[inquiry]

Vul NS
BBO Imps

T7652
J2
AQ5
AKQ


AKJ983
K86
T93
T

S W N E
1S X XX P
2S P 4C P
4S P 5D P
6S all pass

Opening Lead club 5

I am not a big fan of the redouble with support, but this is the real world auction. Plan your play.

Ben

[rtewari]

With AQ of heart and diamond K almost certain to be with my LHO, I will require LHO to hold either 5 diamonds or Jack of diamond as well. I would try the following line.

Draw trumps, play a small diamond to queen, cash the remaining clubs pitching 2 hearts from hand and then reel off trumps to come to this 4 card ending

-
J2
A5
-

3
K
T9
-

On the last spade, LHO will be squeezed. If he pitches heart Q, a heart can be established or if he pitches a diamond the diamonds will get setup. Probably no guessing required as you just need to keep track of daimond pitches from LHO.

An alternate line could be to play West for both KJ of diamond and get into a strip throw-in position which may require a little bit of guessing (assuming heart queen is with RHO) but I would tend to prefer the first line.

[inquiry]

Right you are Rajeshwar

7 pairs bid this slam, and I was amazed to see that six pairs made it... who would have thought so many in BBO would find the squeeze? Well, of course that many really didn't find it. The full hands were

T7652
J2
AQ5
AKQ
void Q4
AQT5 9743
KJ84 762
J7652 9843
AKJ983
K86
T93
T

Of the 7 declearer's, two got heart ACE opening lead, giving up the 12th trick right away. This doesn't seem like a great opening lead to me. and prevented those declarers from displaying their best form, maybe they would have made 12 tricks anyway. The other five got a club lead.

One getting the club lead, tried heart to the KING. To be fair, they didn't have the help of the takeout double, as the bidding when P-P-1NT and they played in 6S by north with no interference. Thiis was the only declearer to go down.

The remaing four declearer's had clues of double or CLUB bid by WEST. One lead the DIAMOND TEN at trick four (after two round of trumps) and when WEST failed to cover with KJ8x, let it ride for 12 tricks. Their stategy might have been to play for squeeze after the DJ-Q, maybe. One pulled three rounds of trumps, cashed two clubs for 2 heart discards, lost heart to king ACE, ruffed the heart Queen continuation. When South lead the Ten of diamond the defender covered, but when the diamond 9 was subsequently lead, ducked from K8x, letting declearer escape.

One player took the slightly inferior line of three rounds of trumps, cash two clubs, Diamond-TEN to DIAMOND JACK-QUEEN. then run trumps. In the end, he threw WEST in with stiff heart ACE to force a lead away from the Diamond Kx into the Ax 9x combination. (This line would run the risk of losing to the doubleton diamond JACK, or required the play of the diamond QUEEN to protect against the doubleton diamond JACK. but then would lose to KJx(x) with WEST.

One declearer found the line more or less suggested by Rajeshwar, Club ace, two spades, spade to dummy, two clubs for heart pitches, then run spades (never took the diamond hook). The last cards few cards were...

S-void
H-Jx
D-AQx
C-void
S-void
H-AQ
D-KJx
C-void
S-J
H-K
D-T9x
C-void

On the last spade, West is crushed. A diamond and a diamond hook gives you three diamond tricks, and the heart QUEEN, then you throw a diamond from dummy and set up the heart jack (with or without first finessee in diamonds).

Ben

[luis]

Nice report Ben, tell us who was the guy that played the SQZ.

[inquiry]

Quote

Nice report Ben, tell us who was the guy that played the SQZ.

Modesty will not allow me... :-)

BTW with North hand,

11 of 16 opened 1S (right bid I think)
3 opened weak 2 (or multi 2D)
2 passed.

[luis]

I guess you meant opening the SOUTH hand.
Looks like a crystal clear 1s opening to me.

[inquiry]

Quote

I guess you meant opening the SOUTH hand.
Looks like a crystal clear 1s opening to me.

Yes you are right, the hands were reversed to present south as declearer in the problem. When reviewing the hands I forgot to correct for the translocation in the last response. Mea culpa, and yes it is a clear 1S in my opinion as well.

[flytoox]

Ben, you may not like my xx, but dont you like my 5d? ;D
I know many ppl dont like xx with spt, but mike lawrence said xx is correct if you know what you are going to do next. Here I know there is very good chance for slam. So my plan is to xx to force opp to bid out their stuff and hence I can judge the hand. I am not worrying opp will preempt to 4h or whatever here.

I also checked the auction in other table. some just bid 4n and go to 6. As for the play, after east's takeout dbl, it will be easier to play squeeze. If opp remain silence, i would choose the direct finesse of HK, as one declarer did. Ben did a nice job here. It is nice to be dummy of this board:)

[inquiry]

Sadly, I have not read mike's book (well I do own and have read his on overcalling and balancing.. a nitpick on these paperbacks.. .both have fallen apart, the binding was very poor).

I didn't mean the comment about the redouble as it is the wrong bid, I meant it as here is the auction, and that I was not necessarily endorsing it. And clearly your 5D was very nice, allowing me to judge the value of my heart king and place us in the right contract.

[flytoox]

Ben, did you worry about the trump when you consider 6? It came to me that some play redbl then raise implies 3 card spt, and they play 2N after x for 4card spt or better. Perhaps I should bid 2N here to tell you the trump length i have. What is the default convention after 1s-x-2n-pass-? do you bid your singleton or max or min or sth else?

I think the response after pd open and RHO dbl when you hold a strong hand is a good topic for discussion.

[inquiry]

Quote

Ben, did you worry about the trump when you consider 6? It came to me that some play redbl then raise implies 3 card spt, and they play 2N after x for 4card spt or better. Perhaps I should bid 2N here to tell you the trump length i have. What is the default convention after 1s-x-2n-pass-? do you bid your singleton or max or min or sth else?

I think the response after pd open and RHO dbl when you hold a strong hand is a good topic for discussion.

No, I did not worry one little bit about trump support over 5D. My 2S bid without waiting for them to bid their suit then my 4S showed weak opener with long, good suit. 5D simply has to be slam try, focusing with laser-like precision on the need for a heart control. 5S would have been the same thing, but after the redouble you can't really have a monster minor two suiter.

And if you had rebid 2NT playing with me over 2S there is a real good chance you would have played 2H's. However, a simple 3C by you would have been forcing on me. As a matter of fact, I took 4C as good clubs and a spade fit (i would not suspect you with a club stiff, me a club stiff, and no one bidding clubs, and for redbl, i expect generally a balanced type hand, so no side singleton).

Ben