[lamford]

---

You reach 7NT by South and West leads the king of clubs. How do you play?

[mikeh]

Spoiler

Win…duh😀

Run the hearts…it’s an error to test diamonds…what are you pitching?

Pitch three diamonds and a club. Then spade to hand and test diamonds

I’d like to have had Jxx in clubs in dummy, but we have to male do.

[Gilithin]

 mikeh, on 2023-May-11, 20:26, said:

Spoiler

Win…duh😀

Run the hearts…it’s an error to test diamonds…what are you pitching?

Pitch three diamonds and a club. Then spade to hand and test diamonds

I’d like to have had Jxx in clubs in dummy, but we have to male do.

There must be more to it than this for it to be the subject of a lamford post...

[mikeh]

 Gilithin, on 2023-May-12, 07:11, said:

There must be more to it than this for it to be the subject of a lamford post...

Then take a shot at it😀

[Gilithin]

 mikeh, on 2023-May-12, 10:11, said:

Then take a shot at it😀

My line was the same as yours - that's why I am sure there is more to it!

[pescetom]

Maybe there is more to it at the end...

Spoiler

 mikeh, on 2023-May-11, 20:26, said:

Run the hearts…it’s an error to test diamonds…what are you pitching?

Pitch three diamonds and a club. Then spade to hand and test diamonds

I'm out of my depth, but it does look to me as if it might be possible even if E hangs onto 4 diamonds.
When we cash the third diamond, if West is down to ♠Qx ♣Q he is squeezed as we hold ♠KT ♣9 in dummy.

[mikeh]

 pescetom, on 2023-May-12, 11:13, said:

Maybe there is more to it at the end...

Spoiler

I'm out of my depth, but it does look to me as if it might be possible even if E hangs onto 4 diamonds.
When we cash the third diamond, if West is down to ♠Qx ♣Q he is squeezed as we hold ♠KT ♣9 in dummy.

There are several layouts in which a squeeze will operate. The reason I wanted the club Jack in dummy is because the lead of the club king virtually assures us that only LHO can guard clubs.

Nobody can guard all three threat suits…so if we can isolate one defender as having to guard clubs, we are likely to have him in a simple squeeze position…indeed, if he has short diamonds, we have him squeezed in the blacks IF he is stuck guarding clubs. Meanwhile, we’d be squeezing east in the pointed suits. After six hearts, a club and two diamonds, we have K10x void void 9 opposite Ax void Qx void and LHO, if guarding clubs, can’t have more than 3 spades, so the last top diamond squeezes him out of spades. And RHO has already been forced down to two spades, in order to keep two diamonds…an easy double squeeze

When both defendants can guard clubs, the situation is more complex. Maybe LHO had KQJ10 in clubs….but, more likely, RHO has 10x or better in clubs.

Having said that, so long as RHO has 4+ diamonds, he has to unguard one black suit on the run of the hearts. If he unguard clubs, we have the simple double, so he unguards spades.

Now we have K10x void void 9 opposite Ax void Qx void and RHO is down to one spade, two diamonds and his club guard. If that sole spade is a honour, it drops under the ace and we finesse against LHO.

There are other combinations and exactly how we see the end game will depend on how the opps discard.

I didn’t want to spell all of this out in my initial post because I don’t have a definitive answer, nor (imo) is there a 100% line. Matters are much more difficult if LHO guards diamonds. Indeed, I see very little chance of making in that case…we need him to also be dealt either 5 spades or the QJ. I think��

Given who posted this, I suspect that we do end up finessing the spade 10, which would be a pretty layout.

[mikeh]

So what was the winning line?

[pescetom]

And how the heck did they reach 7NT rather than 7♥ ?

[gszes]

 pescetom, on 2023-May-15, 11:31, said:

And how the heck did they reach 7NT rather than 7♥ ?

match point greed perhaps? careful or not MIKEH with the plan as usual

[lamford]

It was teams. The winning line was to cash six rounds of hearts, and then the three top diamonds and the ace of spades. The leader had KQJTx of clubs and QJx of spades, so that works. If the spade menaces are split, it is also cold as there is a guard squeeze. And if East guards spades and diamonds that works too.