This a hand from Howard Schenken's autobiography, "The Education of a Bridge Player" and is a good example of making the right assumptions.
You partner, North is dealer. After two passes to you, you open 1H and end up in 4H (opponents silent).
LHO leads a trump, you see
RHO wins the HA and continues a trump (to which LHO will follow).
How will you play?
Solution (posted 12 March 2015)
RHO has shown up with the HA, and likely has a spade honor (because LHO didn't lead one). RHO also passed initially. So if RHO has the DA, then the club finesse is working.
So you make the assumption: Assume RHO has the CK.
In this case, you need to set up your diamonds (which are likely 3-2, based on the play to first two tricks: no one shifted to a singleton).
The book recommend line is winning trick 2 in dummy and playing the DJ! If RHO covers, you duck. Now RHO cannot attack clubs.
The key play is to lose the second diamond to LHO, not the first, which allows you to setup the diamonds before the clubs are attacked and CK is cashed.
Another line of play which works, and which reminds us of the Belladonna coup: win trick 2 in hand and lead a low diamond away from the K!
You partner, North is dealer. After two passes to you, you open 1H and end up in 4H (opponents silent).
LHO leads a trump, you see
| Rubber None | North ♠ 9 ♥ JT52 ♦ J97432 ♣ AQ | |
| South ♠ AJ8 ♥ KQ963 ♦ K5 ♣ T86 |
| W | N | E | S |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | 1H | |
| Pass | 4H | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
RHO wins the HA and continues a trump (to which LHO will follow).
How will you play?
Solution (posted 12 March 2015)
RHO has shown up with the HA, and likely has a spade honor (because LHO didn't lead one). RHO also passed initially. So if RHO has the DA, then the club finesse is working.
So you make the assumption: Assume RHO has the CK.
In this case, you need to set up your diamonds (which are likely 3-2, based on the play to first two tricks: no one shifted to a singleton).
The book recommend line is winning trick 2 in dummy and playing the DJ! If RHO covers, you duck. Now RHO cannot attack clubs.
The key play is to lose the second diamond to LHO, not the first, which allows you to setup the diamonds before the clubs are attacked and CK is cashed.
Another line of play which works, and which reminds us of the Belladonna coup: win trick 2 in hand and lead a low diamond away from the K!
I would think either (A) try to finesse the CQ and DK or (B) set up diamonds to get rid of losers on diamonds. I know the former is a 25% play _a_ _priori_ a 25% play and very possibly worse since LHO led a trump (i.e., doesn't want to lead away from an honor) and RHO has 4 of the missing HCP in the trump ace.
ReplyDeleteAs for the diamond suit, if it splits 3-2 and one player has a doubleton AQ, AT, or QT, then that will allow you to set up diamonds for discarding losers. As for playing the diamonds, my preference would be to take trump in my hand and lead a low diamond toward the jack rather than finessing the DK, because if LHO wins with the DA, LHO can then fire a club through my club tenace. Not very confident about how to play this diamond combination, however.
If diamonds set up, I can discard club losers and I don't need the CQ. Spades can go on trump.
You found the right line in the diamonds. I posted a comment on the G+ thread.
DeleteThank you for sharing. Both solutions seem to require protecting the club tenace while simultaneously setting up diamonds. -Matt
ReplyDeleteThat is correct. Once you assume RHO has the CK (the danger scenario), it becomes (hopefully) easier, and that was the main point of the hand: making the right assumptions.
DeleteThe diamond plays are now a matter of good technique (not easy to find though, especially the low diamond away from the K).