A weird special case: If LHO is Qxxx Jxxx Jx KQx (unlikely on the lead, but pretend) or Qxxx Jxxxx J KQx (more likely), in each case, and doesn't unblock a club honor at the right time, we actually have a cool little coup available: try heart to queen (losing; works the same if the heart king and jack are exchanged and we guess wrong), win club return, unblock heart ace, play diamond to king (recall that LHO cannot profitably ruff), ruff heart, exit a club to LHO. Whatever LHO returns, we ruff a club and a heart to leave:
Now exit a diamond. LHO has to ruff his partner's winner and then lead away from his trump queen; we lose a heart, a diamond, and a spade. It requires a specific layout, but if you lose a heart guess early and then find out that LHO has the other one with at least four, this or something very much like it is probably your last chance.

It also works if LHO has the club honors, I guess, but I have a feeling there are complications in that case.

I forget, but think this may be called a devil's coup.

Nah, a devil's coup is where you need to lose zero trump tricks missing QJxxx without losing the lead, where you get the position to something like (spades trump)

AT
x
-
-

Qx........... Jxx
x ........... -
- ........... -
- ........... -

K9x
-
-
-

with the lead in dummy. Lead a heart; if RHO ruffs high you overruff and finesse on the way back, and if he ruffs low you ruff with the 9 and claim.

Ah, that's right. But it's some coup, I'm just not sure what it's called.

Essentially you're giving up the ability to draw trumps so that you can ruff a club... then you're managing to draw them anyway by shortening both hands shorter than LHO. That requires two heart ruffs with no overruff, so LHO has to have four or more (to an honor, because if LHO has KJ(x) you drop or ruff out the other honor and then are done). he has to have three or more clubs, too, unless dummy's spots are better than RHO's. And finally, you have to ensure that the trick that he's forced to ruff at trick ten is a loser, not a winner, which means you must play toward the diamond king at a point when LHO cannot ruff and cross to his partner in clubs for a second ruff. That's why I gave LHO the top clubs, but even if he doesn't have them you can still execute the coup if you time it right.

Considering all the possibilities (heart honors onside or correct guess, RHO with KJ or KJx, LHO with honor doubleton or third, the coup I showed), you're pretty likely to make the hand, going down only if RHO started with KJxx(x) in hearts. That's about 86% to make, I think, assuming we're right about what the opening lead means.

1. Yes. Complex hand, so the best approach is to start describing it.
1.5. I probably would have bid 2H, which I agree with gabe is not forcing in competition but it's still fine.
2. Hmmph. Over 2H I'd have bid 2S, but over 3C I'm probably bidding 3D, looking for partner to do something intelligent. But TBH 3S is OK too.
3. 4S looks like it's not a terrible contract, as even though it's a 4–3 fit this may be the right hand for it. But I'm pretty strong for my bidding thus far so I'd probably bid a temporizing 4D, wondering about a club slam. I'll subside over 4S, but if intervenor chooses 4H (which he would imo, as he has extras) I'll chance 6C — regardless what 4H means, slam now looks good.
4. No change. I'm tempted to say that at IMPs I'd choose 5C over 4S, if pard bid 4S after my 4D try, but partner looks to be something like 4=2=2=5, and 5C will require us to escape a spade loser and the heart ace offside while 4S requires only one of those two things, plus 3=3 trumps or something else good.

I love LOLs. Got a complete zero today when a LOL opened 4H in fourth seat with

Ax
AKQJx
xxx
AJx

happened to be cold when her partner came down with

xxxx
Tx
K
xxxxxx

and clubs were 2-2

As for an actuall problem

W/R BAM

Qxxx
xxx
Jx
Txxx

RHO deals
Auction goes (1S)-P-(2NT)-5C-(5S)

Opps are juniors, so 6S is almost a lock to come after 6C. So do you try 6C or 7C?

If you're not going to try 7C, you may as well not bid 6C... and, frankly, there's a chance 5S gets passed out, right? (Then again, I'm not sure that I want that either.)

Well I mean my table read was 6S was almost always coming. So maybe 7C puts them to a tougher guess. Maybe 6C elicits a 6H or 6D grand try. 5S passed out at this vulnerabilty seems bleh.

I dunno if I'd consider 6s a lock -- in fact I think 6 other is a serious contender. Pass isn't out of the question either (5S is a weak-ish bid). That said, looking at this hand, it's likely that LHO isn't done bidding. I'm in the 7c camp on this one. Reason: I would sac in 6c, and I think we're losing at most 5 tricks, and 800/1100(/heck even 1400) are the same score if teammates are playing in spades. The only time the decision to bid 7 instead of 6 could work against us is:

- teammates defend 6c
- opps dbl 7c but would have pushed to 6s going down.

I think putting LHO to the test now rather than allowing him to make a grand try is worth this risk.

The bidding/not bidding decision definitely matters though. If they are going to check out 5s, we're better not bidding of course, unless 5S is the limit and we can get out for 500 in 6c. None of this seems likely though.

7C seems way better at MPs/BAM right?

defense question

632
qt43
k73
q82


ops bid to 6s unopposed
1s - 2d - 2s - 4c (cue bid) - 4n - 5h (2 wo q) - 6s

lead is the 9 of h, won by queen king in dummy

dummy is
Q95
AK65
AJ92
AT

trick1 - 9K47
tricks2-4: trumps are drawn, partner discarding the 4 of clubs
trick 5: dummy plays a low diamond and you insert the king, declarer following with 5, partner following with the 6

what card should you play next?

remaining:
-
QT3
73
Q82

Not sure I understand the auction. Leftie opens spades, but obviously isn't the 4N bidder.

Is it:
1S-2D
2S-3S
4C-4N
5H-6S?

Also, left has 5 spades right?

sorry I did write auction wrong

it is

1S - 2D
2S - 4C
4S - 4N
5H - 6S

after the bergen raise to the blocked suit make the doubleton spade discard, then finessing dummy's doubled ruff to your partner should win in all cases unless there was an earlier jump shift or your hand is a total yarborough

Wait what

line check

AKJ9
KJ5
Q8
AQT4

QT752
A63
A74
95

you reach 6S after a 2N open playing V vs NV imps

e leads the 4 of hearts, west playing the queen and covered; upon drawing trumps you discover they split 2-2

plan the play

is there anything better than?

Not really (I don't really even see how playing low to the DQ helps, we're basically on the club hook here), assuming I'm reading correctly that trick 1 means we have no heart losers.

It's probably right on principle to eliminate the hearts and take the club hook to the Q; there's some chance that East gets endplayed here or more accurately thinks he is.

You're pretty much on the club hook right?

I guess you can try to fake an endplay, but basically nobody is leading away from the king of diamonds here.

Theoretically there's some weird stuff involving like a stiff club jack onside or 876 of clubs tripleton for a weird squeeze or legitimate endplay (when you lead a club off dummy, lead the low one not the nine)... but I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I think stiff jack in either hand works, but yeah...not worth thinking about.

edit: but the stiff jack with E means the hook is on ldo

If you have a layout with west having K, and Jxxx(xx)

You can squeeze him if E leads back a diamond after winning the club. I think if your E is average/normal, you have to assume he doesn't have the K. Or, if he's a Jedi, he he might lead the J or T from KJ/Tx but that unnecessarily gives you a shot for making the contract.

But Moni, I'm not sure what leading a small diamond gains. You're just conceding a trick, and even if the K is onside, if doesn't matter since you have nothing to throw on your diamond discard that you weren't ruffing anyways.

yea looking at this again i think i must have thought dummy had 6 spades to play dimes before clubs

does it matter if we finesse q or t first?

Queen definitely. If it wins, you just claim making 6. If it loses, you're in trouble.

If you finesse the ten, let's say it forces out the king; great, now you can discard one of your two losing diamonds. That doesn't really help us though because we're ruffing it anyway. And you can't get two pitches on the clubs.

yup, the simple plans seems also the best plan. Diamond to Q and if it fails club to Q.

Stuff like playing 9c and taking the double finesse are less likely to success, if the 9 is covered byJ-Q-K you only have 1 diamond discard. If the 9 loses to the J and the K is well placed, you still need it to come down in 3 rounds for two diamond discards.

So just play on diamonds, if Qd is good, you have a club discard and have enough trumps to deal with the rest

I do not like this opening lead though, low from nothing. It might very well be that RHO has all the goodies (Kd, Kc) and does not want to lead away from it.

If you trust that read, it might be best to run 9c