[pescetom]

MP

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You bid to 6♠ in an uncontested auction, West leads ♥T.

Plan your play?


(expert/advanced players please use a spoiler at first)

[DavidKok]

Spoiler

Win with the ♥K, draw three rounds of trumps, cash two rounds of hearts ending in South, diamond to the jack. East is thrown in on winning the trick and we have our 12th (6 spades, 3 hearts, 1 diamond, 1 club, +1 from East's return).
If the diamond holds we also have 12, of course.
If West rises with an honour we cover with the ace, then take the ruffing finesse in diamonds pitching a club (unless East covers). This way we are guaranteed two diamond tricks, again taking 12 total.

[jillybean]

Draw trump, cash hearts
Clubs are dead, so I will play low to Diamond Jack and hope rast doesn't have both KQ

Apulia looks like a nice place for a vacation ☺️

[pescetom]

Spoiler

 DavidKok, on 2025-August-12, 09:44, said:

Win with the ♥K, draw three rounds of trumps, cash two rounds of hearts ending in South, diamond to the jack. East is thrown in on winning the trick and we have our 12th (6 spades, 3 hearts, 1 diamond, 1 club, +1 from East's return).
If the diamond holds we also have 12, of course.
If West rises with an honour we cover with the ace, then take the ruffing finesse in diamonds pitching a club (unless East covers). This way we are guaranteed two diamond tricks, again taking 12 total.

Basically right of course, although it looks to me that you're assuming that East has a diamonds honour and no remaining hearts (we can only pull six at most).
In particular, I don't follow your logic in taking the ruffing finesse in diamonds if West forces us to cover with Ace: what if West started with both honours?

[mikeh]

Spoiler

Because he pitches a club on the second diamond. If west wins, the 29 is now good for a second club pitch. Count winners

pescetom, on 2025-August-12, 11:36, said:

Spoiler

Basically right of course, although it looks to me that you're assuming that East has a diamonds honour and no remaining hearts (we can only pull six at most).
In particular, I don't follow your logic in taking the ruffing finesse in diamonds if West forces us to cover with Ace: what if West started with both honours?

Spoiler

Also if east has a heart to play the gives yiu a ruff and sluff…pitch a club, ruff in dummy, and take a club hook for an overtrick

. David was more than ‘basically’ right��

[pescetom]

Spoiler

mikeh, on 2025-August-12, 12:06, said:

Also if east has a heart to play the gives yiu a ruff and sluff…pitch a club, ruff in dummy, and take a club hook for an overtrick.

Yes I was wrong to worry about hearts, my apologies to DavidKok.

mikeh, on 2025-August-12, 12:06, said:

Because he pitches a club on the second diamond. If west wins, the 29 is now good for a second club pitch.

Not sure what you mean by "the 29".
I can see that pitching a club pays if East is withholding the second diamond honour, but why would West have risen in that case?
And if West has both, isn't it better to just ruff rather than pitch, which might give up an overtrick if West also had the ♣K?
That is why "ruffing impasse" threw me, at any rate.

[DavidKok]

Spoiler

The goal is to score an additional diamond trick. If West plays an honour when we play a small one, we cover with the ace and play another diamond. At that point there is only one outstanding honour higher than the ♦JT still in North. We simply play a diamond, intending to pitch a club. If an opponent wins it, the ♦T is good for our 12th trick. If neither opponent wins it, we are home.
I called this a ruffing finesse because if East does cover the ♦J with the other honour, we can ruff and have now successfully established our ♦T without losing a trick. This way we can take the club finesse for a possible 13th trick - and it is matchpoints.

It is crucial that, if East does not cover the ♦J, we do not ruff.

[gszes]

jillybean, on 2025-August-12, 10:35, said:

Draw trump, cash hearts
Clubs are dead, so I will play low to Diamond Jack and hope rast doesn't have both KQ

Apulia looks like a nice place for a vacation ☺️

the beauty of your LOP is that it does not matter a wit where ANY of the remaining HCP are. Once east wins the dia trick they have only 3 losing options.
1. return a diamond into the AT
2. return a club into the AQ
3. return a heart and give u a ruff and sluff.

Since you already have 6!S 3!H and 2 aces all three options provide you with the required one more trick for 12. well done

[jillybean]

gszes, on 2025-August-13, 04:43, said:

the beauty of your LOP is that it does not matter a wit where ANY of the remaining HCP are. Once east wins the dia trick they have only 3 losing options.
1. return a diamond into the AT
2. return a club into the AQ
3. return a heart and give u a ruff and sluff.

Since you already have 6!S 3!H and 2 aces all three options provide you with the required one more trick for 12. well done

Fantastic

[pescetom]

jillybean, on 2025-August-12, 10:35, said:

and hope rast doesn't have both KQ

gszes, on 2025-August-13, 04:43, said:

the beauty of your LOP is that it does not matter a wit where ANY of the remaining HCP are. Once east wins the dia trick they have only 3 losing options.
1. return a diamond into the AT
2. return a club into the AQ
3. return a heart and give u a ruff and sluff.

Since you already have 6!S 3!H and 2 aces all three options provide you with the required one more trick for 12.

Precisely. Davidkok describes it more thoroughly in a spoiler earlier on.

I am mot certain JB had fully thought it through, because I struggled to understand

jillybean, on 2025-August-12, 10:35, said:

and hope rast doesn't have both KQ

But benefit of the doubt, all the same

I saw the strip majors and throw-in diamonds position immediately, but decided to cash 5 rounds of trumps plus the hearts - I can envision a 5 card position more safely than 7, plus it might convince East to pitch the fourth of his small hearts. Of course this actually created the problem of a heart return rather than making it less likely as I intended

We live and learn, also thanks to this forum.

[jillybean]

pescetom, on 2025-August-13, 10:00, said:

I am mot certain JB had fully thought it through, because I struggled to understand

But benefit of the doubt, all the same

You are correct, I did not think it through. One of my quick, flippant replies before heading off to do something else.