[jillybean]

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♠
 2♥    3♥!   Pass  4♦
 Pass  4♠    Pass  4NT
 Pass  5♥    Pass  6♠
 Pass  Pass  Pass
 

DK D4 D6 DA


How do you play this?
I think the only way this contract is set is if ♠ are 3-0 or if West gets a ♦ ruff; so rather than cross to dummy to play trump the safety play is to lead the A♠; I can’t protect against 3-0 split but this does protect against ♦ ruff.

Logic? or ready to be corrected again

[cherdano]

Your title seems wrong (thank god!) but your logic seems right...
However, the 3-0 trump split with East seems not so unlikely so I would ruff a diamond and lead a spade.

[han]

Yeah, west really needs to have some points so the 0-3 spade split seems unlikely.

[Echognome]

cherdano, on May 14 2007, 09:37 PM, said:

Your title seems wrong (thank god!) but your logic seems right...
However, the 3-0 trump split with East seems not so unlikely so I would ruff a diamond and lead a spade.

I think we can improve on this slightly.

We can cross in clubs and lead a spade up covering East's card. If West shows out, that's fine. *Then* we can ruff a diamond and pitch the other diamond on the ♣K before reverting back to trumps.

Now, going back to the bidding, it's difficult to picture the hands. There are 14 points outstanding and West has made a vulnerable overcall. I don't believe for a minute that West has both a singleton diamond. It looks as though he has something like K JT9xxx KQJx Qx or maybe --- JT9xxx KQJxx Qx. The concern is not so much that West will ruff a diamond, but rather that he will give his partner a ♥ ruff if he has a 7th heart. That is not so unlikely given the overcall on such a weak suit. He could possibly have KQT JT9xxx KQx x or KQ JT9xxx KQJx x instead. If the former, then nothing we can do. If the latter, our play still works.

What I don't see possible is West having both a singleton diamond *and* a singleton spade. Regardless, we are not going to let East on lead.

[Impact]

Should we not be more than a little concerned that East may have a H void?

West has bid 2H missing all top 3 Honours and we hold 6H...it seems to me the risk of ducking the S to West's putative singleton top S and his then leading a H for East to ruff is as great as the 0-3 S break on the bidding as opposed to mathematically!

[whereagles]

I would take Echo's suggested the safety play of club up, spade down.

[Codo]

I prefer the safety play against 7-0 heart split to the one with the 3-0 spade split. and play the ace of spade.
There are not many hads where a 7-0 split has higher odds then a 3-0 split.
Maybe this hand is an exception.

[inquiry]

Vulnerable at imps, is west the kind of player who would bid 2♥ on...

K
JT9xxxx
KQJ
Qx

That is as much as he could have where the ruff of a heart if you duck one is available. He could of course have...the alternative is....

void
JT9xxxxx
KQJx
Qx (or similar)...

And if RHO had KQx and a partner who bid freely at the two level vul, he would have doubled 6S. So gainst most players I would just bang SPADE ace and spade, as WEST is marked with spade king given the bidding.

Consider the hands....

KQ
JT9xxx
KQJ
Qxx

or

KQx
JT9xxx
KQ
Qx

Where whatever we do is immaterial. We make in the first case and go down in the second.

[jillybean]

Scoring: IMP

---

West North East South

 -     -     -     1♠
 2♥    3♥!   Pass  4♦
 Pass  4♠    Pass  4NT
 Pass  5♥    Pass  6♠
 Pass  Pass  Pass
  

DK D4 D6 DA
SA SK S3 ST
HK H6 H2 H5
HQ H3 H7 D7
SJ C2 S6 SQ
DQ D2 H4 S9


Here's is the full hand; someone pointed out afterwards that the correct way to play the ♠ was low to J; hence the question.

[SoTired]

guarding against 3-0 spade or 7-0 heart? West has a singleton DK? Impossible. So which is a more likely West hand: K Jxxxxxx KQx Qx or - Jxxxxx(x) KQJ Qxx?

To me, both hands are equally likely. 3-0 breaks occur more often than 7-0, but West has already shown 6♥ so it only the 7th heart that is in question.

hmmm... after all this thinking... I go with a club to dummy and spade finesse, guarding against a 3-0 spade break.