[luckyloser]

♠987
♥QT2
♦J543
♣KQ2

♠AKQ234
♥AK3
♦AK62
♣-

IMPs. I shall give some additional Information later if need be but you can make your plan now. You are in 6♠, a ♦ is lead and RHO inserts the 7. Trumps break 3-1 with LHO discarding 2 low ♣. Over to you.

[MrAce]

 luckyloser, on 2016-December-29, 11:23, said:

♠987
♥QT2
♦J543
♣KQ2

♠AKQ234
♥AK3
♦AK62
♣-

IMPs. I shall give some additional Information later if need be but you can make your plan now. You are in 6♠, a ♦ is lead and RHO inserts the 7. Trumps break 3-1 with LHO discarding 2 low ♣. Over to you.

Auction please and the ♦ spot led.
And what do you mean by "How can 4s be won" sentence?

[alok c]

Deleted

[nige1]

luckyloser "IMPs. I shall give some additional Information later if need be but you can make your plan now. You are in 6♠, a ♦ is lead and RHO inserts the 7. Trumps break 3-1 with LHO discarding 2 low ♣. Over to you."

Spoiler

IMO After winning ♦A and drawing trumps with ♠AKQ, cash ♦K.
- If LHO follows, then claim
- Otherwise LHO has 2 singletons! Cash ♥A, finesse ♥T, and discard ♥K on ♣K, succeeding when LHO has ♥J and ♣A.

---

[rhm]

deleted

[rhm]

 nige1, on 2016-December-29, 12:34, said:

luckyloser "IMPs. I shall give some additional Information later if need be but you can make your plan now. You are in 6♠, a ♦ is lead and RHO inserts the 7. Trumps break 3-1 with LHO discarding 2 low ♣. Over to you."

Spoiler

IMO After winning ♦A and drawing trumps with ♠AKQ, cash ♦K.
- If LHO follows, then claim
- Otherwise LHO has 2 singletons! Cash ♥A, finesse ♥T, and discard ♥K on ♣K, succeeding when LHO has ♥J and ♣A.

---

A good line but I am not convinced it is the best one in an expert game
I also would like to know auction and which diamond was led

Rainer Herrmann

[luckyloser]

 MrAce, on 2016-December-29, 11:42, said:

Auction please and the ♦ spot led.
And what do you mean by "How can 4s be won" sentence?

i meant 6♠!

the lead is a smal ♦, lets say the 7.

the auction is not relevant.

you take the d leed, draw trumps in 3 rounds (lho discards 2 small c). then you cash the second Diamond honor. the only possible Problem arises: lho Shows out. so he had a stiff trump and a stiff d. take it from there.

[alok c]

 rhm, on 2016-December-29, 13:29, said:

A good line but I am not convinced it is the best one in an expert game
I also would like to know auction and which diamond was led

Rainer Herrmann

The other possibility may be if LHO is 1-3-1-8(for that, knowing the auction is important)

[MrAce]

 luckyloser, on 2016-December-29, 13:53, said:

i meant 6♠!

the lead is a smal ♦, lets say the 7.

the auction is not relevant.

you take the d leed, draw trumps in 3 rounds (lho discards 2 small c). then you cash the second Diamond honor. the only possible Problem arises: lho Shows out. so he had a stiff trump and a stiff d. take it from there.

Do you think we do not know that?
If you think the auction is not important or irrelevant for you, it does not mean it is same for experts.
First of all he can not lead ♦7. Because that makes 2 ♦ 7 in one deck since you said East inserted ♦7.

We all know that there is no problem when diamonds are 3-2 or when W has 4 of them. We all also know cashing the 2nd ♦ honor will show us the ♦ position. But an expert also will think the possibility of E holding the ♣A and if that is the case, you already went down by cashing second ♦ honor. Which you could have made had you decided to play E for holding ♣A and diamonds by holding on to your second ♦ honor.

We also know how to play the hand if we decide, and we will be forced to anyway, that W has the ♣A. You may need to guess the shape of W as well. After 2nd ♦ and seeing E has 4 diamonds,
Cash all remaining spades and discard 2♦ + 1 ♣ from dummy.
This brings you to last 5 cards and you need to guess what W held.
If he holds 3♥+2♣ you simply cash all 3 hearts and play ♣K and he will give a club to dummy your 12th trick.
If he holds 1♣+4♥ then you will need W to also hold ♥J. You then play A of ♥ and then small ♥ to T, play ♣K and unblock ♥K.
Or we can simply ignore the possibility of W making a mistake of holding 3♥+2♣ , and simply cash A ♥ , take ♥J finesse and discard remaining ♥ on ♣ K

I do not see any compelling logic for an expert to make an analysis and play a better line when he makes his decisions about the ♣A without an auction.

[msjennifer]

If W holds Club Ace,HJ and1diamond then it's too easy.He cannot escape the obvious end play.If he has 2 or more Diamonds then no need of end play( as you concede only a diamond if the Q has not appeared when you cash the second high diamond.)

[johnu]

 luckyloser, on 2016-December-29, 13:53, said:

the auction is not relevant.

According to you, but the actual answer is maybe, or maybe not. Always include the auction and the spot cards played to each trick.

[luckyloser]

the auction is not relevant if opps pass (if they has bis i would have given the auction) throughout and how you bid to 6 s makes no difference
your Analysis is correct. when there is no Information about a possible bad d break cahing the second top seems normal. then you must decide about the h Position. since lho with 8 Clubs to the A would surely have bid, playing for the h J onside seems best.

[awm]

Another option is to pull trumps and cash heart AK. Then play a second diamond. If LHO follows we are cold. Otherwise play low from dummy and RHO wins. Since LHO had two singletons in this case, he is likely 1516 or 1615, leaving RHO with only minor suit cards. If he began with club ace, he will be endplayed.

Is this better than the heart finesse line? Given that LHO did not bid in the auction despite a very shapely hand, it may pay to play for the club ace with RHO? This also seems to rely on one "finesse" (club ace RHO) rather than two (heart jack AND club ace LHO). Of course it will fail if LHO has 1417 but his holding that shape (and no bid) makes the heart finesse alternative pretty poor too.

[c_corgi]

 awm, on 2016-December-30, 10:26, said:

Another option is to pull trumps and cash heart AK. Then play a second diamond. If LHO follows we are cold. Otherwise play low from dummy and RHO wins. Since LHO had two singletons in this case, he is likely 1516 or 1615, leaving RHO with only minor suit cards. If he began with club ace, he will be endplayed.

Is this better than the heart finesse line? Given that LHO did not bid in the auction despite a very shapely hand, it may pay to play for the club ace with RHO? This also seems to rely on one "finesse" (club ace RHO) rather than two (heart jack AND club ace LHO). Of course it will fail if LHO has 1417 but his holding that shape (and no bid) makes the heart finesse alternative pretty poor too.

I like this better. The alternative of playing LHO to have led a singleton ♦ against slam holding a side ace and a singleton trump seems strange. However, it may be that the auction suggested we didn't care about the ♣A and might also be missing a different ace. This is another reason to want to know what the auction was.

[MrAce]

I like Adam's line tbh.

[aawk]

I would not be bother if 6s was made or not.

If partner thinks his hand is worth a 6s openings bid i find a new partner.

[Kaitlyn S]

 MrAce, on 2016-December-30, 11:57, said:

I like Adam's line tbh.

I do too. I would have liked to have found it.

[miamijd]

 awm, on 2016-December-30, 10:26, said:

Another option is to pull trumps and cash heart AK. Then play a second diamond. If LHO follows we are cold. Otherwise play low from dummy and RHO wins. Since LHO had two singletons in this case, he is likely 1516 or 1615, leaving RHO with only minor suit cards. If he began with club ace, he will be endplayed.

Is this better than the heart finesse line? Given that LHO did not bid in the auction despite a very shapely hand, it may pay to play for the club ace with RHO? This also seems to rely on one "finesse" (club ace RHO) rather than two (heart jack AND club ace LHO). Of course it will fail if LHO has 1417 but his holding that shape (and no bid) makes the heart finesse alternative pretty poor too.

Well, contrary to what the original poster said, the auction is indeed relevant. Did LHO bid or not? If he made a Michaels or other two-suited bid, then the Jh hook line is pretty much a cinch.

If he didn't bid (more likely), then you have to ask yourself if you think he would bid with x Jxxxx x Axxxxx or x Jxxxxx x Axxxx (I wouldn't, but I suppose some might). If you think he would bid on that, then try to endplay RHO by cashing two H and ducking a diamond. If you think he would pass, then the odds still slightly favor the Jh hook, as the odds of RHO holding precisely Jx of hearts are small, and LHO has more clubs than RHO.

Pretty much looks like a coin flip to me, with the slightly better odds for the Jh hook offset by the small possibility of a bid from LHO with the club A.

Cheers,
Mike

[johnu]

 luckyloser, on 2016-December-30, 08:50, said:

the auction is not relevant if opps pass (if they has bis i would have given the auction) throughout and how you bid to 6 s makes no difference

Knowing that the opponents passed throughout is relevant. Maybe the opponents had a chance to make a lead directing double and didn't. That would be relevant. The choice of lead may have been influenced by the biding. That would be relevant. Maybe the actual auction won't change the analysis of line of play, but you can't claim to be an expert card player if you don't at least give some consideration to the bidding.

[Kaitlyn S]

 miamijd, on 2016-December-30, 12:56, said:

If he didn't bid (more likely), then you have to ask yourself if you think he would bid with x Jxxxx x Axxxxx or x Jxxxxx x Axxxx (I wouldn't, but I suppose some might).

You also have to ask yourself if LHO would lead a diamond with either of those holdings. Unless the auction screamed for a diamond lead, I wouldn't lead one. Would you?

A singleton diamond lead is a lot more consistent with an aceless hand.