Ok, this went right

[kenberg]

I have listed hands with errors I have made. So now I give one that I did right.

http://tinyurl.com/yb8ad5c4

You are vul, they are non-vul.  South, on you right, deals and opens 3D.

I decided to venture 3S. Opponents are subsequently silent.
Pass on my left, 4D by partner. Weill, I do hanve the heart A so I bid 4H.
Partner bids 5C.
I think I have said enough, maybe more than enough, so I bid 5S.
Partner raises to 6S, all pass.

The club K is led and dummy comes down.


http://tinyurl.com/y7qplwtj

I took the club A and the AK of diamonds, throwing a club.

Spade from the board. S pitches a diamond, N wins the A and plays the club Q. South follows, I ruff.

Can  this be made? Yes and no. It takes very good discarding by NS to beat it.

All four hands:


http://tinyurl.com/ycrcuunp

I ran all but one of the spades
My hand is then
spades: 2
Hearts: A92

Dummy is
Hearts: K7
Diamonds 3
Clubs: 4

South, perhaps naturally, came down to
Hearts:J84
Diamonds:: Q

North is holdin a top club and three hearts.

I play the last spade, the hand comes in.

As to bidding versus play, +680 would have already been a good score (matchpoint scoring). But +1430 was a pleasure.


I'll get back to my errors later. I just had to put this one out there.

Is there a take away lesson other than that you should be kind to stray cats to build up your karma? Perhaps. It's crucial to leave the diamond and the club on the board as long as possible. Who know, maybe they will cause problems for the defense.

PS Is the proper discarding impossible?
Not really. South considers at T9. Declarer is known to be out of clubs and diamonds. So only hearts are an issue. If N has nothing in hearts, the hand is over. So assume he has something. The it is safe, and in fact necessary, to discard a heart instead of the club. If this is done then on the last trump N can toss his club. This beats the contract.

[OliverC]

Great hand, Ken, and it's a perfect example of the need for the defence to be fully aware of what is going on on the hand and to count. South has (or rather should have) a perfect count on this hand and knows Partner started with 3-card Hearts. As you pointed out, if Declarer has the Q!H, then there's nothing to be done, but for South to keep 3 Hearts and ditch the J!C allows the Double Squeeze to operate.


It would be interesting to assess the right line on a Diamond lead, because now Declarer has another option rather than simply discarding a Club on the 2nd Diamond and trying for the squeeze. If the Hearts are 3-3, Declarer can discard a Heart on the 2nd Diamond and ruff the 4th Heart good for the Club discard. Because the Club entry is still available, that line works as the cards lie (but would fail if the Hearts were 4-2, which a priori is more likely).


That line is not possible on a Club lead, because the additional Club entry is removed at trick 1. On a Diamond lead I think it's probably a better line, however, given the low minor suit spot cards in the East hand  -  too easy for the Defence to get their discarding right whatever the original layout.