping the Q like in my line works with all 2-2 trump splits, and puts you to a guess with a 3-1 split. Surely that's more likely than handling a rare 4-0 trump split?

If I understand your line from above - it seems you are in trouble when trumps are 3-1, spades are 4-2 and ♥Qxx is on. I.e., ruff club, spade to Ace, JD (covered or not), diamond, diamond, spade Q, spade Ace (RHO) shows and heart to Ten. LHO exits ♠J - now what?

I don't see the guess with my line when trump are 2-2 - I'm using the trump entry first to hook hearts so I don't need the spade hook.

[Stephen Tu]

Phil: I see some issues with your line:
1. Diamonds 2-2. What if LHO is 4126 stiff ace of hearts? When spade comes back are you hooking or not?2. Diamonds 1-3. Your line seems catering to LHO 4216 with J of spades. Picking up 2/3 of the 4-1 spade breaks, but you are losing to 1/3 of them with J doubleton offside. You are also losing if LHO has 3cd spades w/o J. Combo of these seems maybe 1.5x better?

Basically I like smerriman's line better.

[manudude03]

The layout meant it was a little boring. Full hand (originally rotated)

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I was a little annoyed that I spent ages trying to work out if spades were 3-3 or 4-2, only to find finessing didn't matter due to the stiff ♥Q.