[inquiry]

Scoring: IMP

You have stumbled and bumbled into 5♦ after your partner opened 1♠ and your RHO overcalled 2♣. What is your best chance to make 11 tricks after the ♣8 opening lead? Describe your line of play

---

[ack_hh]

Hidden reply: Duck the first round of clubs, then play J of spades
at soonest opportunity.

[helium]

cant see any reaon to duck first club here, still need dimonds 2-2.
but can this be made whit dimonds 3-1?

[jillybean]

Your only entry to dummy is ♣Ace
Duck ♣ lead (and hope they dont return ♣)
Draw trump, play ♠ J
Over to dummy with ♣Ace

?
jillybean

[helium]

jillybean2, on Oct 30 2004, 02:23 PM, said:

Your only entry to dummy is ♣Ace
Duck ♣ lead (and hope they dont return ♣)
Draw trump, play ♠ J
Over to dummy with ♣Ace

?
jillybean

offcourse they will return clubs, have to consider best defence all the time

[jillybean]

Ok - you have 2 ♣ losers and a ♠ loser.
Play J♠, hope they cover it with Ace.
Over to dummy with ♦Ace, Could drop ♣ losers on K,Q♠
Then pull trump. ?
But when ♠ loses opps will get back in with ♣ and youre down...
I don't know!

[luke warm]

i think

Spoiler

i don't see any way to make it when diamonds are 3/1 unless they mess up... i'd play to give e/w chances to screw up... duck the first club (giving them a chance to switch), win the ♣A, heart to the ace, lead the ♠J planning to come up with the K or Q... if the ace is on your left, he may duck trying to cut your nonexistent communications... if the ace does win, you're back to hoping for 2/2 diamonds... lose the club return, trump the next club, throw your last club on a ♠, trump a heart and try to draw trumps... if for some reason they duck the spade, no problem, just lead a high spade and throw a club... at least they had chances to mess it up

[Flame]

luke warm, on Oct 30 2004, 04:20 PM, said:

i think

Spoiler

i don't see any way to make it when diamonds are 3/1 unless they mess up... i'd play to give e/w chances to screw up... duck the first club (giving them a chance to switch), win the ♣A, heart to the ace, lead the ♠J planning to come up with the K or Q... if the ace is on your left, he may duck trying to cut your nonexistent communications... if the ace does win, you're back to hoping for 2/2 diamonds... lose the club return, trump the next club, throw your last club on a ♠, trump a heart and try to draw trumps... if for some reason they duck the spade, no problem, just lead a high spade and throw a club... at least they had chances to mess it up

Spoiler

Ducking the club is a must if you want to make the game on a 2-2 break, its not only to let them mess things up when diamond break 3-1.

[spwdo]

inquiry, on Oct 31 2004, 12:55 AM, said:

Scoring: IMP

You have stumbled and bumbled into 5♦ after your partner opened 1♠ and your RHO overcalled 2♣. What is your best chance to make 11 tricks after the ♣8 opening lead? Describe your line of play

---

Hidden Reply

Spoiler

Whatever happens , dont pull trump with !D ace, need that one to ruff a possible third club.

Take club ace, play Spade to jack, if they cover and return club ruff third, then H to ace, take trumps out ,.If they dont cover Spade jack , play H to ace and play Clubs.Id diamonds are favourable u lose one club and one Spade whatever happens then

[inquiry]

Scoring: IMP

---

This was the hand from the BBO. 10 of 14 declarer's took less than 11 tricks. And two of those that took 11 tricks did so because of silly defense. And yet, the winning line seems. at least to me, to be relatively easy, and ack_hh and flame got it exactly correct.

The optimal line of play starts with ducking the first club. If East has seven clubs, this will not be the optimal line I guess, but with 5 or 6 clubs, this is the best start. From the ♣8 it looks like WEST has doubleton.

When east wins the club, he has to return on. Or you have time to knock out the spade ace and throw a club away spade king. When you win the club ACE, you have a double plan. One plan is to ruff the third club in dummy, but you don't have to try that right away. Instead, lead a spade. If WEST has the spade ace and a doubleton club (as was the case), you will not have to ruff a club at all, so that a three-one diamond split with jack in the long hand will not be a problem. If East wins the spade ace, you have to fall back on 2-2 diamond split or 3-1 with singleton jack.

Ben

[luke warm]

Flame, on Oct 31 2004, 12:44 AM, said:

Ducking the club is a must if you want to make the game on a 2-2 break, its not only to let them mess things up when diamond break 3-1.

that's true enough, but it does give them that option...

[Flame]

luke warm, on Oct 31 2004, 05:54 PM, said:

Flame, on Oct 31 2004, 12:44 AM, said:

Ducking the club is a must if you want to make the game on a 2-2 break, its not only to let them mess things up when diamond break 3-1.

that's true enough, but it does give them that option...

Yes, i said "not only".