[nige1]

Gold Cup KO Teams.
Against South's 4♥ West leads ♦K
If South Ducks, West will continue with ♣K
Your line?

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[smerriman]

Being a nige1 hand, all the remaining spots being edited to minimum values shows the ten of spades must be the key

I guess we can try stripping the diamonds, drawing trumps, cashing the Ace of spades and exiting a club, hoping the spades are blocked.

[edit]Hmm, just realised the subject line is probably important too..
[edit2]Slight improvement would be not cashing the Ace of spades..
[edit3]Aah, or we can duck a spade. OK, I'll stop editing now and think about it later

[shyams]

I would replicate the line suggested in smerriman's original (pre-edit) reply.

I would guess that the exact sequence of play is what matters. Our plan to cash the spade Ace has to be done early and in a manner least likely to arouse suspicion in the "blockee".

So I would win trick 2, lead low trump to the Queen, lead low spade to the Ace. This probably gives us the highest chance of East failing to unblock (or West, if West began with ♠Hx).

[nige1]

shyams, on 2021-March-23, 01:13, said:

I would replicate the line suggested in smerriman's original (pre-edit) reply.

I would guess that the exact sequence of play is what matters. Our plan to cash the spade Ace has to be done early and in a manner least likely to arouse suspicion in the "blockee".

So I would win trick 2, lead low trump to the Queen, lead low spade to the Ace. This probably gives us the highest chance of East failing to unblock (or West, if West began with ♠Hx).

Smerriman and Shyams line would have made when East mistakenly failed to unblock from a doubleton honour, ♠Kx. As Shyams imples, their line also succeeds, legitimately, when East has doubleton ♠KQ ♠KJ or ♠QJ or an unlikely singleton ♠ and e.g. ♣KQJ.

[gszes]

I see no strong reason why it is only east that might have Kx in spades especially (but this is not a precondition) if lho has a singleton heart. Ducking the first dia is ok but after winning the club.
draw trumps ending up in south hand then
low spade toward A

If lho began with QJ9 of spades and the play of the 9 convinces their p to jettison the K sobeit. Except for this unlikely circumstance I think the chances of the opps NOT unblocking for Kx are higher this way. Especially if LHO began with Kx because they can make their spade play AFTER their p signals under the spade A (depending on carding system that is).

[Winstonm]

Don't forget a high spade can possibly be jettisoned on the second heart. Perhaps the issue is to not cash the spade ace. If either opponent holds KQ, KJ, or QJ he must jettison one on the second heart. If that happens a low spade from both hands without cashing the ace is necessary. So unless I am missing something (quite possible), it appears that what opps do on the second heart determines how the spades should be played.

[nullve]

EW system = ?

[nige1]

nullve, on 2021-March-23, 09:41, said:

EW system = ?

2/1. Normal leads and signals.