[lamford]

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West leads the three of spades to the ten and queen. How would you play? If you cash the ace of clubs at trick two, East shows out, discarding a small heart.

[mikeh]

lamford, on 2024-April-17, 16:32, said:

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West leads the three of spades to the ten and queen. How would you play? If you cash the ace of clubs at trick two, East shows out, discarding a small heart.

Test

I had been planning on a spoiler. However,I (legally) smoke a little weed before sleep, and I just wasn’t up to (a) elaborating on the play and (b) doing a spoiler, lol.

If I lead a club towards the 10, LHO pops and clears spades. I only have 4 clubs, 2 spades and 2 diamonds,so I’d need some luck in diamonds to come to 9 tricks….after 2 spades and 5 clubs, RHO can come down to 3 spade winners and 3 diamonds….if I now play a heart, west wins the (assumed) Ace and east can throw a diamond…

Now, east could hold the heart ace…one ought not to be influenced by his low heart pitch…if he has the ace, he knows west can’t be fooled (if we hold the heart ace, we’re cold).

If west has say KJ10xxx Axx QJxx void, he pitches another heart on the second club, then a diamond on the third club but is in trouble thereafter. He has to keep 3 diamonds so in the 6 card position, after I cash my last club winner, pitching a heart and a diamond from dummy, he has to be Kx A QJx void…and they’ve only scored one trick so far. I play a heart, not caring who wins…if east (with his now stiff Ace), he can cash two spades but must now open up the diamond suit. I gave him QJxx but he’s equally toast if he had Qxxx or Jxxx initially….whatever he plays, I win in dummy and hook him if necessary

So do I play for that? The good news is that I don’t need to commit.

If east is indeed 6=3=4=0, I’m in really good shape.

It’s actually a complex hand with a myriad of possibilities but east being 6340 seems most plausible. If so, if he holds the heart ace, I can always make…see above. If he lacks the heart ace, west will hold a stiff honour 40% of the time, and I can bring in 4 diamonds anytime I want…whether I now lead a club to the 10 or a heart.

Is there anything I can do if east is 6430, with or without the heart ace?

A heart up…..what if east ducks in tempo? If I float the club 10, and west wins to clear spades, I still only have 3 club tricks to go along with 2 diamonds and 2 spades and I’m down no matter who has the heart ace.

So I can’t do that. I need to play clubs from my hand…if west wins his queen I have 4 club tricks. But…if I play a club now, west wins, clears spades and I play a club to the 10, diamond to my Ace and cash clubs. If east was 6430 he can’t pitch any diamonds, ever. So he can come down to stiff heart ace and 2 spades, so I can (again) throw him in in hearts and guess the diamonds.

But if west has the heart ace, east can reduce to 3 spades and 3 diamonds, and pitch a diamond on the heart.

What about a heart now? Nope. Say west holds the ace…he ducks. I’m in dummy and can’t play clubs successfully. So I come to my hand in diamonds and lead. Club towards the 10…west wins and clears spades and the club suit is blocked…I need to win the 10 but then can’t get back to my hand!

Thus, and I’m sorry to write at such length, I don’t think that I am likely to make if diamonds are 2=3.

So I return to where I came in….I’ll play RHO for 6=3=4=0 and I won’t play him for KJ10xxx Axx QJxx void since that’s a 1S opening….these days even KJ10xxx Axx Qxxx void is 1S rather than 2D, 2S so I’m definitely playing west for the heart ace, should it matter.

Thus, after much deliberation (at the table I’d probably think for about ten minutes before playing to trick 3….it takes far more time to write about it than it takes to think about it) it turns out that I can play either a heart or a club (since I’m expecting/hoping for 4 diamond trick) but I’d choose the club since I’m not yet down if I’ve misread the situation….especially if east has the heart Ace. The fact that I don’t think he does isn’t enough for me to choose a line that fails when he does, not with another line that usually succeeds.

[smerriman]

Mike's post still says test so I'll give it a shot before it's too late. I'll keep playing on clubs and see what East throws. If they have the Ace of hearts, they'll need to hold onto three spades and will be forced to give up diamonds. Or we could play West for a stiff diamond honor. Hopefully I can tell based on the discards.

[thepossum]

lamford, on 2024-April-17, 16:32, said:

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West leads the three of spades to the ten and queen. How would you play? If you cash the ace of clubs at trick two, East shows out, discarding a small heart.

Does East have exactly 6 spades or are they more flexible? 5-10 pts? or more flexible
Struggling with a plan and asking questions to get a bit of time

How about a small club to the 10 or the Jack of clubs. Try to neutralise West - I think the small is best and cover whatever West plays - if it wins with the Queen wait and see what it plays and think again

No that is risky. Lets play hearts then clubs if they duck their Ace - I don't know - there are two threats - I shall wait for Mike to stop testing the forum

[apollo1201]

I intuitively thought small C. Not 100% foolproof but

If W grabs their Q to clear S, several painful discards await E from their likely (but one never knows) 6340 shape (or 6430). They can t throw too many diamonds so maybe I can drive out HA safely at the end, or maybe sth good happens in D. Of course KJTxxx xxx QJxx can pitch 2 + 2 + 1 and cash 4 S tricks and the HA.

If they let me take the C10, that is 7 tricks, I must now guess H but maybe something goods happens when playing DK then D back to hand.

[apollo1201]

I intuitively thought small C. Not 100% foolproof but my 1st name is not Mike!

If W grabs their Q to clear S, several painful discards await E from their likely (but one never knows) 6340 shape (or 6430). They can t throw too many diamonds so maybe I can drive out HA safely at the end, or maybe sth good happens in D. Of course KJTxxx xxx QJxx can pitch 2 2 1 and cash 4 S tricks and the HA.

If they let me take the C10, that is 7 tricks, I must now guess H but maybe something goods happens when playing DK then D back to hand.

[lamford]

The full hand:

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A red suit lead would have beaten the contract, but, fortunately, Mystic Meg was not West and led a spade to the ten and queen. Declarer cashed the ace of clubs on which East threw a small spade (a small heart is more testing). Now declarer played a heart to the king and ace. East cleared the spades. Declarer now finessed the ten of hearts, and now needed to cash another club squeezing East. Instead he cashed the king of hearts but now there was no way home as East could part with a spade on a high club.

As MikeH says, many possible lines, and none of them 100%.

[mikeh]

lamford, on 2024-April-19, 06:26, said:

The full hand:

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A red suit lead would have beaten the contract, but, fortunately, Mystic Meg was not West and led a spade to the ten and queen. Declarer cashed the ace of clubs on which East threw a small spade (a small heart is more testing). Now declarer played a heart to the king and ace. East cleared the spades. Declarer now finessed the ten of hearts, and now needed to cash another club squeezing East. Instead he cashed the king of hearts but now there was no way home as East could part with a spade on a high club.

As MikeH says, many possible lines, and none of them 100%.

Test

[johnu]

lamford, on 2024-April-19, 06:26, said:

The full hand:

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The original post had the ♦9 in the N/S hands which allowed finessing against a singleton diamond honor with West. Also, the original post had East pitching a heart which sets up North's 4th heart, which allows declarer to make 3 heart tricks by finessing the 10.