General Bridge Discussion > Interesting Play Hands

Love "all indications E has Heart guard" EDITED

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kiwi_2o1:
North Dealer. Bid this with OCP?

Love sets S in 6S with 9C lead. All non-vl. No opposition bidding.

North
!S AK
!H T954
!D A864
!C AT3

South
!S QJT87632
!H A
!D Q
!C K74             Plan you play in CL's 6S.

Edited: East plays in newer lower post with her actual holdings ( she is just !H KQx).
Also where East holds say !H Qxx. What now?

My query is what clues suggest East has heart guard?  Redundant unless East has KQ(x?) but not likely !H KQxxx(N?)

Why can't East have extra D and West the KH?

Yes, East has the KQ but not the KQxxx you hoped for. Will any other play assist?

Cheers Ash

BTW. Good planing with first trick won in dummy (else South has no threats) allows  West or East to hold KH, but you need an indication as to which hand holds it.* If East holds then we may need to play for a double rather than simple squeeze, and this appears(?) to be a hand where one can not combine both types.    ... some poor thinking on my behalf, no East with go up with unsupported QH.

* Would it be because a solid West would throw the KH if he also had JH? A look at EW card (basic St. Am.) suggest they are OK but unlikely to make this deceptive but ordinary play.       

OliverC:

East's Hearts
East played the Queen of Hearts on the first round of the suit and discarded a small Heart on the second round of Spades. Since West payed the Jack of Hearts on the 3rd round of Hearts, it's crystal clear that East started off with KQxxx in the suit. There's absolutely no way East would hop up with the Heart Queen from Qxxx when Declarer leads a small Heart from Dummy at trick 2.

Bidding
You didn't say who the dealer was but I'm assuming South:

1 !S - 1NT
2 !S - 3 !C   // Gamma in !S
4 !H - 4NT   // Hxxxxxxx !S  /  Relay Beta
5 !D - 5 !H   // 3 Controls  /  Epsilon in Hearts
5 !S - 6 !S   // None or 1+2  (has to be 1+2) / Enough

Over 5 !S , North should be able to judge that 6 !S is the probable limit. South is either 83 in the Majors with AKx in !H , or has the stiff Ace of Hearts and 4 cards in the Minors with a guarded King somewhere. Either way there is one probable loser. It's not worth a 6!C Epsilon over 5 !S , because the answer doesn't really help and if South has !C Kx you're in 6NT with much fewer chances of garnering a 13th trick.

If North was the Dealer, then maybe:

1 !D - 2 !S   // Alpha
3 !C - 3 !S   // No Supp, 4+ ctrls  /  Theta
4 !H - 4NT   // HH  /  Relay Beta
5 !S - 6 !S /7 !S   // 7 Controls  /  Enough or optimism rules

7 Controls marks North with AK !S and the Minor suit Aces (and nothing else), so there is no chance of the Queen of Clubs making an appearance. South cannot afford to ask in Clubs at the 6 level in case North is 2452 with Ax in Clubs. Impossible for North to have AAKKK, because that would be a 1 !C Opener. Either way, 12 tricks is the probable limit, but it's easier for South to be optimistic and envisage a 13th trick than it is for North because of the possibility North started with !S AK, !H xxxx, !D Axxxx, !C Ax

kiwi_2o1:
nice, thanks Oliver. In Loves bidding, North was dealer and opened 1C and thats why I wrongly ruled out East having H KQxx or KQxxx. Perhaps 1NT in his time was 16-18.

lute57:
Hi Ash,

Oliver hit the hammer on the nail in his OCP sequence with a 2 !S Gamma

--- Quote ---South {Responder}
!S QJT87632
!H A
!D Q
!C K74

--- End quote ---

My first thought after Opener's {North} straight forward 1 !D Opening was to bid 1 !S as Responder and see whether we could get into some Three-Suited Lebensohl situation for slam exploration and if Opener rebid diamonds [jump to 4 !S as a backup plan] or if Opener showed a balanced 13-15 NT hand [my backup plan was to invite slam with a big jump to 5 !S]. Alpha did not really occur to me at the start and I am not sure why because obviously it is a superior bid especially since I had slam intentions on the mind from the get-go with thoughts about 3-Suited Leb. Anyway 2 !S Alpha is the bid of choice and it gets you where you wanted to be without much fuss after hearing Opener's stepped Beta response showing seven controls.

Going back to the play of the hand. I assume you are looking at squeezes for a possible 13 trick (overtrick). I see only one loser in Declarer's hand (club trick) and I really can't see how you can squeeze East since the squeeze card is coming from South's hand but I might be missing something there. I readily admit my Declarer strength is intermediate.

IMO, if a squeeze could work here, it needs to be against West. Either of Dummy's 4-card suits could be potential threats. You will also need an entry to Dummy hand if the squeeze works and one of the threat cards becomes developed into a winner [no good if you can't reach it] -- for that reason, I would take the first Club trick in hand [play the 3 from Dummy - at least that's how I voted]. But that's just my opinion. I readily admit I could be out in left field here.

Also what's up with your opponent's not giving count signals? What kind of signals do they use when Declarer's leads from hand or Dummy? Hard to imagine they simply chuck cards. Maybe they should be invited to Oliver's class this Saturday? Eh!?

I was trying to follow the play of the hand - I think there might be a typo (unless there were two Spade Aces in the deck)
 ::)

Thanks for posting, Ash. Your postings are always thought provoking and we have many new OCP players -- thanks in part to your leadership and efforts.

Brother John

kiwi_2o1:
Thanks John. Corrected R5 so that AS is KS. Yes hand is a squeeze. In my two small local f2f clubs virtually no-one plays count signals and many not even attitude,  :o . The 10H, 8D act as threats as does the 7C in Souths hand. In the end opponents can't hold their individual suit stop and also 2 clubs on the final run of trumps.

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