[FrancesHinden]

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{your partner strongly believes that 1NT is the correct overcall on the South hand. Whether or not you agree, you are keeping partner happy.}

West leads the 9 of spades which runs to your king.
Plan the play.

p.s. gnasher worked out a very cunning line which I think is probably best, though it didn't occur to me at the table.

[quiddity]

Club to the ace, low heart back?

[mikeh]

I am not banking on the club K onside, tho it is barely possible.

If hearts are 3-3, I am home anyway so I need to see whether I can improve on that, and I thin I can.

Win the spade K, low club to the A and a low heart from dummy.

If RHO flies in order to clear the spade suit, then we hope for 4-2 or 3-3 hearts and score 4 hearts, 2 spades, 2 diamonds and 1 club.

So presumably rho ducks. Now, with one heart trick in the bag, we revert to clubs.

If he has Kx of clubs, rho is done.

if he has Kxx, he ducks. Now we play the heart J, he wins. If he clears spades, we win on board, lead a diamond to hand (having pitched a club) and then cash hearts....the odds are very high that rho lacks 4 of them...he has 3 clubs, 5+ spades so probably doesn't have 4 hearts. LHO can't lead spades or clubs so have to lead a diamond. We win 2 spades, 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs.

If he doesn't clear spades, he presumably leads a diamond.

Fly the Ace, cash the K, test the hearts and unless they run (which gives us 9 tricks), throw a spade and exit a club.

We have scored a spade, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs. We are in a 4 card endgame with dummy holding Qx void void xx and rho hopefully holding something like AJ10 void Q void....he has to give us 2 tricks.

Note that RHO can beat us in this position by ditching the diamond Q, but maybe he was dealt the 10 as well?

neat hand.

quiddity beat me to this, but only because I was exploring the continuations

[mikeh]

so what happened? Sorry if my long post turned people off.....

[whereagles]

Firmly believe 1NT overcall is correct

As to the play I'll shut up because I'm too lazy. HA!

[gnasher]

I played as suggested by quiddity and MikeH.

I think "barely possible" understates the likelihood that ♣K is onside. AJ10xx A10xx Qx xx or AJ10xx Ax Qxxx xx is an opening bid for most people. However, ♣Kx in either hand does seem more likely than ♣Kxx onside.

Anyway, the hand isn't over yet. After ♣A; ♥K; club to the queen, RHO throws a diamond. Are you back to needing hearts 3-3, or is there anything else?

[mikeh]

gnasher, on 2011-August-25, 05:44, said:

I played as suggested by quiddity and MikeH.

I think "barely possible" understates the likelihood that ♣K is onside. AJ10xx A10xx Qx xx or AJ10xx Ax Qxxx xx is an opening bid for most people. However, ♣Kx in either hand does seem more likely than ♣Kxx onside.

Anyway, the hand isn't over yet. After ♣A; ♥K; club to the queen, RHO throws a diamond. Are you back to needing hearts 3-3, or is there anything else?

if he is 5=2=5=1, we need to exit the heart J and pitch a diamond when he clears spades. Come to hand with a diamond, cash a heart, presumably finding bad news, and exit a heart...lho wins, can cash a club, but then has to lead either a club or a diamond..presumably the latter...we win 2 diamonds, 2 spades. 2 clubs and 3 hearts, while they win a club, a spade and 2 hearts. Note that rho can't avoid giving us a trick in a pointed suit if he wins the heart A unless he has 3 or 4 hearts, and can exit that suit.

I do have followups should rho duck the heart or win and return one, with the suit 2=4 (3-3 we claim), or if rho wins the heart J and returns a diamond but it's too early in the morning for me to write them out

[gnasher]

mikeh, on 2011-August-25, 07:55, said:

I do have followups should rho duck the heart or win and return one, with the suit 2=4 (3-3 we claim), or if rho wins the heart J and returns a diamond but it's too early in the morning for me to write them out

What about if RHO is 5=4=3=1 but wins the second heart?

[mikeh]

gnasher, on 2011-August-25, 09:10, said:

What about if RHO is 5=4=3=1 but wins the second heart?

What does he return?

If he returns a heart, I win, discovering the split, and fire one back, pitching clubs. He wins and if he clears spades, I take 2 spades, 3 hearts, 2 clubs and 2 diamonds. So he may return the diamond Q. I win in hand, cash a heart, pitching the last club, cash the last diamond. We are at a 3 card ending with dummy holding Q7x. E is in a one suit squeeze even if LHO started with 98 in spades.....E has either AJ10, and can't let his partner win, or he has unblocked and now we cover W's presumed 8 and our 7 takes the 9th trick.

Say that instead of playing either a heart or a diamond, he clears spades when in with the heart J. I lead the diamond J from dummy to force a cover, win in hand, cash a heart in case they are 3-3, and exit a club. LHO must win, and now he is endplayed....a diamond goes into my K9, giving me 2 spades, 2 hearts, 3 diamonds and 2 clubs. Note that if he has a heart to cash, that only delays the endplay....I pitch a spade from dummy.

I may have screwed things up, but if not, this is one of the best hands I've seen in a while.

Of course, at the other table they just hooked clubs

[gnasher]

mikeh, on 2011-August-25, 09:34, said:

I may have screwed things up, but if not, this is one of the best hands I've seen in a while.

At my table LHO ruined things by taking the second club, so most of the interesting features of this hand became apparent only during dinner, on the train the next day, and (for me at least) when reading Mike's analysis.

[jallerton]

whereagles, on 2011-August-25, 01:16, said:

Firmly believe 1NT overcall is correct

As to the play I'll shut up because I'm too lazy. HA!

If you're too lazy to think about the play, I firmly recommend that you double 1♠ and let partner declare the final contract.

[JLOGIC]

jallerton, on 2011-August-25, 14:36, said:

If you're too lazy to think about the play, I firmly recommend that you double 1♠ and let partner declare the final contract.

PLEASE POST MORE! A Frances/Jallerton smackdown on people would be so epic.

[quiddity]

mikeh, on 2011-August-25, 09:34, said:

What does he return?

If he returns a heart, I win, discovering the split, and fire one back, pitching clubs. He wins and if he clears spades, I take 2 spades, 3 hearts, 2 clubs and 2 diamonds. So he may return the diamond Q. I win in hand, cash a heart, pitching the last club, cash the last diamond. We are at a 3 card ending with dummy holding Q7x. E is in a one suit squeeze even if LHO started with 98 in spades.....E has either AJ10, and can't let his partner win, or he has unblocked and now we cover W's presumed 8 and our 7 takes the 9th trick.

But I guess if he returns ♦Q immediately after winning the ♥J then we're dead? Now if we try to clear hearts he can win, cash the ace of spades to kill our squeeze entry, and exit a diamond to kill our endplay.

[FrancesHinden]

gnasher has told you what the hand is - RHO is 5=4=3=1

Yes I think your suggested defence kills it.