[MrAce]

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IMPs.

T1- ♦T,J,K,5

T2 -♣Q,A,7,2

T3/4 - 2 top spades everyone follows. (W plays 78, E plays 45)

T5- ♥3,Q,A,2

T6-♣3.5,9,8

Opps have no agreement about their carding, so you are on your own. But from your experience with LHO you know he is likely to hold ♥K as well. He is not the type of player who would play Q from QTx(x).

[nige1]

MrAce, on 2015-June-21, 04:55, said:

IMPs.
T1- ♦T,J,K,5
T2 -♣Q,A,7,2
T3/4 - 2 top spades everyone follows. (W plays 78, E plays 45)
T5- ♥3,Q,A,2
T6-♣3.5,9,8
Opps have no agreement about their carding, so you are on your own.
But from your experience with LHO you know he is likely to hold ♥K as well.
He is not the type of player who would play Q from QTx(x).

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The danger is that LHO was dealt 3 ♠s and a doubleton ♣ (as in diagram on left).

At double-dummy (or If you are a brilliant card-reader) you might still succeed by cashing your remaining trumps, discarding a ♥ and a ♣ from dummy, strip-squeezing RHO, 2 short of the count.

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When you lead ♠4, chucking a ♥...
RHO must keep 2 ♣s.
If he comes down to ♦Ax and ♣Jx, then you end-play him with ♣Ax.
If he comes down to a singleton ♦A, then you duck a ♦, win the ♣ return, and lead a ♥

Pretty deal, Mr Ace!

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[mikeh]

why did I win the heart A? If I am fairly sure that LHO lacks the ability to pop with Q without the K, then duck the heart. They really can't touch me at that point, assuming the club is on, and we are flat out down if it isn't, since att the next play after the heart A was a club to the 9!

Having won the heart A and hooked the club, I am basically forced into guessing the spade situation.

What little I know about shape tends to suggest that LHO is 4=2 in the rounded suits and RHO is 3=4. These are not very strong inferences, but on the first club, LHO would probably give attitude, not count, and on the 1st heart, rho played the 2, and based on the club play I am guessing they play standard carding, whether by agreement or just assumption on their parts (assuming a pickup partnership).

That makes it very slightly more likely for LHO to hold the last trump than RHO, which means that I have to pull trump, since otherwise I can't stop a club ruff.

After pulling the last trump, we have played 7 tricks. RHO has to keep 2 clubs and, as nige1 noted, he has the diamond A.

We do have to be careful: the hand isn't as simple as nige1 suggests. RHO will presumably keep the clubs, and the diamond Ace, but we may not be able to tell if he has the stiff diamond and a small heart or the Ax in diamonds. It would be unfortunate to play A and a club, find rho cashing the diamond A and exiting a heart to LHO's King.

Fortunately, LHO may well help us out and even if he doesn't we can work on the assumption that RHO was 2=3=4=4, and play accordingly.

[WesleyC]

Didn't you just answer your own question?

If you know from tempo/table feel LHO is very likely to hold KQh then why not duck the heart and play for that?

I would also lean towards playing a heart up before playing 2 rounds of trumps.

[Phil]

Seems clear to duck the heart. I'm not sure I'd get the hearts right if LHO doesn't split but I should - RHO has passed with ♦AK + ♣QJ so doesn't have a heart honor.

As far as what do I do now - I have no idea.

[MrAce]

I put this problem because I know I misplayed it. I thought I could make it regardless of ♥ K location. Am I wrong? Altough RHO already showed AK and QJ in minors and can not have ♥K. So not ducking ♥ was a gross mistake.

I rarely put the ones that I played well for bragging But take it from here, I think I misplayed again after taking the ♣ finesse.

[MrAce]

This was about sometimes after midnight, GIB tourney. As you can see how much focus I had, I could not even see that E can not have ♥K at the time I played the hand. For some reason I thought I can make the hand regardless of location of ♥K. But decided to play for 3-3 ♣ or 2-4 when teh 3rd trump is with long clubs and I went down. My instinct was right that I could make the contract regardless of how cards were dealt. Just like Nige1's line. However I agree with Mike that this will come down to reading the hand, knowing exactly how many hearts E started with.

My main mistake in posting was that I should have given the problem right after cashing AK ♠ and leave the rest to readers. I probably was too excited in my mind to report this cute position after ♥A played.

[alok c]

T5 should have been played as T3.Then at T6 another H.