[Phil]

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Teams

The strength of dummy is a mild surprise. Maybe they missed 3N?

1. Partner leads the ♠Q, A, you encourage with the 3 and declarer drops the T.
2. ♦K, won my partner with the Ace
3. ♣7 shift, you win the Ace
4. Right or wrong you plug away at spades, dummy winning and declarer and partner following.
5. ♦Q and partner discards a low club
6. ♠ ruff to hand
7. ♥ up to King
8. ♣ to K in hand
9. Another heart up, partner rises with the Ace
10. And plays the ♥J, covered by the Q and....

Here is the position:

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Your turn.

[inquiry]

Phil, on 2011-January-20, 12:09, said:

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Teams

The strength of dummy is a mild surprise. Maybe they missed 3N?

1. Partner leads the ♠Q, A, you encourage with the 3 and declarer drops the T.
2. ♦K, won my partner with the Ace
3. ♣7 shift, you win the Ace
4. Right or wrong you plug away at spades, dummy winning and declarer and partner following.
5. ♦Q and partner discards a low club
6. ♠ ruff to hand
7. ♥ up to King
8. ♣ ruff to hand
9. Another heart up, partner rises with the Ace
10. And plays the ♥J....

Here is the position:

---

Your turn.

Something is wrong...

You had declearer ruffing teh second round of clubs, giving partner 8 clubs to go along with his five hearts and two know spades and a diamond. So far parnter seems to have 16 cards. Of course partner might not have five hearts, but surely he has three as he has played that many so we are at 14 cards at a minimum. Can you check the sequence of plays again?

[Phil]

Sorry, it was a club to hand (not a club ruff). Obviously this would be the K.

I'll fix.

[wyman]

Looks to me like you need to

Spoiler

ruff with the D10 and return the spade 9 (assuming he covers with the Q; otherwise we let it run). Looks like he's done for now.

[Phil]

wyman, on 2011-January-20, 13:05, said:

Looks to me like you need to

Spoiler

ruff with the D10 and return the spade 9 (assuming he covers with the Q; otherwise we let it run). Looks like he's done for now.

Hm? Pard led the ♠Q. Do you mean clubs instead?

[wyman]

Phil, on 2011-January-20, 13:08, said:

Hm? Pard led the ♠Q. Do you mean clubs instead?

Huh? I mean partner led the HJ and the dummy has Qx. My 'spoil' was what I'd do in the event declarer covered (with the HQ) or not (H6).

[Phil]

OK - your thoughts ran together and I couldn't understand what you were saying. I understand it know. Yes, declarer covers the heart (so much to look after lol)

[wyman]

Looks like I was wrong (spoke too soon). My re-thoughts:

Spoiler

Partner is surely 2=5=1=5, so declarer is 2=2=5=4. Before this trick, p was 0=3=0=1, and declarer was 0=0=2=2. We ruff high (declarer pitches a club) and return a TRUMP, declarer winning in dummy. The position now is:
Dummy: x / x / -- / --
you: XX/--/--/--
declarer: --/--/x/x
pard: --/X/--/X

where the capital X's are spots higher than the little x's, at least we hope so! In particular, P likely has the CQ and some high heart.

The only winner opps have is the diamond. Whatever declarer leads, he must ruff, and then he has the losing club still.

[inquiry]

I simply must be missing something. So I will not both with spoiler since I have to be wrong.

Partner started life with 2-5-1-5 distribution -- that is 100%. It looks like the Club Seven was 4th best, and if declarer has the club queen he is making (2D and 1C in the four card ending) so we give that card to partner. South's hand is two diamonds (both lower than our ten of course, but both higher than our six) and two clubs. If we ruff low, declarer can over-ruff, ruff a club with the diamond jack, and lead a spade to score his last trump for 3 of the last four tricks. So that is out. If we fail to ruff. He pitches a club, ruffs a spade, and always scores his diamond jack for three tricks, so that is out. So we have no choice but to ruff with the ten (allowing him to pitch one of his two clubs), and lead our last trump.

Partner will come down to the club Queen and the "high heart" in the two card ending with lead in dummy. If declarer ruffs a spade, partner will pitch his heart. Seems like we score partners club or a major trick for down one. This seems normal. Nothing special, nothing interesting, so I can only assume i overlooked something, but for the life of me, i can't see what.

[Phil]

inquiry, on 2011-January-20, 15:34, said:

I simply must be missing something. So I will not both with spoiler since I have to be wrong.

Partner started life with 2-5-1-5 distribution -- that is 100%. It looks like the Club Seven was 4th best, and if declarer has the club queen he is making (2D and 1C in the four card ending) so we give that card to partner. South's hand is two diamonds (both lower than our ten of course, but both higher than our six) and two clubs. If we ruff low, declarer can over-ruff, ruff a club with the diamond jack, and lead a spade to score his last trump for 3 of the last four tricks. So that is out. If we fail to ruff. He pitches a club, ruffs a spade, and always scores his diamond jack for three tricks, so that is out. So we have no choice but to ruff with the ten (allowing him to pitch one of his two clubs), and lead our last trump.

Partner will come down to the club Queen and the "high heart" in the two card ending with lead in dummy. If declarer ruffs a spade, partner will pitch his heart. Seems like we score partners club or a major trick for down one. This seems normal. Nothing special, nothing interesting, so I can only assume i overlooked something, but for the life of me, i can't see what.

Right, no inverted double trump squeeze with a twist I'm afraid. Just some bread and butter counting and working out the defense to avoid the en passant by declarer. Declarer was xx xx 987xx KJxx.

Several ways for declarer to make this. See em?

[gnasher]

Phil, on 2011-January-20, 16:31, said:

Several ways for declarer to make this. See em?

He could have ruffed his losers in dummy.

[inquiry]

Phil said:

Declarer was xx xx 987xx KJxx.

Several ways for declarer to make this. See em?

No, After the ♠Queen lead, I don't see anyway for them to make it. Maybe that is what is interesting. Please show me the several ways, or even one way. I assume reasonably good defense.

[inquiry]

gnasher, on 2011-January-20, 18:44, said:

He could have ruffed his losers in dummy.

I don't see how this is going to work... show me the sequence of play...

Win spade ace, ok obvious. I will make it easy for you and go club at trick two, East wins ACE and continues a club for you... you win the king... so

Trick 1. SA
Trick 2. CA
Trick 3. CK

And? What is the line for 9 tricks.

[Phil]

inquiry, on 2011-January-20, 18:49, said:

No, After the ♠Queen lead, I don't see anyway for them to make it. Maybe that is what is interesting. Please show me the several ways, or even one way. I assume reasonably good defense.

I won't analyze the start of the hand, but its quite clever for declarer to play low on the ♥J, don't you think?

[inquiry]

Phil, on 2011-January-20, 19:37, said:

I won't analyze the start of the hand, but its quite clever for declarer to play low on the ♥J, don't you think?

I did state "reasonable defense". I thought when you said "Right or wrong" you plug away with a spade at trick 4 that you clearly knew that was a mistake. The correct "defense" is to return a club at trick four (note, I returned a club above as well in reply to the suggestion that south ruff his losers in dummy). Sure the hand might make if you defend like a calf (reading Calf, really good book). I had no idea that when you asked "Several ways for declarer to make this. See em?" you were referring to specifically at trick 9. When I read that, I assumed that there were "several ways to make it against any defense" not against bad defense.

Partner needs the heart ACE for his opening bid (and if he is missing that, you are not defeating 3D). Partner lacks ♣KQ for the low club shift, if South has both of those, you are not betting this. So partner needs a club honor, the heart AJ. With that background, a club continuation at trick four (after your first three tricks) seems clear.