[Walddk]

OK then. I want to declare! Since this is a very complex hand as you have all spotted, I will divide it into two parts.

Part 1:
Win ♥A and advance ♣Q. Let's assume that West covers. You win the ace in dummy and lead a spade. East ducks (option 1) and from there you enter dummy twice in diamonds to ruff two hearts high. You cash ♣J and exit with a trump to East's ace.

There are four cards left. After East, perforce, cashes a heart (as you pitch a club), you have a low trump and two diamonds, West has a high trump and the high card in each minor, and dummy has a low trump and one of each minor. On the next heart West is squeezed.

If he ruffs high you throw a diamond from dummy and claim. If he throws a diamond you ruff in dummy and ruff a club. If he throws a club you ruff in dummy and cash dummy's club, which is now high, pitching your last diamond.

If West refuses to cover at trick 2, you continue with a club to dummy's ace and proceed as before. The same neat ending will materialise.

Now, let's assume that East rises with ♠A. Then it gets very complicated. West covers the club at trick 2 (option 1). On a trump lead East wins. Suppose he plays a second trump. (I will examine the other possibilities later). You lead a diamond.

1. If West splits, win, pull the last trump and cash the second club, then lead another diamond. West must duck, else your diamond spots win a trick on power. Duck in dummy to endplay East, who is now heart-tight. Pitch on his first high heart; then he must set up dummy's 10 on his next heart lead while you still have a high diamond as an entry to the good heart.

2. If West plays low, duck to East. Now you will be able to ruff your fourth diamond in dummy no matter how East defends. If he plays a high heart, pitch a club. (In most variations I will pitch the first time East plays a heart).

If East continues with a low heart, ruff high, unblock diamonds, ruff a club with your remaining low trump, ruff your fourth diamond, and you have a high trump at trick 13. If West ever discards a diamond, just draw his last trump and cash a diamond.

After East wins the diamond, if he plays anything but a heart, win, unblock diamonds, ruff a heart high, cash your club (if you haven't done so yet), ruff the fourth diamond and exit with the third club. West must win and put you back in hand to claim with good trumps.

Variation:
Suppose East wins the trump ace and plays a high heart immediately. Pitch a club. Now if East plays anything but another heart, transpose to (1) or (2) above. If East continues with a high heart, ruff high and draw trumps; the ♥10 is your 10th trick. If East continues with a low heart, pitch a diamond as West ruffs; later you can squeeze West in the minors for your 10th trick.

...

The last problem arises when West ducks the first club. I'll come back to that when I have recovered my breath. It's 1:10 am here

Roland

[Walddk]

OK, loose ends are bad, so let's add the last part:

Part 2:
Club ducked, second club to dummy, trump. East must win or we can use my initial line. East now plays a high heart. Ruff high, cash one high trump, cross to a diamond, ruff another heart high, cross to the other diamond, and lead the fourth heart pitching a club.

The position has now transposed to the initial 3-card ending.

As far as I can tell, edmunte1 got this right all along, but no one seemed to believe him. If you disagree with him (or me), I need to tell you that you also disagree with Bart Bramley! (Who dares?)

He also wants to declare and has been as specific as outlined in my last two posts.

Roland

[1eyedjack]

Walddk, on Jul 12 2007, 12:12 AM, said:

Part 1:
Win ♥A and advance ♣Q. Let's assume that West covers. You win the ace in dummy and lead a spade. East ducks (option 1) and from there you enter dummy twice in diamonds to ruff two hearts high. You cash ♣J and exit with a trump to East's ace.

You can also still make (after winning the first Spade) by exiting with a low Spade at trick 4, or by cashing the Club Jack at trick 4 and exiting with a low Spade at trick 5 (this is after East has ducked the first Spade).

[bid_em_up]

Walddk, on Jul 11 2007, 06:33 PM, said:

OK, loose ends are bad, so let's add the last part:

Part 2:
Club ducked, second club to dummy, trump. East must win or we can use my initial line. East now plays a high heart. Ruff high, cash one high trump, cross to a diamond, ruff another heart high, cross to the other diamond, and lead the fourth heart pitching a club.

The position has now transposed to the initial 3-card ending.

As far as I can tell, edmunte1 got this right all along, but no one seemed to believe him. If you disagree with him (or me), I need to tell you that you also disagree with Bart Bramley! (Who dares?) 

He also wants to declare and has been as specific as outlined in my last two posts.

Roland

As asked above,

What happens in part 2, when East wins the 1st trump, and plays the diamond 9 (not a 2nd heart)?

(And I am not disagreeing with anyone....just asking if it makes a difference)

[jtfanclub]

bid_em_up, on Jul 12 2007, 11:19 AM, said:

What happens in part 2, when East wins the 1st trump, and plays the diamond 9 (not a 2nd heart)?

If West plays low, you duck. If West plays high, you take it.

The case where you duck is listed in my second illustration.

[bid_em_up]

deleted.

Ok, I worked it out.

[skorchev]

Edmunte1, on Jul 11 2007, 12:29 PM, said:

The final will be:

---

a) East returns Q♥, i'll discard club, ruff high next heart, and play ♦A-♦, club ruff , diamond ruff, West will underuff 13th trick
East returns ♦, cash ♦A-K, and play ♥ ruffed high, diamond ruff and ... club to West, and taking last 2 trump tricks

OK, that makes, I missed the stupid "step 4" where RHO plays ♣. When RHO get on ♠A (step 3) he plays immediately ♥Q and if you dicard ♣ he plays small ♥, if you discard ♦ he plays ♣.

[skorchev]

OK, I spend some time more ......... I think Eddie and Roland are right.

P.S. In my first post I said that there must have a way to make this game.



P.S. 2 There must be a way to improve the defence ...... puffff ....

[foo]

Walddk, on Jul 9 2007, 12:24 PM, said:

Scoring: IMP

S: 4S
(E opened 2H)
Lead: HK

---

As South you have arrived in 4♠ after East opened a weak two in hearts. West leads ♥K.

Yes, I know that 3NT is where you want to be when you look at all four hands, but that can't be helped. 4♠ is the contract.

Do you want to declare or defend? Please be specific no matter which side you support.

Roland

I've been gone for a few days and I come back to find this interesting gem.

I've just looked at this post, not the rest of the thread. Declare.

Variation 1:
My initial reaction, which may be woefully wrong, is to perforce win the ♥A on T1
T2: Then put the ♠K on the table. Let's say E wins the ♠A and
T3: puts a ♥ thru.
!Don't! ruff it. Instead get rid of your mirror distribution in ♣'s by discarding a ♣.

Now I think you are cold no matter what W returns.
♠ return (passive): draws last trump. take ♣ hook. conceed ♦ for 10 tricks.
♦ honor return (active): win A. draw last ♠. transposes into above.

Variation 2:
Oh, if E plays a ♥ honor on T2, discard the ♣ and when he (presumably) continues with ♥'s
a= if ♥ honor =ruff small=.
b= if ♥x discard a ♦ (forcing W to ruff)
Then continue. (after 2b, W is squeezed in the minors.)


EDIT: Yowza! What a lot of complicated analysis just because everyone is dead set on getting to Dummy on T2! When what you want results in that many complications, sometimes what you want is what needs to be (re)analyzed.

This post has been edited by foo: 2007-July-12, 14:44

[1eyedjack]

foo, on Jul 12 2007, 09:26 PM, said:

I've just looked at this post, not the rest of the thread. Declare.

Variation 1:
My initial reaction, which may be woefully wrong, is to perforce win the ♥A on T1
T2: Then put the ♠K on the table. Let's say E wins the ♠A and
T3: puts a ♥ thru.

Well yes, declarer now makes. However if East plays any card other than Heart at trick 3 then the defence prevails. BUT only because the Spade King at trick 2 is an error. Your decision to declare is otherwise correct.

[foo]

1eyedjack, on Jul 12 2007, 03:49 PM, said:

foo, on Jul 12 2007, 09:26 PM, said:

I've just looked at this post, not the rest of the thread.  Declare.

Variation 1:
My initial reaction, which may be woefully wrong, is to perforce win the ♥A on T1
T2: Then put the ♠K on the table.  Let's say E wins the ♠A and
T3: puts a ♥ thru.

Well yes, declarer now makes. However if East plays any card other than Heart at trick 3 then the defence prevails. BUT only because the Spade King at trick 2 is an error. Your decision to declare is otherwise correct.

Ummm, no.

S is cold after E wins the ♠A regardless of what they return.

♠T?: Win. Draw last trump. Use transportation to dummy to set up ♦ pitches under ♥'s

♦9?: Win. Draw trumps. CQ, K, A. H ruff. CJ. Throw E in with Cx. ruff C return
(E now has 1 D and 2 H's)
Dx to DA and now you and E each get a ♥.

♣8?: Q, K, A. Draw trumps. Same as above..

[jtfanclub]

foo, on Jul 12 2007, 04:23 PM, said:

♠T?: Win. Draw last trump. Use transportation to dummy to set up ♦ pitches under ♥'s

Try it. After you draw the last trump, here's the situation....

---

I think you'll find it impossible to set up even a single trick in hearts, or the last diamond.

[foo]

jtfanclub, on Jul 12 2007, 04:56 PM, said:

foo, on Jul 12 2007, 04:23 PM, said:

♠T?: Win.   Draw last trump. Use transportation to dummy to set up ♦ pitches under ♥'s

Try it. After you draw the last trump, here's the situation....

---

I think you'll find it impossible to set up even a single trick in hearts, or the last diamond.

Nah, I've got this one right .

CQ, CK, CA*, Hx

H7, HJ, Sx*, Cx (if E does not cover the H7, S discards a loser and makes 5)

CJ*, Cx, Cx, Hx

Cx, C9*, C7, Hx

CT, D7, Hx, Sx*

At this point I have lost 2 tricks.
I now get both DA and DK, and the H8 or the HT for 10 tricks.

[jtfanclub]

And why, exactly, would he play the Jack of hearts?

Going three tricks further, with the opponent playing the heart 9, since he can see the ten.

---

If you play a club now, West wins and returns the 3 of diamonds. If you duck that, East continues diamonds. East keeps the high hearts, West keeps the high diamonds excluding the AK, and since all you and your partner have are red cards, you can't avoid losing 3 tricks.

[foo]

jtfanclub, on Jul 12 2007, 08:05 PM, said:

And why, exactly, would he play the Jack of hearts?

I assume you are talking about E Ducking the H7 when I play it from Dummy.

The answer is that if E doesn't cover the H7, S discards a C or a D and makes 5 instead of 4.

From the bidding and the play (not to mention that this is a DD problem), S knows that W had the stiff HK. If E does not cover the H7, S will never ruff it.

[jtfanclub]

foo, on Jul 12 2007, 08:15 PM, said:

The answer is that if E doesn't cover the H7

He covers it with the 9, not with the jack, which is what leads to the ending I displayed.

[foo]

Ah! As long as E preserves the H QJ9, You have to attack ♣'s on T2 in order to make.

T3: Then you play a trump from dummy, winning assuming E plays 2nd hand low.
T4: duck a trump, forcing E to win the SA.
Now you are cold.

[jtfanclub]

foo, on Jul 12 2007, 08:33 PM, said:

Ah! As long as E preserves the H QJ9, You have to attack ♣'s on T2 in order to make.

T3: Then you play a trump from dummy, winning assuming E plays 2nd hand low.
T4: duck a trump, forcing E to win the SA.
Now you are cold.

Well, of course he does, partner led the king, after all, and he can see all the hearts but the A.

The plan where, instead, you lead a club on trick 2 and lead a spade back towards your hand is more difficult than it looks, but Edmunte spelled it all out.