[nige1]

1st round Scottish Cup match. After a stupid 5♥ bid, You, South, end up as declarer in 6♥. ♠Q lead. Click next to see the early play.

---

What now. On lead, as South, in this 7 card ending?

---

[LBengtsson]

good problem, Nige1.all depend if you can trust card led ♠Q. at green/red with partner passed, I take lead as genuine, especially as west has shown up with ♣K also

[Winstonm]

Spade and ruff with the 6. I am going to play west for 7042 and both minor kings.

PS: My first thought was west 8032. No change in plan, though.

This post has been edited by Winstonm: 2021-September-01, 14:22

[nige1]

LBengtsson, on 2021-September-01, 11:28, said:

good problem, Nige1.all depend if you can trust card led ♠Q. at green/red with partner passed, I take lead as genuine, especially as west has shown up with ♣K also

Excellent question. If you ask opponents, they will tell you that they lead the second higher honour. i.e West has shown ♠K

[mikeh]

nige1, on 2021-September-01, 09:54, said:

1st round Scottish Cup match. After a stupid 5♥ bid, You, South, end up as declarer in 6♥. ♠Q lead. Click next to see the early play.

---

What now. On lead, as South, in this 7 card ending?

---

I may well have missed something but I don’t think I can make this hand if east has the diamond king. In addition, it seems that west is 7=0=4=2. QJ10xxxx void Kxxx Kx is a reasonable 4S at the prevailing vulnerability.

So I hook the diamond, ruff a club, ruff a spade, cash the diamond Ace, lead a club, which is good


East is down to void Jx x void

I have void Q x x in dummy and x K x void in hand, having won 10 tricks and lost none (1S 1S ruff, AQ diamonds, AQ clubs and two club ruffs, along with 2 rounds of trump.

East has to ruff, else i pitch my diamond and make 13 tricks on a high crossruff

I overruff and ruff my last spade with dummy’s Queen of hearts. They both win the last trick.

I admit to being worried about trick one. Why didn’t east play his King from a presumed Kx! If for no other reason than to make me worried that he’d be overruffing dummy immediately?

[nige1]

mikeh, on 2021-September-01, 14:15, said:

I may well have missed something but I don't think I can make this hand if east has the diamond king. In addition, it seems that west is 7=0=4=2. QJ10xxxx void Kxxx Kx is a reasonable 4S at the prevailing vulnerability.So I hook the diamond, ruff a club, ruff a spade, cash the diamond Ace, lead a club, which is goodEast is down to void Jx x voidI have void Q x x in dummy and x K x void in hand, having won 10 tricks and lost none (1S 1S ruff, AQ diamonds, AQ clubs and two club ruffs, along with 2 rounds of trump.East has to ruff, else i pitch my diamond and make 13 tricks on a high crossruff I overruff and ruff my last spade with dummy's Queen of hearts. They both win the last trick.I admit to being worried about trick one. Why didn't east play his King from a presumed Kx! If for no other reason than to make me worried that he'd be overruffing dummy immediately?

Please assume that opener's suit is headed by ♠KQ

[mikeh]

nige1, on 2021-September-01, 14:57, said:

Please assume that opener's suit is headed by ♠KQ

I would have hoped you’d have told us if they play rusinow leads. Of course they are allowed to psyche a lead, but this is hardly the situation where that makes sense

[mikeh]

I think I still need rho to hold 2 spades and Lho to hold the diamond king. I play much as I outlined before I leadned that the Queen of spades showed the King

Hook the diamond, ruff the club, ruff a spade low and lead the good club, forcing Rho to ruff. I overruff with my last trump, cross in diamonds, cash the heart Queen for my 12 th trick.

[Cyberyeti]

mikeh, on 2021-September-01, 15:27, said:

I think I still need rho to hold 2 spades and Lho to hold the diamond king. I play much as I outlined before I leadned that the Queen of spades showed the King

Hook the diamond, ruff the club, ruff a spade low and lead the good club, forcing Rho to ruff. I overruff with my last trump, cross in diamonds, cash the heart Queen for my 12 th trick.

Have I missed something ? diamond to the Q, club ruff, cash ♥K, cross to ♦A, cash ♥Q and the winning club and they get a diamond at the end, this works if W is 8032 with ♦K.

[mikeh]

Cyberyeti, on 2021-September-01, 15:54, said:

Have I missed something ? diamond to the Q, club ruff, cash ♥K, cross to ♦A, cash ♥Q and the winning club and they get a diamond at the end, this works if W is 8032 with ♦K.

No, you didn’t miss anything. Serves me right for multi-tasking. I got fixated on my playing east for Kx spades and didn’t mentally press reset when I learned that west showed the KQ.


Oh well, that’s why focus is important

[Winstonm]

After a lot of soul searching, I'm now thinking that the play is the J of diamonds and let it run. If it loses, east can't return his last club else I ruff play my high trump, cross to dummy, draw trump and claim. If he returns a diamond, I can ruff out the club, play a high trump, cross, cross back in diamonds, draw trump and claim. So the best return is a trump. With a trump return, I win in hand cheaply, cross in diamonds, ruff out the club, cross in diamonds, draw trumps and claim.

What if RHO ducks the diamond? Then ruff a spade high lead a club and pitch a spade. East has no good answer.

But I could be wrong and my head hurts.

[nige1]

1st round Scottish Cup match. After a stupid 5♥ bid, You, South, end up as declarer in 6♥. ♠Q lead. Click next to see the early play.

---

What now? South, on lead.
In this 7 card ending, I failed by leading a ♦ to ♦Q.
WinstonM cracked it.
Declarer can lead ♦J and claim provided West has 7 or 8 ♠s.
Winstonm's line is sure-trick.
If East wins ♦K and returns a ♦, then declarer, wins ♦Q, ruffs a ♣, cashes ♥K, crosses to ♦A, and draws trump.
If East ducks his ♦K, declarer can ruff a ♠ in dummy.
I learnt about defenders' leads at the end of play but could have protected myself by asking, at the beginning.

---

[Winstonm]

The difficulty for me was trying to figure out my problem - which turns out to be a shortage of entries to the north hand. It then became a little easier but not much - I would have failed at the table.