[RunemPard]

You are sitting N/S and you open 1NT from N. Partner invites w/ 11 HCP, which should be bid straight to 3NT, w/ no 4 card major, rather than inviting. You bid to 3NT and the opening lead is the ♠4 from E.

SOUTH (Dummy)
♠: T85
♥: Q6
♦: QT8
♣: AK752

NORTH (Declarer)
♠: A96
♥: AJ32
♦: AK96
♣: J9

UNDERLINED BLUE TEXT = lead
BOLD RED TEXT = wins trick

-E---S---W---N
♠4--♠5--♠K--♠6
♠J--♠8--♠3--♠9
♠Q--♠T--♦2--♠A
♣4--♦8--♦3--♦K

You end up w/ play from N seeing a diamond void from E. Plan the hand after this point. (East plays before South...West plays before North.)


-------------SOUTH
-------------♠: -
-------------♥: Q6
-------------♦: QT
-------------♣: AK752



EAST------------------------WEST
(Known to have-----(Had 2 spades and
2 of 5 spades------is known to have 4
remaining and a----diamonds left)
♦ void..
Threw off a ♣
on ♦ play)



-------------NORTH (Has the lead)
-------------♠: -
-------------♥: AJ32
-------------♦: A96
-------------♣: J9







Link to full hand if you wish to see...

[Antrax]

What happens if

Spoiler

E keeps his club guard and W wins the T and not the Q?

[RunemPard]

You have a few options..(I did not notice they had done that actually...lol)

[phil_20686]

presumeably I at least unblocked the diamond ten. It seems wrong not to.

[1eyedjack]

What Phil_20686 said.

That way you don't need to rely on the showup squeeze that you were relying on when you claimed at trick 11. You are not reliant on the position of the Heart King when the Diamonds are no longer blocked.

[Antrax]

~points to forum title~

[Trumpace]

Some suggestions:

If it is a declarer play problem, please make South the declarer.

Please try to use the hand editor provided by the forum software to make it easier for people to follow. You might also need to read this: http://www.bridgebas...ools/hvdoc.html in order to get cards played, if you only show North/South.

For example, if we make south the declarer and use the hand editor, and then edit the generated handviewer input (which gets generated when you click on Insert Diagram) to include the play (using the p parameter) it will looking something like this (I also changed the size from 266|200 to 366|300):

---

You can click on Next etc to follow the play.

[phil_20686]

It seems like the best line is to unblock the diamond ten, then you can cash Qd and a diamond to the 9, and then run the club J from hand. This is an avoidance play that will pick up T8C either side, and Qxx?QTx offside. Of course they may return a heart straight away. Then you have to guess. Cashing a could pf diamonds also puts lho under some pressure. If west throws a spade you can just play a heart up and claim. If he throws clubs he can help you guess to set up that suit. If he throws a could of hearts you will have a good idea of the layout anyway.

Alternatively you can win the second spade and return a spade at once. If they cash their spades you are happy. Assuming that you manage to pick up four diamonds you can then come down to an ending like: - x - x, - AJ - -. Seems a bit pointless though.

[RunemPard]

Trumpace, on 2012-May-30, 07:22, said:

Some suggestions:

If it is a declarer play problem, please make South the declarer.

Please try to use the hand editor provided by the forum software to make it easier for people to follow. You might also need to read this: http://www.bridgebas...ools/hvdoc.html in order to get cards played, if you only show North/South.

For example, if we make south the declarer and use the hand editor, and then edit the generated handviewer input (which gets generated when you click on Insert Diagram) to include the play (using the p parameter) it will looking something like this (I also changed the size from 266|200 to 366|300):

---

You can click on Next etc to follow the play.

Could not be bothered w/ finding the post about how to make the hand diagram, but thank you. I felt I did fine w/ making it understandable other than showing the location of E/W according to the rest. That really is not too hard to figure out though.

[RunemPard]

I also kept the ♦s in hand to avoid any possible re-entry problems. I had a pretty good picture of the hand after seeing a ♦ void and knowing that the spades split 5/2. From that point I decided the best option was to just play the clubs out directly.

I am curious as to why you would want to directly remove your diamond entry from the hand holding 5 clubs.

[Trumpace]

RunemPard, on 2012-May-30, 08:52, said:

That really is not too hard to figure out though.

I have to disagree. I know you put in some effort to try and make it understandable (thank you for that), but IMO, it is really hard to read. And given that it is the Novice/Beginner forum, we should strive to make it as easy for the readers as possible.

It will be much easier for you and the readers if you use the handviewer.

[RunemPard]

I agree and I will work on putting one up later tonight. This may also be more of an upper Intermediate level hand, but I felt it was a good hand to include here as well. The heart finesse is there, but you are playing into the hand holding the remaining 2 spades doing so.

[Fluffy]

I think the way you put the cards was really good, however since you rotated the hand I got EW cards totally the opposite, had you put N/S reversed it would had been almost perfect.

[RunemPard]

Cannot figure out the hand viewer, sorry...

I will try to make it as understandable as possible.

[RunemPard]

The reason I chose to put this in the Novice/Beginner forum is because you can always go for the dangerous ♥ finesse towards East who holds the 2 spades, however, this should be a last resort. There is often other ways out, and you should go for them when you can. Although West played extremely strange, I feel this is a decent example of avoiding the risky route for a safer alternative.