[Tramticket]

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Pairs.

You ruff the king of spades. All follow to king of hearts, heart to the ace and then a heart ruff. You return to hand with a trump and play two more rounds of trumps (dummy and east discarding spades on the third trump).

You next ...

[eagles123]

i don't see a disadvantage to trying to ruff a 2nd heart in dummy - they may have to overruff with jxxx for example

[Cyberyeti]

eagles123, on 2017-June-20, 06:15, said:

i don't see a disadvantage to trying to ruff a 2nd heart in dummy - they may have to overruff with jxxx for example

If the second heart is overruffed with the doubleton and a spade returned, this could be awkward.

I'm eying up AKxxxx, xxx, xxx, K with random red quacks, in which case a small club endplays him for the overtrick.

[Tramticket]

eagles123, on 2017-June-20, 06:15, said:

i don't see a disadvantage to trying to ruff a 2nd heart in dummy - they may have to overruff with jxxx for example

I agree. This was the line followed by declarer. The contract had to go one off - east ruffs and has a safe spade exit.

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The only way to succeed is to draw the trumps (reaching this position) and play the queen of clubs.

If east wins he forced to play away from his club holding or play a spade, setting up the queen. If East ducks, declarer plays the ace of clubs and end-plays west.

I thought the ending was pretty neat - but I'm realising just how double-dummy it is. It seemed like a plausible line to me (I held the east cards).

[cherdano]

Do you have the club spots wrong? There is no endplay in clubs if East wins the K.

[cherdano]

Anyway, surely it is better to just play LHO for the club king?

[Winstonm]

As this is pairs, some will play 3N, I think, and to make that requires club king onside - therefore, I assume club king offside and play accordingly.

[alok c]

cherdano, on 2017-June-21, 08:56, said:

Do you have the club spots wrong? There is no endplay in clubs if East wins the K.

If East goes up with ♣K & leads back a ♣ go up with ♣A & lead a ♥ to end play West.

[nige1]

Tramticket, on 2017-June-21, 01:17, said:

I agree. This was the line followed by declarer. The contract had to go one off - east ruffs and has a safe spade exit.The only way to succeed is to draw the trumps (reaching this position) and play the queen of clubs. If east wins he forced to play away from his club holding or play a spade, setting up the queen. If East ducks, declarer plays the ace of clubs and end-plays west.I thought the ending was pretty neat - but I'm realising just how double-dummy it is. It seemed like a plausible line to me (I held the east cards).

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Thank you, Tramticket. A pretty ending; but, IMO, a double-dummy line. Eagles123's line (trying to ruff the 4th ♥) seems more natural.

Tramticket's ♣Q line works as the cards lie. After ruffing a ♥ and drawing trumps...
- If RHO wins ♣K and returns a ♠, declarer discards his ♥.
- If RHO wins ♣K and returns a ♣, declarer wins ♣A and exits in ♥ to endplay LHO.
- Similarly, if RHO ducks ♣K, declarer cashes ♣A and endplays LHO with ♥J, discarding a ♣ on LHO's ♠A

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