[AyunuS]

I was just in a tourney where my partner made a questionable spade raise and then I ended up in 4♠ with hands I wouldn't think should have bid it. Even worse, it gets doubled and then I notice my team didn't even really have a spade fit! But I made it somehow! Can you figure out how? Opening lead is Q♥ and you win it with A. I also fear that there will be too many solutions that rely on north having the big clubs, so to eliminate that and make it easier to figure this out, I will tell you that south has both the A and Q of clubs. I'll post the solution later.

[CamHenry]

My instinct would be to win and immediately give up a ♣. A sleepy S might pounce on it, then find himself unable to lead a trump without giving up a trick there. I win the return, then play to cross-ruff as much as I can (throwing a ♦ on the ♥K). Takes good breaks nearly everywhere, but should be feasible on the right layout.

(At the table I'd probably lead up to the ♣K, just in case the A was onside)

[AyunuS]

 CamHenry, on 2013-August-13, 07:49, said:

My instinct would be to win and immediately give up a ♣. A sleepy S might pounce on it, then find himself unable to lead a trump without giving up a trick there. I win the return, then play to cross-ruff as much as I can (throwing a ♦ on the ♥K). Takes good breaks nearly everywhere, but should be feasible on the right layout.

(At the table I'd probably lead up to the ♣K, just in case the A was onside)

That is pretty much correct. Although there's one more thing you have to get past. Where do the K and Q of spades need to be and how do you play so that you get around them good enough to take with the J?

[iviehoff]

 AyunuS, on 2013-August-13, 07:32, said:

I was just in a tourney where my partner made a questionable spade raise and then I ended up in 4♠ with hands I wouldn't think should have bid it. Even worse, it gets doubled and then I notice my team didn't even really have a spade fit! But I made it somehow! Can you figure out how? Opening lead is Q♥ and you win it with A. I also fear that there will be too many solutions that rely on north having the big clubs, so to eliminate that and make it easier to figure this out, I will tell you that south has both the A and Q of clubs. I'll post the solution later.

You are a robot? It is E's spade raise that I would call questionable.

Probably your best chance of making a lot of tricks is to lead the CK at trick 2 and then see how far you get with a cross-ruff. I expect in real life I'd take the DA first and lead towards the CK, as the CA with N is an additional chance, given everything else that can go wrong, and it probably doesn't concede a vital tempo; you are going to need both high diamonds to stand up anyway.
To actually make it, that will be the 5 top cards + 5 ruffs, ie 2 club ruffs, 2 heart ruffs and a trump promotion on the third round of diamonds - which probably needs S to hold a singleton trump honour which fell under the A - probably when he get off lead with a trump when in with a club.

[AyunuS]

Well when I play with a robot, I do try to bid like one so that they're more likely to bid correctly. 3♠ was only 10-12 total points and since it gives a little for a singleton, that's how many points I have. What I thought was questionable was the 2♠ when it only had 3 spades in its hand. Anyway, iviehoff, that sounds like it might work, but that's not how I did it. The spades are actually a perfect 3-3 split between them.