[helene_t]

Lead = ♦2

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Robot challenge. I thought I managed to combine an awful lot of chances but I went down while the robot made it. I am not sure which line was better, though.

[johnu]

Spoiler

I would win the ♦J and finesse ♣10, losing to the jack (else 12 tricks).

Win the return, cash 3 rounds of diamonds pitching a club, cash 3 rounds of hearts pitching a club, ♠Q, ♠A.

Evaluate suit splits, pitches, and preliminary count.

Options:
1) Spades 3-3 or finesse for jack or 10 against East if West drops jack or 10 on 2nd round.
2) 2nd club finesse
3) Club spade squeeze against East
4) Major suit squeeze against West.

If East has shown out of hearts and played jack or 10 on 2nd round of spades, I'll play the 4th round of diamonds pitching ♣Q, and the ♣A will squeeze West in the majors or spades will be 3-3.

If nothing else interesting has happened, I'll play the 4th round of diamonds pitching the last heart, and then ♠K, and finally lead up to ♣AQ. If East has 4 spades, I'll finesse or play for the club drop depending on the club count.

[mikeh]

Test

[helene_t]

Nice, Johnu, that line works in practice.
I was wondering if one should actually go for restricted choice if W drops an honour on the second spade trick. If you first take a losing club finese and the restricted choice doesn’t work, you are down immediately. Otoh, you could play for spades 3-3 and if it doesn't work, you can still hope for a squeeze or a second club finesse.
But maybe one could start with two spades, if W drops an honour then take the finesse, and otherwise switch to clubs and return to spades afterwards?
If this hand had come up in a tournament I think I would just have finessed twice in clubs unless spades 3-3. But it was a challenge so I wanted to try something more interesting, so just one club finesse and then a squeeze. I decided to start with a club to the queen so I got the club threat in my own hand. Then cash club Ace (Vienna Ciup) and rund the diamonds ending with three hearts in dummy and club-spade-heart in my hand.

[gszes]

johnu, on 2024-January-08, 18:33, said:

Spoiler

I would win the ♦J and finesse ♣10, losing to the jack (else 12 tricks).

Win the return, cash 3 rounds of diamonds pitching a club, cash 3 rounds of hearts pitching a club, ♠Q, ♠A.

Evaluate suit splits, pitches, and preliminary count.

Options:
1) Spades 3-3 or finesse for jack or 10 against East if West drops jack or 10 on 2nd round.
2) 2nd club finesse
3) Club spade squeeze against East
4) Major suit squeeze against West.

If East has shown out of hearts and played jack or 10 on 2nd round of spades, I'll play the 4th round of diamonds pitching ♣Q, and the ♣A will squeeze West in the majors or spades will be 3-3.

If nothing else interesting has happened, I'll play the 4th round of diamonds pitching the last heart, and then ♠K, and finally lead up to ♣AQ. If East has 4 spades, I'll finesse or play for the club drop depending on the club count.

if you cash 3 rounds of diamonds you have to find 2 pitches a club and what?

[helene_t]

Thanks, all.

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(The auction is obviously not correct, N opened 1NT as in the OP).

The robot stripped East out of non-clubs and end-played East on the last spade.

[gszes]

was hoping to get this in before seeing the actual hand but here goes anyway.
Welcome to bridge (insert number of years playing here)01. We are starting this session with an easy??? hand. By easy I mean there is NO DISTRIBUTION of the opposing cards that can prevent you from making at least 6. Your mission is to try and navigate this 100% hand and do as little damage as possible to your 100% chance.

What do we make of that opening lead? Surely one would avoid leading from shortness into a potentially long declarers diamond suit. I would start with an initial impression that lho had maybe 4+ diamonds so they felt it rather safe they would not give anything away. The same reason lho would avoid a short diamond lead applies if they had short clubs though somewhat less dangerous. Since N and S each holds a 4 card major it also makes a lead in either of those suits highly speculative. No conclusion can be drawn about the major suits but I would be severely tempted to think LHO would have vastly preferred a club lead from 3+ weak so lho either has stuff in clubs or they are shortish (2 or less). This analysis is not going to solve our problems so we need to do something to start learning more about this hand.

1. win dia T
2. spade A
3. spade toward the Q the purpose of this particular start is in case the J and/or T appear from LHO at trick 2 and/or 3. This has the slight advantage of giving us a 12th trick by next leading toward the 9. If rho follows the finesse either wins for 12 (or 13) tricks or the spades break 33 = 12 or (12/13 tricks if the J is with rho). Assuming our problems are NOT solved
4. spade to the K see who is guarding spades (else 12 or 13 tricks). If lho is guarding spades I would play for a heart club squeeze (vienna coupe) against rho and play a club to the Q. If it wins 12 or 13 tricks. Assuming it loses the count for the squeeze is rectified and I have the club threat in my hand opposite the long hearts. Win the return and play the club ace and come back to hand to run the diamonds. We reduce our hand to H AKQx opposite S x H Ax C T and rho need to hold 5 cards to guard against both threats.
If rho is guarding spades things become a bit stickier but it seems the most likely road to success is to play for a strip and throw in with the last spade to force a club return for 12 tricks.

Notice how quickly the double finesse takes a back seat since it would depend entirely on luck (coin flip) and much less on trying to deduce the best way to play the hand. My choices are significantly below 100% but it was a studied approach. At least that is excuse I will give my partner when all I had to do is take the double club finesse (sigh).
IMHO going after spades first still leaves us in position for 100% of the existing hands (even if it is only for the first 4 tricks).