[Taunter]

Hi Everyone! Does anyone have interesting deals for my upcoming tournament? I would like to spice it up a bit by some interesting hands, but I wouldn't like some extreme goulash deals. If anyone has some reccommendation, I would be grateful.

[AL78]

Here is one I got wrong yet found interesting (and instructive):

---

There look to be 12 tricks off the top if the clubs break, but you can see they don't. I tried to cash 12 tricks and went down when I was one entry short to play clubs through North twice.

The best way to play it is to win the opening lead and play a spade to the queen. If South holds the king, the queen becomes another entry to dummy. Win the lead and play a club to the queen, revealing the 4-0 break. You can now play clubs through North twice using the ♠Q as a second entry. 12 tricks made.

Note that this line fails if South holds four clubs, but on the auction, this is much less likely, so the spade play at trick two is a minimal cost safety play. If North holds the ♠K, you can always revert back to playing for a 3-1 or 2-2 club split, or four with South. If none of these work, you cannot make it.

See if anyone in your tournament finds the correct line.

I now await someone to point out a critical flaw in my analysis.

[Cyberyeti]

I presume nobody on these forums will be playing your tournament ? or should we PM you the hands ?

[pescetom]

AL78, on 2020-April-03, 07:10, said:

The best way to play it is to win the opening lead and play a spade to the queen. If South holds the king, the queen becomes another entry to dummy. Win the lead and play a club to the queen, revealing the 4-0 break. You can now play clubs through North twice using the ♠Q as a second entry. 12 tricks made.

Note that this line fails if South holds four clubs, but on the auction, this is much less likely, so the spade play at trick two is a minimal cost safety play. If North holds the ♠K, you can always revert back to playing for a 3-1 or 2-2 club split, or four with South. If none of these work, you cannot make it.

See if anyone in your tournament finds the correct line.

I now await someone to point out a critical flaw in my analysis.

Well you got the bidding right this time
I may be wrong but at first sight it looks as if it would be better to play the ♣K to explore the break - you can always follow up with the spade queen expasse if South shows out, whereas if North shows out you can pick up the remaining clubs by playing ♣A and then finesse.

[thomas c]

pescetom, on 2020-April-03, 10:49, said:

Well you got the bidding right this time
I may be wrong but at first sight it looks as if it would be better to play the ♣K to explore the break - you can always follow up with the spade queen expasse if South shows out, whereas if North shows out you can pick up the remaining clubs by playing ♣A and then finesse.

amazing!

[Cyberyeti]

pescetom, on 2020-April-03, 10:49, said:

Well you got the bidding right this time
I may be wrong but at first sight it looks as if it would be better to play the ♣K to explore the break - you can always follow up with the spade queen expasse if South shows out, whereas if North shows out you can pick up the remaining clubs by playing ♣A and then finesse.

Do you not think that when S is known to have 6 hearts and N 2, it's more likely that N has 4 clubs ?

[pescetom]

Cyberyeti, on 2020-April-03, 14:25, said:

Do you not think that when S is known to have 6 hearts and N 2, it's more likely that N has 4 clubs ?

Of course, but it's not certain, and the line works in either case.
How would you play it?

[Cyberyeti]

pescetom, on 2020-April-03, 15:14, said:

Of course, but it's not certain, and the line works in either case.
How would you play it?

It does in this case because of the black suit squeeze, there are others where it doesn't work so well

[AL78]

pescetom, on 2020-April-03, 10:49, said:

Well you got the bidding right this time
I may be wrong but at first sight it looks as if it would be better to play the ♣K to explore the break - you can always follow up with the spade queen expasse if South shows out, whereas if North shows out you can pick up the remaining clubs by playing ♣A and then finesse.

Ha, ha, I don't think my bidding is that bad.

You can't afford to play the king first to test the clubs if North has four of them. I think that is what I did and came unstuck. The club nine is high enough that you need the AK over North to be able to cover both the jack and the nine if North defends accurately and covers your ten and eight.

[AL78]

Actually, I have just noticed that after cashing a top club in hand and playing to the ♠Q, North is squeezed in the black suits after cashing all red suit honors, so it can still make.