HBJ : Beautiful hand which as usual requires careful thought and play. With spades breaking badly, the good news is the 2-2 heart position. An end play looks to be the way home. Yet it is crucial to get a diamond discard in on clubs first before the spade thrown in.

Obviously a 3-3 club break will work out fine, but similarly if the clubs break 4-2 both the queen and 10 need to be right.

BUT do declarers need RAW COURAGE to take on the club finesse given the class defenders will always play the queen on the next round of clubs since ” it is what they known to possess “…….even more so, when they also hold the 10 !

How good are the odds that East is left with two clubs, given West has 6 vacant spaces, while East has 7, to account for the missing 5H, 6D ( assuming East has thrown one ) and 2 clubs ?

At the table, I would have won the AH, played AS, then crossed to the KH for a second trump lead. In the column layout, it transposes to the column line when East shows out.

If East had followed, I would have played the JS. If that won (West showing out) I would draw last trump and play on the minors along the lines suggested in the column if there had been no trump loser.

If West won (trump 2-2), then many holdings and continuations let me gain something from that endplay.

Not sure how that compares with the column line, probability-wise.

(I meant to add that my line transposes to the column line when trump are 2-2 with the Q onside. Thus, the question involves a comparison of Qx – xx versus x – Qxx lines and continuation probabilities, and my head already hurts!)

Hi HBJ and Jim2,

Between the two of you, you have described what needs to be and then left up to the individual declarer to make his critical choices.

The combination featuring missing 6 to the Q10 in the two defender’s hands and having the declarer having AJx in dummy and K9xx in hand is, as described, a fairly common one, and at the death, after the jack is successfully finessed and the queen comes tumbling down on the 2nd lead, what to do?

Perhaps the longest time I have ever taken as declarer, occurred at the 1983 WC’s in Stockholm, Sweden and while Bob Hamman and I were playing against Garozzo-Belladonna in the finals when I needed to guess that exact holding to make my game contract when Georgio’s (my LHO) queen fell underneath my dummy’s ace on the 2nd round of the suit. All I could do then was mentally reconstruct both of the defender’s hands with what I knew up to then in the play (they were in the bidding) to decide which of the combined holdings (3-3 or 4-2) were more likely with the actual bidding and the defense up to then (which sadly, at least to me, was basically non-descript). Fifteen minutes later I played and if I was to be truthful, it was, my judgment then and still is, at least a 95% straight guess.

The only constructive thing to come out of that episode was my dozing 87 year old father’s (who taught me the game) remark while watching, sitting with my then wife, Debby, in the view-graph room, “Robert better guess this one right since he will have no excuse for not, after taking all this time”.

The excitement and unparalleled mind exercises which are ever present in legitimate bridge confrontations would probably be my number one thrill in describing our off the charts game and only wish that every bridge lover, winning or losing, could feel those challenges first hand.

Getting back to Jim2, his head hurting, merely reminded me of past experiences leaving my advice to him: after certain prolonged thought, if nothing emerges as clear-cut, follow your instincts, accept the result and move on. Anything different from that may be mind unhealthy.

And now for me, it is off to Detroit to play in the Senior Trials.