Thursday, January 1

Guest Post 1 - 6 Notrump Double Dummy

You are West, and your task is to make 6NT on best defense. Since this is a double dummy problem, you don't have to think about what the bidding was. Try it with three opening lead conditions:

  1. Small club from North
  2. Small spade from North
  3. Any lead from North (except the ♠A, which is too easy)

Here is the layout:


Bon voyage!

ht to Eli Solomon for this interesting problem!
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4 comments:

  1. snowmanhunterJanuary 14, 2015 at 7:03 PM

    This is a toughie. There's some work to do and right now I'd be kicking myself for missing 6H. But we all like a good challenge.

    You have to use the hearts to your advantage and hope that you can squeeze out some winners. What other hope do you have? You always lose the Ace of spade. You can't afford to screw around in clubs, and you don't want the contract to rely on the Queen of diamonds unless you absolutely have to.

    First you have to figure out the spades. On the lead of a spade you let it ride. After a club on opening lead I would play low to the King.
    Play a spade back and you'll see that South has 10x and north started with 5. The 9 is now a key card. Once the Ace of spades is out (should be by trick 2 or 3) - you can afford to investigate a little.

    You have 5 hearts, 2 spades, 2 clubs and 2 diamonds. Barring any miracles, you have to turn your fourth spade into a trick. How? Well, first you need a decent heart break, or for South to have length in hearts. This will cause North to discard more.

    So play on hearts first, maintaining an entry to dummy. Once you see they split, you can play the rest of the heart - you still have a diamond entry.

    North is forced to discard to keep his spades. Whatever he discards first you can play on. So if he pitches diamonds, now try diamonds - he pitches clubs, then you play on clubs.

    If he pitches two spades, you cash the Q and the 9 falls. If he pitches clubs, you can cash the clubs and set up the 10.

    This all sounds more complicated than it is, but the key is to envision a scenario where the hand makes (The hand with the spade winner also has the other winner and can't protect both) and carefully watch the discards without burning transportation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2015 at 12:24 PM

      It ain't THAT easy

      Delete
    2. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2015 at 11:32 AM

      As a matter of fact, every line I try fails......and I am getting frustrated.....LOL

      Delete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2015 at 12:40 PM

    Ok.....I have figured it out on a club lead. Can't deal with other leads right now.....my brain is fried. LOL

    ReplyDelete

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