[rhm]

---

♥9 led
Plan the play
(Should West gain the lead expect a trump return, should he have any left)

Rainer Herrmann

[nige1]

rhm, on 2017-March-20, 04:16, said:

♥9 led
Plan the play
(Should West gain the lead expect a trump return, should he have any left)
Rainer Herrmann

---

Rainer's problems are interesting. Although I confess that I haven't yet discerned the point of this one. Nevertheless I'll kick off with an obvious first attempt, just to get the ball rolling.

If I trust Rainer that West will always exit with a trump, I might win the opening lead with ♥A and tackle ♣s. Playing on ♣s might give you extra chances. At the table, however, I fear that such a line wouldn't occur to me.

So my guess is: win ♥Q. Finesse ♠T. Whether that wins or loses, play another round of trumps, a second round of ♥s, and ruff a ♥, cross to ♦A, draw trumps and hope for the best.

[Wackojack]

I badly need to hone my declarer skills so here goes:

Nigel has very conveniently showed opps distribution that would give you some trouble i.e. spade 4-1 with Q offside and hearts 4-2. When you see the hands laid out then it becomes evident that you must not waste your J10♠early, as then East can gain 2 spade tricks. The queen and then the 9 ruffing ahead of dummy's 2.

So take the Q♥; up to A♦ then small ♠ towards the Jack. If east has Q♠he probably does best to play low and dummy wins with the 10. Then ♥ to K and ruff a heart. If all follow you re home.

If west turns up with stiff Q♠ you still make your contract so long as hearts 4-2.

If this analysis turns out to better than half right, I still doubt if I would find this line at the table.

[Cyberyeti]

Am I missing something, provided 9♥ is doubleton aren't you in good shape, Q♥, A♥, heart ruff, J♠

[rhm]

Cyberyeti, on 2017-March-21, 17:56, said:

Am I missing something, provided 9♥ is doubleton aren't you in good shape, Q♥, A♥, heart ruff, J♠

I do not disagree with this.
Maybe your plan is not ambitious enough

Rainer Herrmann

[rhm]

Obviously the hand should make when hearts are 4-2.
What about the lead being singleton?
This was the actual layout:

---

If the heart is a singleton you need trumps to break and chances are East will have 3 trumps.
You can make provided you do not play on trumps immediately. Otherwise the defense will then get a trump trick and 2 club tricks and either a heart or a heart ruff.
Continuing hearts is also fatal because East can ruff and after 2 clubs get a trump promotion with another heart.

However, as long as you have not lost a trump trick already, East can not ruff a heart without losing his natural trump trick.
Instead try what happens if you try to establish a club winner and at the same time knock out West club entry.
So win the lead in dummy and at trick 2 play a diamond to your ace and play a club presumably to West club honor.

What can West do?

A diamond return lets you discard your club loser and establishes a diamond trick instead.
A club return establishes your club trick.
A heart return gives East his heart ruff, but then you can draw trumps and establish your club trick.

The only return, which might give you a headache is a trump return, which you need to win in the above layout.
Your best continuation is now a high heart playing for club honors to be split.
No matter whether Eats ruffs or not you can establish a club trick and ruff a heart in dummy.

Why is a trump return best from West?
Because you might play East for 2 hearts and 4 spades, in which case it would be better to duck the spade return in North.
Nevertheless not all is lost in this case if you go up in spades.
You are now in danger of losing 2 trump tricks and 2 club tricks.
But if East has both minor suit kings you get a chance for a rare squeeze.

Say the layout is something like

---

So the play starts ♥9 to the ♥Q
Diamond to the ace
Club to the queen and Ace
Spade 8 to the ace.
heart ace all follow.

If hearts are 4-2 we do not need a club trick, but we are worried about trumps being 4-1.
We continue with the heart king and East can not ruff without losing his second trump trick.
So he will discard as will dummy.
We now ruff a heart and ruff a diamond back.
When we play the fifth heart the position is:

---

East is caught in a rare squeeze. I think it is called a backwash squeeze
Note that East could not have discarded any better. If he discards one of his kings than we do not have a club loser any more

Rainer Herrmanno

[Cyberyeti]

Yes, but don't you now go off with hearts 4-2 and trumps 4-1 if E flies a club honour and plays a diamond towards his partner's KJ

[rhm]

Cyberyeti, on 2017-March-23, 12:28, said:

Yes, but don't you now go off with hearts 4-2 and trumps 4-1 if E flies a club honour and plays a diamond towards his partner's KJ

No.
Presumably you suggest to force the hand in diamonds twice to get 2 trump tricks?
This does not work.
Declarer simply uses hearts as a surrogate for trumps.
Even though after 2 diamond ruffs in hand East will have more trumps than declarer he will not come to 2 trump tricks.

The end position is something like

---

The lead is with North and declarer has lost 2 club tricks.
Now declarer ruffs a heart in dummy and ruffs a club with the spade king and feeds East a fifth heart.

So East gets only one trump trick whatever he does

Rainer Herrmann