OCP Forums
General Bridge Discussion => Interesting Play Hands => Topic started by: OliverC on January 02, 2018, 01:25:12 PM
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This was quite an interesting play problem that came up in a hand with Mehmet yesterday. Sometimes you absolutely have to just make assumptions about the hand and go all out on that basis:
North (Dummy)
!S QJ52
!H AK10765
!D 1032
!C -
!S 4 led
South
!S AK7
!H 82
!D AQ9
!C AJ972
We bid to 3NT by South (1 !C - 1 !H - 1NT - 2 !D - 3NT). To his credit, Mehmet didn't disturb 3NT, because clearly I wasn't interested in Hearts at any price and couldn't possibly have 4-card Spades (no 2NT from me - if I had 4-card Spades or a holding such as !H Hx, I would have bid 2NT HoC for sure).
West led the Spade 4, on which East played the 9 and I took in hand. I now led the !H 8 and got the bad news when West showed out discarding a small Club.
What now? You have 8 top tricks (4 !S , 2 !H , 1 !D and 1 !C ) and the only chance for a 9th is to find at least one of the Diamond honours onside. There is absolutely no other realistic chance of getting 9 tricks here. I rose with a top Heart, therefore, and led the !D 10, hoping to encourage a cover by East. East obliged by playing their King (from !D Kxx!!!!), so I just cashed out for my 9 tricks and conceded the remainder.
This isn't a complicated problem. You need to be prepared to take two finesses in Diamonds, though, even if the first one loses and the Clubs are opened up. That's essentially a 75% shot. Hoping for a favourable Club position (eg: !C KQx with West) is nowhere near that probability of success, especially once West is void in Hearts.