[Fluffy]

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Lead is ♠5.

Plan the play

[Fluffy]

I had no clue how to play this one, so after some thought here is what I did:

Spoiler

played 3 rounds of trumps, RHO discard ♦6 on the third, then 2 rounds of hearts, LHO plays ♥9 then pitches ♦2 (std carding)

[JLOGIC]

Fluffy, on 2013-March-05, 18:23, said:

I had no clue how to play this one, so after some thought here is what I did:

Spoiler

played 3 rounds of trumps, RHO discard ♦6 on the third, then 2 rounds of hearts, LHO plays ♥9 then pitches ♦2 (std carding)

This could easily be wrong, I didn't analyze it much, but it looks like LHO has 5 diamonds and RHO has 3, so I'd go heart ruff, CQ, diamond diamond ruff, heart, heart endplaying RHO if he has the CT.

[winkle]

Win ace, DA, diamond ruff, club, planning to use my 2 remaining entries to hand to ruff another diamond and draw trumps.

[twoshy]

winkle, on 2013-March-05, 23:15, said:

Win ace, DA, diamond ruff, club, planning to use my 2 remaining entries to hand to ruff another diamond and draw trumps.

Simple but elegant, good line. An alternative would be to cash the second top trump in dummy to see if they break 3-2. If they aren't, you can still play for hearts to be 3-3 with the club finesse onside. If trumps are 3-2 and the defender with the club king draws another trump, you can still play for hearts to be 4-2 or better.

[JLOGIC]

winkle, on 2013-March-05, 23:15, said:

Win ace, DA, diamond ruff, club, planning to use my 2 remaining entries to hand to ruff another diamond and draw trumps.

This seems to have the benefit of knowing trumps are 3-2 and hearts are 5-1 before hand lol. This is not a realistic line in any other scenario.

[winkle]

JLOGIC, on 2013-March-06, 09:29, said:

This seems to have the benefit of knowing trumps are 3-2 and hearts are 5-1 before hand lol. This is not a realistic line in any other scenario.

If they lead the five of spades, I'm going to guess that trumps are 3-2. If he lead a higher spot at least I'd worry that he's falsecarding from JT9x or some such.

My line fails if clubs are 6-1, or on some (but not all 6-2 diamond break). I think that's better than playing for hearts to break, but I did not consider the extra chances with Fluffy's line if hearts don't break.

[winkle]

Actually it looks like they can almost always beat me if diamonds are 6-2 (if doubleton diamond has two spades, return a club; if doubleton diamond has three spades, return a spade). So my line isn't as good as I originally thought, and twoshy's suggestion is a definite improvement.

[Fluffy]

both lines work, RHO had xx J10xxx J9x 10xx

[Alik1974]

Not sure if this line would work, and besides, I don't cover all possible cases, but here's the first idea that struck me :
- Play ♠K and ♠A, check if trumps are 3-2 (if not, play on ♥ - many good things need to happen for a make)
- Assuming trumps are 3-2, play ♥A and ♥ to the K. If all follow to this round, draw the outstanding trump with the Q and ruff a ♥ - contract makes.
- If East ruffs the ♥K , it won't make.
- If West ruffs in front of dummy, discard two ♣ on ♥ and make.
- If West refuses or is unable to ruff - I don't know lol