[MrAce]

---

1♦ was explained as 11-15 hcp, can have 4♦+5♣ or 4♦+ 6♣, 4M+ longer ♣ hands, % 100 unbalanced hand. Single suited ♣ hands would open 2♣.

They play rusinow leads and udca. Established pdship, decent players.

-Lead ♣J (either has Q or from shortness),4,K,9

-♣A,ruffed, small ♣ from LHO.

Imps

[Hanoi5]

I'm running the ♦J and hoping for spades to break and diamonds to be no worse than 4-3, unless there's an honour second in West.

Actually a dummy reversal could also work. Hm.

[MrAce]

Hanoi5, on 2012-January-25, 20:28, said:

I'm running the ♦J and hoping for spades to break and diamonds to be no worse than 4-3, unless there's an honour second in West.

Actually a dummy reversal could also work. Hm.

I am sure u can do better than ♦ finesse

[gnasher]

If we're going to play a dummy reversal, it's probably still right to take a diamond finesse. Because we're threatening to set up a diamond winner, they have to force us again. Then we play two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, ruff the last club, cross in hearts and draw the last trump. This loses to a diamond ruff when their shapes are 3424-2254, but that would mean they've defended quite badly.

The alternative, of playing two rounds of trumps, ruffing a club, crossing in hearts, ruffing a club, and crossing in hearts again, loses when they're 2532-3145. It does slightly improve our chances when trumps are 4-1, because it lets us find out about the trump break in time to cash four hearts when LHO is 4432 - playing diamonds first lets him throw away one of his hearts on the third club.

[Edited repeatedly to correct misanalyses.]

This post has been edited by gnasher: 2012-January-27, 03:55

[phil_20686]

gnasher, on 2012-January-27, 02:23, said:

If we're going to play a dummy reversal, it's probably still right to take a diamond finesse. Because we're threatening to set up a diamond winner, they have to force us again. Then we play two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, ruff the last club, cross in hearts and draw the last trump. This loses to a diamond ruff when their shapes are 3424-2254, but that would mean they've defended quite badly.

The alternative, of playing two rounds of trumps, ruffing a club, crossing in hearts, ruffing a club, and crossing in hearts again, loses when they're 2532-3145. It does slightly improve our chances when trumps are 4-1, because it lets us find out about the trump break in time to cash four hearts when LHO is 4432 - playing diamonds first lets him throw away one of his hearts on the third club.

[Edited repeatedly to correct misanalyses.]

An early diamond finesse obviously fails when the diamonds are 2-5 with AQ offside.

Withotu thinking too much I would cross in hearts and ruff a club with the ace, cross in spades and ruff the last club, play one more rounds of spades and see whats up. If clubs are 4-4 I am 100% cold now. If east has 4 spades, and fewer than 4 clubs I am 100% cold now by playing hearts and then taking the diamond finesse. Assuming diamond ace is on the right. if RHO has 5 clubs I will need the diamond Q onside I think. It might be right after ruffing the last club to play a diamond now. If rho has AQxxx diamonds and one spade I cannot win, but I am rising rho having AQxxx diamond and two or three spades.

I have been assuming from the explanation that the opener can also have longer diamonds than clubs? Is that right? If not it is surely right to finesse in diamonds early.

[MrAce]

phil_20686, on 2012-January-27, 05:44, said:

An early diamond finesse obviously fails when the diamonds are 2-5 with AQ offside.

Withotu thinking too much I would cross in hearts and ruff a club with the ace, cross in spades and ruff the last club, play one more rounds of spades and see whats up. If clubs are 4-4 I am 100% cold now. If east has 4 spades, and fewer than 4 clubs I am 100% cold now by playing hearts and then taking the diamond finesse. Assuming diamond ace is on the right. if RHO has 5 clubs I will need the diamond Q onside I think. It might be right after ruffing the last club to play a diamond now. If rho has AQxxx diamonds and one spade I cannot win, but I am rising rho having AQxxx diamond and two or three spades.

I have been assuming from the explanation that the opener can also have longer diamonds than clubs? Is that right? If not it is surely right to finesse in diamonds early.

Yes Phil he can also have longer ♦

This hand looks like a classic dummy reversal. Which can be played in different ways. If 4-1 trump dummy reversal may fail.

Here is what i did, i cashed J and T of ♠ to see if 3-2♠ (if so i can ruff a ♣, go dummy with ♥,ruff another ♣ go dummy with 2nd ♥ and clear last trump and make)

In the original hand 1♦ opener discarded ♥9 on 2nd ♠. Go from here if u want to, try to avoid ♦ finesse as much as you can with a line that doesnt disable your ♦ finesse if it doesnt work.

[gnasher]

I don't think there is any possibility that RHO has ♦AQxxx. Why wouldn't he have played low on the first club?

[whereagles]

I usually don't make heavy weather of the play, so I'll just go for the cookie-cutter dummy reversal line.

[MrAce]

gnasher, on 2012-January-27, 10:09, said:

I don't think there is any possibility that RHO has ♦AQxxx. Why wouldn't he have played low on the first club?

He didnt have AQxxx, u are right, and i expect a ♦ lead if that was the case but;

Assune RHO has

x
xxx
AQxxx
AKxx

of course he may think that i(declarer) has 5413 shape and try to give ruff to pd. This is very common flaw of rusinow leads. He thought his pd led from shortness rather than QJx(x) for some reason.

But as u said this is very unlikely due to lead

Here is what i did; after seeing 4-1 ♠ i thought i had still decent chances to make game without needing the ♦ Q on and that i shd play it in a way that doesnt disable me from taking ♦ finesse if everything goes bad.

I decided to cash 3 rounds of ♥ (remember RHO already discarded one). So that i can easily make if LHO has 4♥ next to her 4♠ regardless of who has ♦Q.

If LHO has only 2♥ and ruffs 3rd ♥ which is the worst case scenario, whatever she exits with, i can still make if ♦Q is on, so cashing 3♥ will not cost.

On 3rd ♥ RHO discarded a ♣! Now i was kinda little more comfy after this discard. RHO was a worldclass famous player, this discard was a sign of good things rather than a defensive error.

So i cashed 4th ♥, forcing LHO to ruff (or i can make as if she held 4♥) i overruffed. Played a ♣ and ruffed and cashed last trump. On 3rd ♣ J dropped and i played a ♦ to 9 which worked and claimed for +1.

Assume ♣J did not drop, i still had the chance to play a ♦ to 9 after clearing trumps in last 3 cards and make if ♦ finesse works, or even when it doesnt work i cld make if RHO made a defensive error and ran out of ♣.


I thought this hand was cool because it was like a stubburn resistance of me to make this game without ♦ finesse if possible from beginning all the way to the end and still being able to keep the ability to finesse if i needed it., and it turned out that it was possible with actual lay out to make it w/o finesse. Unfortunately ♦Q was on for those who went for it in the field. Was sort of an adventure that started with dummy reversal plans and ended up making with totally different tackles.

Here is the deal (i made up the spots w/o looking at original hand, it didnt matter )

---