[sathyab]

Scoring: MP

---

Nashville LM pairs 1st session. Quite a few of you may have played/defended this hand. But there were quite a few 14 and 15 table sections, so some of you may have missed it as well.

Most likely bidding would go p-p-p-1c-p-1h-p-2d-p-3d-p-3nt.

After a spade lead by South, ducked by North it looks like defense can hold declarer to 9 tricks. But Deep Finesse claims EW can make tricks. Can anyone spot a line of play for ten tricks after this start ?

[Blofeld]

Cash the ♣A and ♥A, run five diamonds. S must keep a club and two hearts, so has to throw a spade. Now exit in spades to N. N can cash three spades but then has only hearts left, leading into the tenace in dummy and giving the tenth trick.

[Halo]

This may or may not be difficult, but it seems clear I must cash the ace of hearts and return a spade at trick three. (Begins to be reminiscent of the first chapter of 'Adventures...'.

Now if the defence take their spades, South will be on lead and looks thrown in for a ninth trick and squeezed for a tenth.

But what if North switches to club after spade AK? East wins the ace and it looks as though South will be squeezed out of his spade winner going into a three card ending, where he will hold Qx hearts and King of clubs. Again declarer has ten tricks.

Could of course be more wrinkles to it.

[sathyab]

Of course the spots conspire to force South to win the third spade, if he led the fourth best. But as DF bases its claims on a double-dummy basis, it wouldn't mind if South led the 8 or 7 of spades. Some would lead X from a holding xXxx anyway. Now if declarer tries to return a spade North can cash three spade tricks and return a club which shatters all chances of a tenth trick. Besides, declarer can discard a heart of the third spade from dummy, but what does he do on the fourth sapde ?

[cherdano]

Owen (Blofeld) has it right, where is the problem?

[sathyab]

cherdano, on Aug 19 2007, 02:25 AM, said:

Owen (Blofeld) has it right, where is the problem?

The problem with that solution it works agaianst a different defense, not the one stipulated in the original problem. To repeat, what I stated is that defense started with a high spade lead from South and ducked the first trick. Now if you cash five Diamonds and the Ace of hearts, South has two easy spade pitches, 1 heart pitch and two club pitches. Where's the end-play or squeeze now ?

[cherdano]

sathyab, on Aug 19 2007, 11:50 AM, said:

cherdano, on Aug 19 2007, 02:25 AM, said:

Owen (Blofeld) has it right, where is the problem?

The problem with that solution it works agaianst a different defense, not the one stipulated in the original problem. To repeat, what I stated is that defense started with a high spade lead from South and ducked the first trick. Now if you cash five Diamonds and the Ace of hearts, South has two easy spade pitches, 1 heart pitch and two club pitches. Where's the end-play or squeeze now ?

How about you read the post by Blofeld? He cashed the ♣A too, and then exited to North who gets endplayed in spades to lead into ♥KJ.

[sathyab]

Blofeld, on Aug 18 2007, 04:35 PM, said:

Cash the ♣A and ♥A, run five diamonds. S must keep a club and two hearts, so has to throw a spade. Now exit in spades to N. N can cash three spades but then has only hearts left, leading into the tenace in dummy and giving the tenth trick.

Ok, I got it now.

I was confused by your statement that "South has to keep a club and two hearts, so has to throw a spade", which made it unclear as to how many cards were left in your ending. After a spade, Ace of hearts, Ace of clubs and five Diamonds, South must retain the Qx of hearts and the King of clubs. Now the end-play you suggested works reagrdless of South's other cards, as North is the only one for the defense that can win the spade tricks and forced to yield to dummy's heart tenace.