🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <689@ihlts.UUCP> rainbow@ihlts.UUCP (Robert) writes:
>I had a most interesting hand come up. We bid an aggressive 6NT
>with the QD lead, east pitching the 8S. How did I make my contract?
>There was no defensive lapse and the opponents were good players.
>
>	AKT9x		S	W	N	E
>	Axx		-------------------------
>	x		1D	P	1S	P
>	AQJx		1NT	P	2C(1)	P
>			2H	P	4NT(2)	P
>	xx		6NT	P	P	P
>	Kxxx
>	AKTxx		(1)-forcing
>	Kx		(2)-invitational

   There are only a few possibilities that I can see, none of which seem very
likely...
   -- You can find a singleton (or doubleton??) spade honor with West, in which
case you have four spades, two hearts, two diamonds, and four clubs.
   -- You can find West with QJ doubleton of hearts, or Qx and failing to
unblock (presumably you have no heart spots...).  In this case you eliminate
the spade and three clubs from West's hand, let him win the second heart and
lead into your diamond tenace, and then squeeze East in spades and hearts for
your twelfth trick.
   -- You can find West with QJ10 tripleton of hearts, or Qxx and failing to
unblock.  Here you again eliminate his hearts and clubs, let him win the third
heart, and again he leads into your diamonds.  Now the thirteenth heart is good
with no squeeze.
   -- You can find West with Qxxx of hearts.  In this case you can play two
spades and four clubs, squeezing West out of a heart, then put him in with the
third heart to lead into your diamonds.

   It should be completely safe to play the clubs and get a count on West
(assuming one spade) and then follow the indicated line (unless of course a
spade honor drops from West).  It would be best to play a heart toward the 
board at trick two; this is completely safe, and should make it hard for West
to unblock with Qx of hearts...  Then a spade and four clubs (pitching two 
diamonds) should indicate the correct course.
   If the Qx of hearts is what actually occurred, I would be interested to
know if you played a heart early...

   -- David desJardins

In article <689@ihlts.UUCP> rainbow@ihlts.UUCP (Robert) writes:
>I had a most interesting hand come up. We bid an aggressive 6NT
>with the QD lead, east pitching the 8S. How did I make my contract?
>There was no defensive lapse and the opponents were good players.
>
>	AKT9x		S	W	N	E
>	Axx		-------------------------
>	x		1D	P	1S	P
>	AQJx		1NT	P	2C(1)	P
>			2H	P	4NT(2)	P
>	xx		6NT	P	P	P
>	Kxxx
>	AKTxx		(1)-forcing
>	Kx		(2)-invitational

   Well, as the proposer has kindly pointed out to me my previous solution
is incorrect (sigh).  My apologies.
   The correct (hopefully...) solution follows:

   Win the opening lead and play a spade and four clubs.  If East has a spade
and two clubs (or no spades and three clubs) you must play for him to have
three hearts to the queen (and to fail or to be unable to unblock); exit with
the third heart forcing a diamond return into the tenace, and the thirteenth
heart is your twelfth trick.  It is also barely possible that East has four 
hearts; it would be possible to handle this case but you do not have enough 
entries once you discover the situation (assuming he is 0472).
   But the most likely possibility is that East has two hearts (one spade and
three clubs).  In this case you pitch a diamond and a *heart* from hand, cash 
AK of hearts ending in hand, and lead your thoughtfully pickled small diamond.
East is forced to return a diamond into your tenace, giving you your eleventh
trick and correcting the count for a simple spade-heart squeeze against West
for the twelfth!
   My thanks to Robert for presenting this fascinating hand (and for quietly
pointing out the inadequacy of my previous solution...).  Also my apologies
to the rest of you for burdening you with not one but *two* lengthy solutions.
   I hope we can see more interesting bridge in this newsgroup...

   -- David desJardins