[JLOGIC]

I think it is a personality test or something if you see the sqz instead of the endplay or vice versa lol. Stripping them out and endplaying them while ruffing 2 hearts feels natural to me, I wonder why.

Looking forward to solution for how to best cater to 5512 while not messing up 5521, I have no idea.

[CamHenry]

Another facet of the personality test might be whether you follow my example of "Here's 3+2+1+5 tricks, that's enough, right?".

[gnasher]

This is the line that I thought covered all the possibilities:

♣A, diamond to the jack, club towards dummy, and:

(1) If LHO ruffs: Win the heart continuation, ruff a heart, ♦A, ♣K, club ruff, draw trumps, squeeze West.

(2) If LHO follows: Win, cross to a heart, ♠Q-K-A, ♠J, ♣K, ♣ruff, ♥ ruff, ♣ruff, ♥ ruff high, ♣ ruff, with RHO following suit throughout (alternatively you can play a spade in the ending and pitch a heart when RHO ruffs in).

(3) If LHO discards and you think he's 5611: play as in the "LHO follows" line.

(4) If LHO discards and you think he's 5521: Win, cash ♦A (or don't, if you want to be flash), play a heart to the jack. LHO wins and has to play back a heart. Ruff in dummy, cash ♣A, ruff a club back to hand, and cash the rest of the trumps to squeeze him.
(When you play a heart to the jack, RHO may play an honour from Hxx. If so, just win and play ♥J.)

However, I think there's a flaw in this plan. Suppose that LHO has K10xxx K10xxx xx 10. He ruffs the second club and returns ♥K. Now the squeeze doesn't work, because RHO has the heart guard.

[PhilKing]

 gnasher, on 2013-June-18, 11:49, said:

However, I think there's a flaw in this plan. Suppose that LHO has K10xxx K10xxx xx 10. He ruffs the second club and returns ♥K. Now the squeeze doesn't work, because RHO has the heart guard.

Phew! Now I can sleep like a baby.

[rhm]

After having spent too much time on this I do not think, assuming West holds at least 5 cards and at least one high honor in each major, there is a line which caters for West holding

a) a singleton small trump
b) a doubleton small trump
c) Tx in trumps

You can win against two of these distributions.

a) and b) combined require a deep first round finesse of the ♦9 without cashing the ♦A first
b) and c) combined require a finesse of the ♦J. but you should not play a club before playing a second round of trumps
a) and c) can be combined but you require a finesse of the ♦J and need to play a club from hand without playing a second round of trumps.

The details are messy and complicated, and I do not want to bore you with several pages to prove them.

Rainer Herrmann

[winkle]

 gnasher, on 2013-June-18, 11:49, said:

(1) If LHO ruffs: Win the heart continuation, ruff a heart, ♦A, ♣K, club ruff, draw trumps, squeeze West.

...

However, I think there's a flaw in this plan. Suppose that LHO has K10xxx K10xxx xx 10. He ruffs the second club and returns ♥K. Now the squeeze doesn't work, because RHO has the heart guard.

Also, LHO can ruff and play the SK. I don't think you can handle that case if RHO has QTx of diamonds.

[JLOGIC]

Its interesting, not ruffing the C9 is a natural play even with 2 small trumps and esp Tx, but obv most people are not good and could not resist, and even those who wouldn't ruff would probably give it away with their tempo. I mean, with 65 you are probably gonna pitch your 6 card suit in a normal amount of time, with 5521 youre at least gonna think a little bit before not ruffing and maybe some people would think for a very long time. It's not even something they're likely to prepare for at trick 1.

[CamHenry]

 gnasher, on 2013-June-18, 11:49, said:

This is the line that I thought covered all the possibilities:

♣A, diamond to the jack, club towards dummy, and:
(2) If LHO follows: Win, cross to a heart, ♠Q-K-A, ♠J, ♣K, ♣ruff, ♥ ruff, ♣ruff, ♥ ruff high, ♣ ruff, with RHO following suit throughout (alternatively you can play a spade in the ending and pitch a heart when RHO ruffs in).

I considered this plan, but discarded it when I realised that it relies on playing the ♣K twice: you've won the ♣A at trick 1, you're proposing winning a ♣ at trick 3, and then leading a high ♣ at trick 9 as well.

[gnasher]

Quote

(2) If LHO follows: Win, cross to a heart, ♠Q-K-A, ♠J, ♣K, ♣ruff, ♥ ruff, ♣ruff, ♥ ruff high, ♣ ruff, with RHO following suit throughout (alternatively you can play a spade in the ending and pitch a heart when RHO ruffs in).

 CamHenry, on 2013-June-19, 02:04, said:

I considered this plan, but discarded it when I realised that it relies on playing the ♣K twice: you've won the ♣A at trick 1, you're proposing winning a ♣ at trick 3, and then leading a high ♣ at trick 9 as well.

That was just a copy-paste error. Ignore the second cashing of ♣K and count the tricks: two spades, two clubs, one heart, two ruffs in dummy, five trumps in hand.

[gnasher]

 winkle, on 2013-June-18, 18:28, said:

Also, LHO can ruff and play the SK. I don't think you can handle that case if RHO has QTx of diamonds.

I just win the ace, playing the queen under it, and continue with my original plan.

[winkle]

 gnasher, on 2013-June-19, 16:42, said:

I just win the ace, playing the queen under it, and continue with my original plan.

What's your original plan? You can't isolate the heart menace against west, and you can't ruff two hearts in dummy or you'll have a trump loser.

[inquiry]

I am not so sure it is an open book. I didn't respond earlier because all I could see was the obvious line on the squeeze against west at the table. Only west can stop the third spade in dummy, only west can stop the fourth heart in your hand. So my line is to do what you do on squeeze plays... You correct the count as soon as possible.

Win the club ace,
duck a heart to West (cover east's play.. if necessary win ace if East plays King or queen -- see line two below). This corrects the count.
The thought is then to ruff a heart, and hook East for the ♦Qxx. West will be squeezed in the majors then (after ducking a heart and ruffing a heart, and still having the ♥A, east can not have a heart stopper.
This line works against all reasonable distribution of the high cards as long as East has Qxx of diamonds.

Line two, if East pops up with King or Queen of hearts at trick two, you can not duck (least he gives his partner a club ruff). So win the ACE, ruff a heart, play DA and hook diamond queen. Now pull trumps, club to the Ace and ruff a club. West has to come down to three spades (else Spade queen runs the spade suit), so that means he comes to one heart, which has to be an honor least your ♥J and little heart become winners. Lead the ♥ to his stiff heart, Even if he exits the ♠K, You can win the ♠A then your queen and then your last heart (presumably the Jack, but even if you played the jack out of hand to throw west in, you little heart is good).

Now, this doesn't work against 4-1 trumps, or ♦Qx offside, so I know this could not be the best solution, but for me, see a squeeze, play a squeeze.

I can see some other lines that handle 4-1 diamond splits, but those line lose out to some 3-2 ones. So I wait to the winning solution. So I would play as listed above.

[gnasher]

 winkle, on 2013-June-19, 19:47, said:

What's your original plan? You can't isolate the heart menace against west, and you can't ruff two hearts in dummy or you'll have a trump loser.

Sorry, yes you're right.

[rhm]

 inquiry, on 2013-June-19, 23:53, said:

I am not so sure it is an open book. I didn't respond earlier because all I could see was the obvious line on the squeeze against west at the table. Only west can stop the third spade in dummy, only west can stop the fourth heart in your hand. So my line is to do what you do on squeeze plays... You correct the count as soon as possible.

Win the club ace,
duck a heart to West (cover east's play.. if necessary win ace if East plays King or queen -- see line two below). This corrects the count.
The thought is then to ruff a heart, and hook East for the ♦Qxx. West will be squeezed in the majors then (after ducking a heart and ruffing a heart, and still having the ♥A, east can not have a heart stopper.
This line works against all reasonable distribution of the high cards as long as East has Qxx of diamonds.

Line two, if East pops up with King or Queen of hearts at trick two, you can not duck (least he gives his partner a club ruff). So win the ACE, ruff a heart, play DA and hook diamond queen. Now pull trumps, club to the Ace and ruff a club. West has to come down to three spades (else Spade queen runs the spade suit), so that means he comes to one heart, which has to be an honor least your ♥J and little heart become winners. Lead the ♥ to his stiff heart, Even if he exits the ♠K, You can win the ♠A then your queen and then your last heart (presumably the Jack, but even if you played the jack out of hand to throw west in, you little heart is good).

Now, this doesn't work against 4-1 trumps, or ♦Qx offside, so I know this could not be the best solution, but for me, see a squeeze, play a squeeze.

I can see some other lines that handle 4-1 diamond splits, but those line lose out to some 3-2 ones. So I wait to the winning solution. So I would play as listed above.

As explained in my first post all these lines win against some trump layouts and loose against others.
Even if we give East the trump queen there are at least 3 essentially different incompatible lines of play, which work against different layouts. I have not explained the complete lines in detail but indications how they differ.
I also did not bother to work out which one of them has the highest probability to succeed with the given information and assuming normal defense.
However, I doubt that I overlooked a line of play which would be better than any of the 3 lines suggested above.
For example ducking a heart to rectify the count assumes obviously that you will not have a trump loser. (If East pops up with an ♥ honor you could win and simply duck the ♥J to West next before ruffing the third heart and drawing the last trump. This assumes West has 5 hearts to at least one honor.)
It would be helpful before suggesting a line of play against what trump layouts you want to succeed against. As I said I know three.

Rainer Herrmann

[Fluffy]

Ok my first try, give up on lefties diamond.

Start with ♣A, ♦A, ♥A, ruff a heart, ♣K
Leftie can ruff ♣K if he wants, after ruffing 2 hearts in dummy he will be squeezed in the majors.
So lets assume he has 2 clubs, just cross ruff, 2♠, 3♥, 2♣, 5♦ for a total of 12.

EDIT: damn lack a trump to finese Qxx on righties.

[manudude03]

Win the ace, ace of diamonds, ace of hearts, club. If LHO ruffs and returns a heart, we ruff, cash the king of clubs throwing a heart, ruff a club, ruff a heart, ruff a club, and play 2 rounds of spades, RHO will be trump couped.

If LHO doesn't ruff, we play on similar lines, ruff a club, ruff a heart, ruff a club, ruff a heart, 2 rounds of spades ending in dummy, now it doesn't matter what gets led, if RHO has 4 trumps, they're forced to ruff and we overruff while if trumps are 3-2, whoever wins trick 11 is endplayed into giving up the trump trick.

If LHO ruffs at some point and returns the king of spades to try and cripple entries, you win the ace unblocking the queen, ruff a club, ruff a heart, ruff a club, ruff a heart, and start cashing whatever winners you have. It's late so not 100% sure I have the timing on a spade return.

[gnasher]

 manudude03, on 2013-June-20, 18:26, said:

Win the ace, ace of diamonds, ace of hearts, club. If LHO ruffs and returns a heart, we ruff, cash the king of clubs throwing a heart, ruff a club, ruff a heart, ruff a club, and play 2 rounds of spades, RHO will be trump couped.

If LHO doesn't ruff, we play on similar lines, ruff a club ...

If LHO overruffs, aren't you a trick short?

[manudude03]

 gnasher, on 2013-June-21, 00:57, said:

If LHO overruffs, aren't you a trick short?

Ah, indeed