[hanp]

This hand came up today in a Dutch pairs tournament:

x
Jxx
QJ10xxx
KQJ

AQx
A987xx
K
Axx

You find yourself in 4H after the following auction:

1H - 1S - 2S - 3S
4C - p - 4H - all pass

LHO leads a spade to the jack and your queen. You cash the ace of hearts and RHO plays the queen. What now?

[vuroth]

I'd better

Spoiler

ruff a spade now, right? With the jack can't hurt I don't think. Opps can pull trump on me and exit a spade, and my lower in hand won't go away on a diamond before they can run a third round on me.

[Jlall]

I take "pairs" to mean MP, I think Han wants you to maximize your chances of an overtrick while minimizing the risk.

[vuroth]

I don't see

Spoiler

an endplay or trump coup. The AD is always on my left, so low D from dummy isn't going to gain me a trick. If trumps are 2/2, the field will find it. I don't have enough winners to squeeze anybody.

I'm stumped. Hopefully someone else will get this one.

[helene_t]

I don't get it either. Maybe I could try to play a diamond from the dummy to steal a trick but I doubt it will work.

[Jlall]

What tricks are you in danger of losing? What are some ways around that?

More specifically, the way the spade suit and the trump suit interact with each other on this hand is pretty interesting.

Another hint:

Spoiler

What I mean by the above is that you want to ruff your spade loser, but if you do that you will promote a trump trick for them if LHO started with KTx. However if you just play a trump, they can play a spade. Now if you pull trump you have a spade loser. There is a clever way to avoid this.

[vuroth]

Without reading Justin's hint,

Spoiler

the problem is picking up KTx of trump on your left without losing the small spade trick. In my plan if I ruff the spade immediately I can no longer pick up the trump ten.

Thinking

Edit - run the KD now. If it holds, good chance I can ruff out the A and run diamonds (LHO rates to have the ace, and has 8 major suit cards at least). If LHO rises with the ace, my low spade is going on the diamond, and a low trump towards the jack will pick up the ten of hearts.

[Jlall]

Yeah good job vuroth, I think thats the right solution

[hanp]

Yeah that's what I had in mind. It may have been better to play the diamond king before the heart ace though, as you won't need to go back and forth in clubs.

[jukmoi]

Very easy to misplay this.

[Kivgaen]

I must be missing something -- I don't understand what the problem is. At the table, I would proceed by

Spoiler

immediately ruffing a small spade in dummy with a low heart, retaining the Spade Ace in my hand for later use. I now lead the J of hearts off dummy.

I'm assuming that RHO shows out at this point and that LHO wins the King. What's he going to lead back? His Heart 10 is set up now so he could cash that, but so what? I can lose 3 tricks. 2 hearts (K and 10), and the Diamond Ace.

He can't have less than three spades, because he and his partner bid and supported spades, so I'm not worried about a spade ruff coming at me. What's he going to ruff? Does he have a club void? Unlikely... a stiff diamond? Maybe -- but so do I, and I have the H987 that I can ruff with to prevent him from getting a trick with his little heart.

He gets his 2 trump tricks, and they win the diamond Ace.

What am I missing?

[Jlall]

Kivgaen, on Mar 31 2010, 11:00 AM, said:

What am I missing?

You make 4 instead of making 5 which is not that great at matchpoints

[mohitz]

Kivgaen, on Mar 31 2010, 09:30 PM, said:

I must be missing something -- I don't understand what the problem is.

The problem is that this is MPs and a chance to win 11 tricks would be great.

edit: jlall beat me.. there should be a notification before submitting a post if a new post has come up during the time you were composing your post just like gmail.

This post has been edited by mohitz: 2010-March-31, 10:08

[Kivgaen]

Jlall, on Mar 31 2010, 11:05 AM, said:

Kivgaen, on Mar 31 2010, 11:00 AM, said:

What am I missing?

You make 4 instead of making 5 which is not that great at matchpoints

Thanks Actually I asked my mother-in-law a few moments after I clicked "add reply" and she filled me in on what I was missing.

I guess that's why I really suck at MP games... I have a bit of tunnel vision when it comes to making my contract.

[jjbrr]

Kivgaen, on Mar 31 2010, 12:20 PM, said:

Jlall, on Mar 31 2010, 11:05 AM, said:

Kivgaen, on Mar 31 2010, 11:00 AM, said:

What am I missing?

You make 4 instead of making 5 which is not that great at matchpoints

Thanks Actually I asked my mother-in-law a few moments after I clicked "add reply" and she filled me in on what I was missing.

I guess that's why I really suck at MP games... I have a bit of tunnel vision when it comes to making my contract.

I have nothing to add to this thread. I just wanted to welcome you to the Forums, Kivgaen. Hopefully reading some of the threads here will broaden your vision.

[phybrr]

You must now play KD. If RHO has KQ10 H, you cannot play a H or he will draw trumps and knock out your S stopper.
You will go down after they take their AD and cash the 3rd S.