 WesleyC, on 2015-November-06, 00:31, said:
WesleyC, on 2015-November-06, 00:31, said:
Knockout IMPs!
West leads the 
♠2. East wins with the 
♠A and returns the 
♠7 as West follows with the 
♠6.
Plan the play!
Unblock a spade honor from hand on the 
♠A. 
Win second spade in hand and play 
♦6. 
If West goes in you are obviously in great shape with 3 entries to dummy. 
For example if West continues spades, win in dummy and run a diamond honor. If East does not cover, discard. 
Whenever diamonds are no worse than 4-2 you are home. with 3 diamond tricks. 
So let's assume West plays low to the first diamond.  
Now comes the critical play, duck in dummy! 
If diamonds are 4-2 either way your best chance is that someone holds 
♦Kx or 
♦Ax. 
Your intention is to ruff a second low diamond from dummy and if an honor drops give up a third diamond to the remaining honor.
If no honor drops hope diamonds are 3-3. 
If West has ducked with 
♦AKxx the first diamond from hand look for different opponents. These ones are too tough. 
How good is this line?
After the trump lead and continuation chances that there is a singleton or void in diamonds must be negligible. 
Assuming West would not duck with 
♦AKxx the line is somewhere between 85 and 90% and this assumes West would lead a trump holding a small doubleton in diamonds.    
Rainer Herrmann