[hrothgar]

https://www.bridgeba...C7%7Cpc%7CCQ%7C

[The_Badger]

I'm sure you've already worked out that by cashing the top ♣s this makes on a crossruff, Hrothgar, so I understand why you've asked whether this is 'legitimate'. In a slight way it is as the opening lead looks like it is from shortness, so suggesting that West is either 4432 or 4441 on probabilities.

[wuudturner]

As Badger points out, West is surely leading from a stiff jack, or Jx. The bots like to lead doubleton honors. But if West is short in hearts, then diamond length will be no huge surprise. At least, you can hope for the queen. Heart shortness makes West MUCH less likely to have diamond shortness too.

So the first line I would consider is to run the diamond jack through West. Suppose West ducks, then when you open your eyes and the jack has won the trick, you ruff a low club in dummy.

Cash the two remaining trumps in dummy, then two more diamonds, pitching a heart and a club from hand. Ruff a red card back to your hand, draw trumps, claiming 13 tricks.

What happens if West covers the ♢J? Since ducking a trick in a grand seems a poor way to play, you win in dummy. Cash some high spades, still remaining in dummy. Now you cannot really go wrong. Say you draw two rounds of trumps, with the 9 then the king. That way, in case trumps were 3-2 or 2-3, you can ruff a diamond in your hand with an honor, then still have a re-entry to dummy that would draw the last trump. But when you see that East has only 1 trump, you cash the king then 10 of diamonds to throw a heart and low club. Then you see the diamond 9 drop, so you can safely cash the 8 of diamonds, throwing your other small club.

A strong defender, holding 4 diamonds to the 9 in the East, might decide to toss the 9 on the third round under the 10, hoping you would then assume West had started with Qxxx, and that West still had trumps remaining. After all, the bidding seems to paint you with a 5 card spade suit, so East expects West has 4 of them. But the bots lack imagination to try to create such a picture in your mind on defense.

I'm not sure what you mean by legitimate though. Is the line I described 100%? Of course not, just as a crossruff line is not so, since you need to be able to cash three high clubs with no ruffs, and you need to get those small ruffs in the South hand by ruffing red cards.

[jammen]

wuudturner, on 2018-December-27, 05:37, said:

So the first line I would consider is to run the diamond jack through West. Suppose West ducks, then when you open your eyes and the jack has won the trick, you ruff a low club in dummy.

Seriously? Your first choice in a Grand Slam is to immediately take an unneeded finesse?

If ♣ are 4-4 you claim. If 5-3 a cross ruff can bring it home.