Hi Dear Mr Wolff
But as the cards lay, perhaps, south can handover the trump trick to east after cashing A and K of diamonds. South certainly needs club finesse. The spade finesse even if it wins will not be sufficient if club K is offside. Now, east wins but what can he return? A spade : south parks heart loser and picks up clubs. A heart : no heart loser and south gets four club tricks. A club : no use as dummy can get rid of two losing hearts and south ruffs third heart in dummy. ( Doesn’t help even if east returns either K of clubs. As ten comes down in third round, south is home
However, if it were west who held third trump, south needs both spade finesse and club finesse and also club ten to make appearance in third round. ( Or if east held spade A south needs him to hold heart 98 along with his actual club holding so that he can be squeezed in majors, a chance the declarer could have taken instead of simple finesse in spades)
Regards
Robert LiptonDecember 27th, 2023 at 12:39 pm
So, let’s get this straight. Opposite a hand that is in the 11-14 HCP range, north drives to slam. A miracle distribution (as AV points out) and a helpful opening lead show up –indicating that when your opponents are more on your side than your partner, they’re good for a trick or two. Now South proceeds to misplay the hand. All this demonstrates is that when you overbid and underplay, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing against two Mrs. Guggenheims.
I think the lesson here is that if you’re going to overbid, you need to play very, very well. If you can’t do the latter, don’t do the former. In fact, even if you can do the latter, don’t do the former. The points you pick up by finding the 2% line that actually makes your poorly bid slam won’t compensate you for the losses.
Bob Lipton
A V Ramana RaoDecember 27th, 2023 at 2:02 pm
Hi Robert Lipton
Perhaps the hand is cold on any lead as well he cards lay. On a spade lead, hop up and three rounds of diamonds endplays east. If he returns spade, dummy’s Q gets promoted ( only thing is if he underleads K, south should read it and pitch a heart) . And on other leads there is no problem. On A heart lead , declarer gets three heart tricks. On a club lead declarer can take heart finesse and ruff a heart after pitching hearts on clubs. South definitely appears to be born under a lucky star
Regards
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Hi Dear Mr Wolff
But as the cards lay, perhaps, south can handover the trump trick to east after cashing A and K of diamonds. South certainly needs club finesse. The spade finesse even if it wins will not be sufficient if club K is offside. Now, east wins but what can he return? A spade : south parks heart loser and picks up clubs. A heart : no heart loser and south gets four club tricks. A club : no use as dummy can get rid of two losing hearts and south ruffs third heart in dummy. ( Doesn’t help even if east returns either K of clubs. As ten comes down in third round, south is home
However, if it were west who held third trump, south needs both spade finesse and club finesse and also club ten to make appearance in third round. ( Or if east held spade A south needs him to hold heart 98 along with his actual club holding so that he can be squeezed in majors, a chance the declarer could have taken instead of simple finesse in spades)
Regards
So, let’s get this straight. Opposite a hand that is in the 11-14 HCP range, north drives to slam. A miracle distribution (as AV points out) and a helpful opening lead show up –indicating that when your opponents are more on your side than your partner, they’re good for a trick or two. Now South proceeds to misplay the hand. All this demonstrates is that when you overbid and underplay, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing against two Mrs. Guggenheims.
I think the lesson here is that if you’re going to overbid, you need to play very, very well. If you can’t do the latter, don’t do the former. In fact, even if you can do the latter, don’t do the former. The points you pick up by finding the 2% line that actually makes your poorly bid slam won’t compensate you for the losses.
Bob Lipton
Hi Robert Lipton
Perhaps the hand is cold on any lead as well he cards lay. On a spade lead, hop up and three rounds of diamonds endplays east. If he returns spade, dummy’s Q gets promoted ( only thing is if he underleads K, south should read it and pitch a heart) . And on other leads there is no problem. On A heart lead , declarer gets three heart tricks. On a club lead declarer can take heart finesse and ruff a heart after pitching hearts on clubs. South definitely appears to be born under a lucky star
Regards
As the cards lay not as well