[pclayton]

Here's a hand I watched from the Belarus / Poland match today (Board 8):

Scoring: IMP

---

The Poles both took conservative positions and stopped at 2♥. Belarus got to 4♥ which made after a high club lead. Declarer can set up diamonds and South can't get in enough to develop a spade trick for the defense.

A few specs commented that a low club lead will beat 4♥ since South now has three entries to attack spades, but is this really the case?

Also - can you suggest rearranging some cards to give the other side a fighting chance?

[gnasher]

Declarer can strip squeeze North.

After ♣2 lead to 9 and J, declarer wins the spade switch somewhere, cashes his trumps, plays a diamond to the ace, and endplays North with a club.

If North leads ♣10 to J, trying to keep a club entry to the South hand, declarer eliminates South's clubs first: win the spade in dummy, ruff a club, heart to the 10, ruff a club, cash trumps, etc.

[pclayton]

gnasher, on Jun 18 2008, 02:22 PM, said:

Declarer can strip squeeze North.

After ♣2 lead to 9 and J, declarer wins the spade switch somewhere, cashes his trumps, plays a diamond to the ace, and endplays North with a club.

If North leads ♣10 to J, trying to keep a club entry to the South hand, declarer eliminates South's clubs first: win the spade in dummy, ruff a club, heart to the 10, ruff a club, cash trumps, etc.

I don't follow Andy. The strip squeeze idea is possible, but how are you managing your entries and how are you going to time things?

[awm]

Club lead to south, spade through won in the east. Club ruff. Heart to ten. Club ruff.

Pull trumps, diamond to ace, exit a club pitching a diamond loser. Now north is on lead (south cannot win the fourth club obviously):

Scoring: IMP

---

North can cash a club (west pitching the last losing diamond) but now he is endplayed.

Of course, this is a rather double-dummy line.

[andy_h]

After a low club lead and a spade return, win the SK and ruff a club. Then trump to the T and ruff another club. Draw trumps, diamond to the Ace and endplay North to cash their 2 remaining clubs.

Edit: didn't notoice awm had already said it. I agree it's also pretty double dummy..but hey, a low club lead from the start is pretty double dummy already ain't it!

[gnasher]

pclayton, on Jun 18 2008, 11:46 PM, said:

I don't follow Andy. The strip squeeze idea is possible, but how are you managing your entries and how are you going to time things?

That's a strange question. I described the first nine tricks in their entirety. The remaining four tricks will involve North cashing two club winners followed by me scoring two spade tricks.

As I said, the line described by awm and andy_h, where declarer ruffs two clubs in hand, is necessary only after ♣10 lead. On a low club lead there's no need for all this messing about.

[pclayton]

There's a lot of interesting variations. Here's the one I like:

1. Low club, NINE, J, x (blocks the suit).
2. Spade, won in hand.
3. Diamond up, ducking the King

From here, I think you can run the trumps, and strip squeeze North as others have described. There are some continuations where you can cal play a loser on loser and rectify the count for a black squeeze as well.

In many variations, note that it doesn't matter where you win the spade trick.

[pclayton]

gnasher, on Jun 18 2008, 10:43 PM, said:

pclayton, on Jun 18 2008, 11:46 PM, said:

I don't follow Andy. The strip squeeze idea is possible, but how are you managing your entries and how are you going to time things?

That's a strange question. I described the first nine tricks in their entirety. The remaining four tricks will involve North cashing two club winners followed by me scoring two spade tricks.

As I said, the line described by awm and andy_h, where declarer ruffs two clubs in hand, is necessary only after ♣10 lead. On a low club lead there's no need for all this messing about.

Sorry, I didn't realize you were peeling off all the trump.