Saturday, July 11, 2009

Two Declarer Problems

Two from today. One, I think I played correctly, but got a defense error to help. The other, I misplanned.

(Sorry, I haven't the energy to rotate these and whatnot.)

1.


Potentially 5 losers, though the spade finesse should work. The key will be to only lose 1 trump trick.

Not sure what's right, but I led low to the jack, planning on cashing the ace next, and putting anyone with a doubleton honour in a bit of trouble. North rose with the queen before the jack, making 4 hearts straightforward.

Is there a better line?

2.


Ace of diamonds was a hugely helpful lead. I decided to try for 2/2 trumps, and to toss spades on the promoted diamonds. If they're 2/2, I think I can ruff hearts twice, and make on a 3/3 or 4/2 heart break. When trumps were not 2/2, I found that I needed hearts to be 3/3, which they weren't.

I guess I might have had extra chances if the short hearts had also been short on trump, but that seems unlikely.

This feels like a really good puzzle hand, but I'm not sure that I see a winning line here.

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