[myfish]

west lead the small C

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how to play the 7NT?

[rogerclee]

Complicated hand, my reaction is to unblock clubs and cash 3 hearts ending in hand. If LHO has the long heart, just cash all my winners and hope the DQ drops or a double squeeze happened around spades (RHO having started with the DQ).

If RHO has the long heart, cash a club pitching a spade, and then the other club. If LHO shows out on the 4th club (pitching a spade presumably), I will just pitch the heart and cash the 3 spades and probably end up playing LHO for the DQ unless the spade count says otherwise. If LHO follows to the 4th club (or started with 5), I'll pitch the DJ and play for the heart-diamond showup squeeze against RHO.

[gnasher]

Unblock the clubs and cash three hearts ending in hand.

If LHO has four hearts, cash another club, throwing ♦J. At this point I'll probably know how clubs broke, because East will have thrown a club on the third heart. Now:
- If West had four clubs, I cash two diamonds and then the last club, playing for a double squeeze with spades as the pivot.
- If West had two clubs, I cash the last club, throwing a heart after West discards, then cash the top spades, then guess West's shape. If he was 4=4=3=2, he's squeezed; if he was 5=4=2=2 he had to throw a diamond on the last club, but I now have to finesse against East.
- If West had three clubs, I might choose either line - if I think they're 3433=5224, I should cash the last club and then the spades; if I think they're 4423=4234, I should cash the diamonds and then the last club.

If RHO has four hearts, I just cash the clubs throwing a heart and a spade, then cash the top spades, then play with the odds in diamonds.

[dake50]

Am I missing this? S6 with H9 as left/right threats
opposite DK109 with DA6. A twin entry (B2) squeeze.
Unless H:3-3.
CAJ, SAKQ drop D28, HKQA, CKQ.

[gszes]

dake50, on 2012-April-07, 09:18, said:

Am I missing this? S6 with H9 as left/right threats
opposite DK109 with DA6. A twin entry (B2) squeeze.
Unless H:3-3.
CAJ, SAKQ drop D28, HKQA, CKQ.

I like this approach since any squeeze that is due to
operate will still work and you can take your best shot
at getting a complete count by saving the two club
plays for tricks 9 and 10. Worst case scenario is trying
to go with the % play in dia (if you can figure one out).

trick 9 pitch heart if rho started with heart length else spade.
trick 10 pitch other major watch discards and see if you can figure
out who has dia Q. Opps really good if xxx diamonds never get
pitched (unless ungiven bidding indicated dia importance) especially
since we are pitching 2 dia early in the play on spades).

This will leave both of our hands with 3 diamonds and we can finesse
or try to drop depending on our analysis.