[MFA]

Scoring: IMP

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......................(1♦)
1♠ - (X) - 4♠ - (5♣)
5♥ - (X) - 5♠ - a.p.

I was a bit disappointed to see the world class S go down in 5♠ against Hamman-Zia. Maybe you can do better?

♦J lead.

S chose to win ace and return a diamond. Hamman (west) ruffed and returned a small trump. Since trumps were 3-0 and west later got in on a third heart to play another trump, declarer ended up a trick short.

What should he have done? Please let the problem live a little before posting a solution, if you work it out fast.

[Cascade]

nice

[gwnn]

why can't you just discard a heart on a diamond?

[pooltuna]

gwnn, on Oct 12 2010, 05:39 PM, said:

why can't you just discard a heart on a diamond?

well I don't know about anyone else but that is a BINGO for me

[nigel_k]

You can also win the trump return in dummy and ruff four clubs using three diamond ruffs as entries, taking care to cash ♥A before West gets all his hearts away.

This requires West to have only three clubs, because he gets to pitch just one club on a diamond before you ruff two clubs with low trumps. After that you are ruffing high. If you discard a heart on a diamond, while West discards a club, then East plays another diamond and West discards another club, you will eventually have to lose a trick to the ♠10 if West started with three clubs only.

[MFA]

The line that I had in mind was the loser-on-loser play. Play a third diamond and let go a heart, and we can cross-ruff from there, since west doesn't get in to play a second trump.

Nigel's line seems even stronger, since it caters to east being 5-6 in the minors, which is a possible layout but not the case as it was.
Had it been so Hamman could have discarded a club on the second diamond, though, instead of ruffing in. Zia would then have played a third diamond for another club discard, and the crossruff would fail because west would score the ♠T. But that doesn't make nigel's line any weaker.

I'll bet he had red ears afterwards, but declarer did go down here, and none of the commentators on BBO pointed out a winning line but suggested instead that 5♠ probaby could not be made.

So the point is perhaps that we can't see these things enough times beforehand, if we are to spot them constantly at the table (where there will be no "textbook-hand-is-coming gong" to wake us up).

Full deal:

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