halle1@houxz.UUCP (J.HALLE) (08/15/84)
S:87542 H:T3 D:Q63 C:A75 S: H:AKQ6 D:K9 C:KJT9863 W N E S 1H P P 2H(strong) 2S P P 3C 3S 4C P 4H P 6C Lead:KS What is your best line of play? ******************************* Thank the opponents for bidding so much. Ruff. Play low diamond towards the Q(hope west has the ace). West must duck or else you have a place to pitch your heart. Now pull trump finessing east if necessary. Run the trumps. Come down to four hearts and the KD. West must come down to four hearts and the AD. End play west with the diamond. Take the last four heart tricks. I received a correct solution from Jeff Halle. ################### This is not quite complete. The reason why will be seen. When you win the QD, ruff a spade. Now club J to the A, west showing out, C7, finessing. If east covers, C3 to the 5. Ruff another spade and run trump. Note that ruffing the third spade strips east, since west is 5-6-2-0. In the end, south has AKQ6 of hearts and K of diamonds, north has T3 of hearts, 6 of diamonds, and 87 of spades. West has to throw from Jxxx of hearts, A of D, A of spades. The diamond or a heart gives up the show, so he throws a spade. Now a diamond is the killer. If west leads a low heart, win four hearts. If west leads the heart J, win in hand, heart to the J. Now the two spades are good, since you stripped east of his stopper. Because of this, it really pays west to hop up with the A of diamonds. Now you have to guess west's distribution. Is he 5710? 5611? 5620? If he has no trump, cash the diamond (he returned a spade, BTW). Trump, diamond, trump finesse. If west has a club, club K, diamond, trump, diamond. If west managed to play the A without giving any clues, play for 1-1 in the minors, since restricted choice applies. (7 hearts is less likely.)