[mikeh]

Nuno told me I don't post enough problems. I hardly play anymore, tho that will be changing shortly as I enter a Seniors event for the first time....I am really getting old

Anyway the hand here arose in the finals of a large Regional K.O. at a time before Bracketed and Compact K.O.s.

You may not like the bidding, but the play's the thing. The lead is the club Q.

---

I may have posted this years ago, so I apologize if this is a retread.

There are enough new members that maybe they'll enjoy it anyway.

Spoiler

when, not if, you take a heart finesse, it loses

[whereagles]

I'm a simple soul, so it's a bread and butter dummy reversal for me.

Club ace, diamond ruff, heart to the jack, hoping to continue with diamond ruff, club king, diamond ruff. Now AK of trumps and re-enter dummy with a heart to pull the last trump.

Anyway, prolly just the apetizer.. hopefully mike will shows us some crazy coup later.

[mikeh]

whereagles, on 2015-January-13, 17:09, said:

I'm a simple soul, so it's a bread and butter dummy reversal for me.

Club ace, diamond ruff, heart to the jack, hoping to continue with diamond ruff, club king, diamond ruff. Now AK of trumps and re-enter dummy with a heart to pull the last trump.

Anyway, prolly just the apetizer.. hopefully mike will shows us some crazy coup later.

weird, in that I could have sworn I posted a reply to this a few minutes ago, but it vanished into the internet somewhere. Anyway, the heart finesse loses and back comes a club, won perforce in dummy. Proceed.

[Fluffy]

Our entries are scarce, so we must ruff the diamonds high and finese ♠10

[nige1]

mikeh, on 2015-January-13, 16:43, said:

Nuno told me I don't post enough problems. I hardly play anymore, tho that will be changing shortly as I enter a Seniors event for the first time....I am really getting old
Anyway the hand here arose in the finals of a large Regional K.O. at a time before Bracketed and Compact K.O.s.
You may not like the bidding, but the play's the thing. The lead is the club Q.

---

I may have posted this years ago, so I apologize if this is a retread.
There are enough new members that maybe they'll enjoy it anyway.

Agree with Whereagles and Fluffy: Win ♣A. Cash ♦A. Ruff a ♦. Finesse ♥J (losing to ♥Q). Win return with ♣K. Ruff a ♦ with ♠J. Cash ♠A. Cross to ♥K. Ruff a ♦ with ♠K. Finesse ♠9 (finesse wins and RHO follows ). Cash ♠Q. Hope ♥s break or that either opponent has sole control of both round suits.

[whereagles]

So, will this dummy reversal-deep finesse-squeeze work?

[Lovera]

Ruffing two diamonds it should be the possibility to have a repeat squeeze with a delayed play in hearts running all trumps.

[whereagles]

The progressive squeeze requires one of the opponents to have a bucket load of key cards.. not sure that's more likely than the line above it.

[wbartley]

I agree with the people suggesting trying the heart finesse early and if it doesn't work, a dummy reversal ruffing diamonds high, finessing against the spade ten and hoping either hearts break or a club heart squeeze. I'm also a simple soul. If there's a better line it would never occur to me. I guess it was obvious that if the heart finesse wins, cash the high club and a third round, ruffing the club as high as is necessary for safety, then pulling trump, pitching a heart on the ace of diamonds at some point along the way.

[nate_m]

nige1, on 2015-January-13, 18:01, said:

Agree with Whereagles and Fluffy: Win ♣A. Cash ♦A. Ruff a ♦. Finesse ♥J (losing to ♥Q). Win return with ♣K. Ruff a ♦ with ♠J. Cash ♠A. Cross to ♥K. Ruff a ♦ with ♠K. Finesse ♠9 (finesse wins and RHO follows ). Cash ♠Q. Hope ♥s break or that either opponent has sole control of both round suits.

You do not want to cash the ace of diamonds early. After the ace of clubs and a diamond ruff, if the heart hook wins, your best chance is not to reverse the dummy, which requires 3-2 trumps, or the person with 4 trumps to follow to 3 hearts. It is better to try to ruff a club in dummy, as you can survive 4-1 trumps with stiff 10 if RHO has club shortness, and all 4-1 splits if they split or RHO has length. Cashing the ace of diamonds offers zero benefit but allows them to tap you if you give up a club, and now you're forced into the dummy reversal. If RHO has a doubleton club and a doubleton heart and receives a club ruff when you play on clubs, then you likely were not making anyway.

[nige1]

nate_m, on 2015-January-24, 18:20, said:

You do not want to cash the ace of diamonds early. After the ace of clubs and a diamond ruff, if the heart hook wins, your best chance is not to reverse the dummy, which requires 3-2 trumps, or the person with 4 trumps to follow to 3 hearts. It is better to try to ruff a club in dummy, as you can survive 4-1 trumps with stiff 10 if RHO has club shortness, and all 4-1 splits if they split or RHO has length. Cashing the ace of diamonds offers zero benefit but allows them to tap you if you give up a club, and now you're forced into the dummy reversal. If RHO has a doubleton club and a doubleton heart and receives a club ruff when you play on clubs, then you likely were not making anyway.

I agree with Nate_m that It seems more flexible to ruff a ♦ without first cashing ♦A. When the ♥ finesse works, ruffing a ♣ in dummy is a good line. Dummy-reversal prospects are not bad, however, no matter when you cash ♦A. For example Win ♣A. Cash ♦A. Ruff a ♦. Finesse ♥J successfully. Ruff a ♦. Cash ♠AK. Cross to ♣K. Ruff dummy's last ♦ with ♠J. Cross to ♥K, Cash ♠Q.

As nate_m points out, If trumps are 4-1, then you need the player with trump length to have 3+ ♥s e.g. 4342 or 4432.

As nate_m again points out, when the ♥ finesse wins, it is not always safe to try to ruff a ♣ in dummy. For example, if you play 3 rounds of ♣s and an opponent is 2434 or 3424, then you go down, when the dummy-reversal could result in an overtrick.

[gszes]

trick 1 win ace why cant the opps EVER do something nice like
lead a stinking diamond sheesh anyway

trick 2 ruff a dia (in case I have to depend on a ridiculously low
probability dummy reversal)

trick 3 lead a heart to the J and when it wins the real fun begins
as we cogitate the odds of sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it loses and now
we are stuck with dummy reversal that depends on merely a 32 trump split
the spade T being onside and either 33 hearts or a squeeze which would
almost certainly require lho to hold both rounded suit lengths (and yet
we lost to the heart Q short suit) (im guessing this lop is around 19%).

I guess the real point is to ruff a dia at trick 2 which leaves us with
enough flexibility to at least try the ugly duckling dummy reversal:)

[Lovera]

When you have lacking two tricks think or a progressive squeeze or dummy reversal (that has one hidden trick) + a simple squeeze.(Lovera)

[masonbarge]

gszes, on 2015-January-24, 20:08, said:

trick 1 win ace why cant the opps EVER do something nice like
lead a stinking diamond sheesh anyway

trick 2 ruff a dia (in case I have to depend on a ridiculously low
probability dummy reversal)

trick 3 lead a heart to the J and when it wins the real fun begins
as we cogitate the odds of sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it loses and now
we are stuck with dummy reversal that depends on merely a 32 trump split
the spade T being onside and either 33 hearts or a squeeze which would
almost certainly require lho to hold both rounded suit lengths (and yet
we lost to the heart Q short suit) (im guessing this lop is around 19%).

I guess the real point is to ruff a dia at trick 2 which leaves us with
enough flexibility to at least try the ugly duckling dummy reversal:)

Exactly where I came out. If I saw this line at the table, I might well cash the spade ace, so my odds are even worse, as I will need a doubleton spade in the east.