Monday, 12 November 2012

7Dx!

Here's a troublesome play problem for you from my county match yesterday. I'm sure I got it wrong now. See if you can do any better... The auction was as follows: 1 – (1) – 2 – (Pass)
Then uninterrupted (some sub-optimal bidding occurs near the end):
2 – 3
3NT – 4
4 – 4
4 – 4NT
5 – 6
7 – Pass – (Double from West!)
Thus you find yourself as North in 7 doubled, the non-doubler, on lead, leads the ace of hearts! How do you proceed?
North Dealer
EW Vuln.
North (Declarer)
A K Q 5
K 10 7 6
K 10 9 8 5
—
South
8
—
A Q 6 4
K Q J 9 8 6 5 2
(yes that two of clubs is in the South hand too)
I have hidden the full hand below this button if you'd like to see how you got on. Your plan of attacks is pretty much decided at tricks two and three, so think carefully. I'm tempted to do a poll offering you the chance to play:
  1. Top diamond
  2. Low diamond
  3. Top club
  4. Low club
  5. Spade
But since this is all your options, I'll leave you to offer your answers in the comments.
Posted by David on

4 comments:

  1. adskal21 November 2012 at 01:46

    I'd play a low club. And now... to see the full hand

    ReplyDelete
  2. David26 November 2012 at 10:47

    I foolishly tried a top club not imagining the next player could ever play low, which he did. Game over.

    A low club ruffed works well on this deal, and on a number of other similar deals. However a low club loses if diamonds are 4=0 and the ace of clubs is doubleton or tripleton (in which cases you need to set up the clubs quickly).

    I now think the best first card is the Ace of Diamonds, if diamonds are 4=0 then you can still make as long as you can set up the clubs quickly (which you will be able to, else the overcaller had a Michaels bid, not a 1S overcall). Once diamonds aren't 4=0, then you carry on with a low club ruffed to find out what's happening.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DavidC4 December 2012 at 15:10

    Is that right? I don't think you can afford to start with the DA if trumps are 4=0: you seem to need both the ace and queen as later entries back to the South hand.

    And if you cash the DA at trick two and both opponents follow, ruffing a low club now will leave you an entry short unless trumps are 2-2.

    I'm not very sure about this but it looks to me like starting with a top club is right, particularly if West is likely to be kind enough to cover with Axx or ATx.

    ReplyDelete
  4. David5 December 2012 at 16:03

    I think 4=0 diamonds you can still make it after the diamond ace, you use table's diamond queen as a ruff later from memory.

    ReplyDelete

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