[GaryFisch]

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This deal provided interesting decisions for both defenders and declarer. Sitting West, I counted 1 pt for my doubleton after partner supported spades and bid game. 4♠ was reached by most pairs.

In all cases, North led the club 8 to the jack and queen. At my table, South made the interesting play of cashing the club ace, North discarding a diamond, before returning a low club. This might have been costly, say, I could have had ♦Ax, solid trumps, and only one heart loser. In this case, South's play saved the defense from a pitfall, as will be seen later.

I ruffed the third club high, then had my own decision to make. One line would be to cash two trumps, then the ♥A, and then the third high trump in dummy. Assuming trumps broke, I would cash the ♣K, discarding the ♥J, then come to hand with the ♦A to lead a diamond to the Q. That would almost certainly be better than taking the heart finesse, given the club break.

I instead decided to play for a heart ruff. To guard against trumps 4-1, I cashed dummy's high trumps, then played three hearts, ruffing the third low. Alas, South over-ruffed. With the ♦K onside, I ended up with just one diamond loser for down one. How would you have played it?

I think the heart ruff line is best, but it was probably wrong to play to ruff a heart low. Had that held with North having 4 trumps, then what? I would have to hope that North started with the ♦K and 3 hearts, meaning that South had started 5-5 in the rounded suits. Not likely. Alternatively, I could take the heart finesse after the second trump, and then lead a diamond to the Q. That would require both red honors onside.

Now here's the weird part. I was one of only 5 declarers who failed. All but one of the successful declarers saw their opponents ruff a low club at trick two, then lead a heart! This made it easy for declarer, who now could draw trumps and play for the ♦K onside.

Understandably, every lead at trick 3 looked dangerous, and if South had the ♥A, the defense might score a second ruff (but then wouldn't South have opened 1♣ in third hand?). I think North should have figured out to play a trump. West probably had solid trumps plus honors in both red suits, so a trump was least likely to give away a trick, and if the defense had a red suit trick coming, it probably wasn't going away. What would you have done?

[mikeh]

I agree that the play is interesting, but I don't like your line.

I won't go into a lot of detail....but consider how the play will likely go if you merely pitch a diamond on the 3rd club.

(Note, your choice to ruff will work better than the pitch IF N has 4 trump...tho not your actual line....if trump are 4-1, you need to pull the trump and then lead Ace and a low diamond, hoping for the K in north).

[GaryFisch]

mikeh, on 2011-August-12, 15:35, said:

I agree that the play is interesting, but I don't like your line.

I won't go into a lot of detail....but consider how the play will likely go if you merely pitch a diamond on the 3rd club.

(Note, your choice to ruff will work better than the pitch IF N has 4 trump...tho not your actual line....if trump are 4-1, you need to pull the trump and then lead Ace and a low diamond, hoping for the K in north).

With regards to discarding a diamond on the 3rd club, that still leaves a diamond and a heart loser. Only one of them can go on the ♣K, and that can be played only after trumps are drawn. Plus they have 3 tricks already in (after North ruffs the 3rd club and returns a trump. So I'm now playing for trumps 3-2 and the ♥Q onside. I don't see how that's better than how I played or the alternative lines I gave.

[mikeh]

GaryFisch, on 2011-August-12, 15:58, said:

With regards to discarding a diamond on the 3rd club, that still leaves a diamond and a heart loser. Only one of them can go on the ♣K, and that can be played only after trumps are drawn. Plus they have 3 tricks already in (after North ruffs the 3rd club and returns a trump. So I'm now playing for trumps 3-2 and the ♥Q onside. I don't see how that's better than how I played or the alternative lines I gave.

If N has 3 trump, after he has ruffed, he has only 2, and you can draw trump (which are now 2-2), ruff a heart and dump the diamond.

if N has 2 trump, you win the trump return in dummy, cross in trump, finding the bad news, now cash the top hearts and ruff the 3rd one high and take a pitch on the club as S has to follow.

You don't give a damn where the heart Q is...it is irrelevant. This fails only when hearts are 7-1, which seems unlikely...and your line also fails on that layout, as well as others.

However, my line fails on 4-1 trump...the line of ruffing the 3rd club can prevail on 4-1 trump if you play 2 rounds, ending in hand, to check if 3-2. If they are, ruff a heart high, cross in diamonds to draw trump and lead a diamond, hoping N has the K. If trump are 4-1, draw all the trump, using the ♦ A to get back to the hand (you will be in dummy after the 3rd round) and then lead a diamond to the Q, again hoping for the K onside.

In essence, you have to choose at trick 3 whether it is more likely that trump are 4-1 than that the diamond is offside. A priori the trump split is more probable, but the odds have changed once clubs are known to be 5-1.

[JLOGIC]

Mike, you will still make if north has 4 trumps when the heart finesse is on (you cash 2 spades, get the bad news, and simply pull the last trump and pitch your diamond on the club and hook a heart).

That said, the choice of defense probably strongly suggests the DK is on your left (else, why would RHO do this?). So if you are trying to make some deep read you can ruff high and just play for the DK on, but pitching wins on 3-2 trumps always, and half the time trumps are 4-1 which is probably at least 80 % so you'd have to be very confident in your read, and tbh I wouldn't be since RHOs defense is likely never right, so it suggests that they are pretty bad, in which case we can't be that confident about the DK read.

[GaryFisch]

Mike, you are right about your line working on a 3-2, don't know how I missed it. By the way, I like your signature.

However, on a 4-1, if you ruff the third club high in hand, then later ruff a heart high in dummy, aren't you down to 3 high trumps to draw 4? I was thinking about that when I drew the first two trumps in dummy, but ruffing the club was wrong as you pointed out. I agree with JLOGIC regarding the 4-1 break.

The only reason I posted this was because I found it so strange that so many Norths gave declarer a free heart finesse after ruffing the second club. But now it's clearer why they did that. If they had returned a trump, then with the ♣K not scoring, declarer can still get home by playing to ruff a heart high and later leading a diamond up to the Q. So North had nothing to lose and everything to gain by playing for South to have the ♥A and trying for a second club ruff (if West started with 3). You pointed out something I missed, so I have egg on my face, but oh well.

[manudude03]

North doesn't need the ♥A for the switch to be right, the K is enough. By the way, South should be giving suit preference when they give the ruff, the middle card should suggest that they don't have anything of value so N should find the trump switch anyway.