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Interesting Play Hands / Re: Beautiful analysis by a World Class dummy
« Last post by iamadeus on March 07, 2022, 08:01:32 AM »Part three of this interesting hand:
The only way to develop 3 tricks in clubs is if they split 3-3. We need to surrender a trick in the suit but we must take care to allow East to win to prevent West from leading a heart through the Q in dummy. The solution (patently obvious to world class players but needed more than a few minutes of quiet deliberation from me) is to go to dummy twice and lead clubs towards the AK. If East tries to pitch the Q, we let him have the trick. If East ducks, we win with the A or K and go back to dummy to lead the suit again. If East started out with Qxx then he is endplayed into either conceding a trick to the King of hearts or to return another suit, which gives us the timing to score 3 club tricks without losing control in hearts.
Now the key is to lead clubs twice towards the AK. This means we need two entries to dummy. We could set up Q by guess the spade position - that’s one entry. The other entry has to come from the spade suit. If we are able to think this far ahead, we would realize that after winning the heart at trick 1 and playing the A of spades, we need to lead a high spade towards the Q to set it up. We again use the other high spade in our hand to reach the Q. Finally, we can play the 4 of spades and win with the 5 to reach dummy a second time. All this needs to be planned at trick 2 so that we don’t squander 4 in trying to set up the Q!
The actual lie of cards was a bit different from the line that was described. Tom Townsend went for the spades but played the 4 too early, realizing his mistake only after playing the card. He did manage to find Kx in East hand. He then went about trying to lose a club trick to east but unfortunately West held QJx, so the whole point of leading clubs twice from dummy was moot. Once West got in, they led a heart as expected. Having made the mistake earlier, Tom guessed the heart position correctly and ducked the second heart trick. East won with the 10 and played the Ace to clear the suit, however, the suit was blocked. It turned out that West had J98xx in hearts and their only entry was the Q of clubs! 9 tricks made due to declarer’s excellent guess in the spade suit and in playing for the heart suit to be blocked.
The twist in the tale is that East can have the last laugh if they figure out to pitch K when declarer plays the A. West has J10x, so this gives them an extra entry to set up hearts and later cash them when they get in with Q . Even world class players have their limitations in finding a play like that ..
The only way to develop 3 tricks in clubs is if they split 3-3. We need to surrender a trick in the suit but we must take care to allow East to win to prevent West from leading a heart through the Q in dummy. The solution (patently obvious to world class players but needed more than a few minutes of quiet deliberation from me) is to go to dummy twice and lead clubs towards the AK. If East tries to pitch the Q, we let him have the trick. If East ducks, we win with the A or K and go back to dummy to lead the suit again. If East started out with Qxx then he is endplayed into either conceding a trick to the King of hearts or to return another suit, which gives us the timing to score 3 club tricks without losing control in hearts.
Now the key is to lead clubs twice towards the AK. This means we need two entries to dummy. We could set up Q by guess the spade position - that’s one entry. The other entry has to come from the spade suit. If we are able to think this far ahead, we would realize that after winning the heart at trick 1 and playing the A of spades, we need to lead a high spade towards the Q to set it up. We again use the other high spade in our hand to reach the Q. Finally, we can play the 4 of spades and win with the 5 to reach dummy a second time. All this needs to be planned at trick 2 so that we don’t squander 4 in trying to set up the Q!
The actual lie of cards was a bit different from the line that was described. Tom Townsend went for the spades but played the 4 too early, realizing his mistake only after playing the card. He did manage to find Kx in East hand. He then went about trying to lose a club trick to east but unfortunately West held QJx, so the whole point of leading clubs twice from dummy was moot. Once West got in, they led a heart as expected. Having made the mistake earlier, Tom guessed the heart position correctly and ducked the second heart trick. East won with the 10 and played the Ace to clear the suit, however, the suit was blocked. It turned out that West had J98xx in hearts and their only entry was the Q of clubs! 9 tricks made due to declarer’s excellent guess in the spade suit and in playing for the heart suit to be blocked.
The twist in the tale is that East can have the last laugh if they figure out to pitch K when declarer plays the A. West has J10x, so this gives them an extra entry to set up hearts and later cash them when they get in with Q . Even world class players have their limitations in finding a play like that ..