This is an odd hand, very worthy of study. When I said I was already down against expert defense above, I wasn’t kidding, I would have been down, because I missed
a very subtle point in a paradoxical ending, where the one holding that should be weak for the defense is actually strong for them, and the three holding that should be strong for them, are actually weak. I couldn’t make it, but maybe YOU could have.
For WEST to duck the diamond ace, the logical assumption, as I pointed out, is that he lacks a second club, and when both opponents show up with 3S this becomes a double dummy type problem, as I identified, with WEST must be 3-4-5-1 and EAST 3-1-1-8.
As you ponder the play with such distributions, you think to yourself what would be the best heart distribution for declarer? You might think singleton heart King (I did at first). But in fact, you can not make the hand with this distribution along with a singleton king. Then you might think singleton JACK or TEN would give you a chance. I also thought that, and studied how to make the hand with such a layout. I thought I had found the solution (lead heart Queen from south), but I found a killing defense to this line of play. I thought heart queen was going to be paulg’s solution, so I was going to pounce on him when he posted a solution where south leads the queen from hand: where I was going to spring the killing defense on him. So when he private messaged me and told me it could make with 4-1 hearts, I replied to him, no way, because I thought I had found the clever defense. I thought since you can not make it with a singleton jack or ten, how could you make it with any other distribution of hearts (including stiff king). Ah, there is the paradox.
Spoiler…
if you want to lose sleep, stop now and go back and figure this hand out with those clues. The investigation will be well worth the trip. For those who have already done this and solved it, GREAT. For the few of you who tried and failed, or who don’t want to try, here is the solution to the paradox. After you overruff the diamond ruff by EAST, and pull two more round of trumps, let’s compare the three possible endings.
Ending one: Stiff heart eight (or six) and the apparent strongest for the defense
Quote
♠--
♥743
♦JTx
♣K
♠-- ♠--
♥KJT6 ♥8
♦A98 ♦--
♣-- ♣QJTxxx
♠J9
♥AQ95
♦--
♣3
Let’s take examine the winning line in this position and see why it is the winning line. The right play is, right now, lead the heart NINE (no other card works). When WEST wins the heart ten, he is endplayed. If he returns a heart, you win queen, can cash two spades, discarding diamonds from dummy. Then a club to the king squeezes WEST in hearts and diamonds. He can’t keep two hearts (to protect against the heart five) as well as the diamond ACE. What if WEST wins the heart Ten and leads a low diamond? You win the diamond ten, ruff a diamond to your hand. And lead the last trump for a similar ending. Ok. So that is obvious. What if west ducks the heart, allowing the nine to win? Now you have a vulnerable stopper squeeze. Cash both top spades, throwing one heart and one diamond from dummy, and then lead a club to the dummy. West has to come down to three cards. These will have to be the diamond ACE, and Heart KJ. Now a diamond from dummy forces WEST on the lead for a heart return.
Note the need to lead the heart NINE (incase EAST has the eight instead of the six), also note that if you play one more round of trumps here, before the heart nine you squeeze dummy. You can’t afford a heart discard, else west can return a heart when you duck one as you will have no re-entry to your hand (an entry defect). Nor can you afford a diamond discard (coming to two), as west wins the heart jack and simply returns diamond ACE. You gain a diamond trick when you ruff, but you not avoid another heart loser.
So with the strongest ending for the defense (all heart honors behind declarer) the defense has no chance. What if we “weaken” the defensive holding.
Ending Two: Stiff heart King
Quote
♠--
♥743
♦JTx
♣K
♠-- ♠--
♥JT86 ♥K
♦A98 ♦--
♣-- ♣QJTxxx
♠J9
♥AQ95
♦--
♣3
In this ending if you try to duck a heart, EAST wins and returns a club, killing entry to dummy and any chance you have. So what about cash heart ACE and duck a heart? That is no good, because West wins the second heart and continues heart breaking the communication between the hands for a squeeze. What about cashing two spades? West throws a diamond and a heart, that is good enough to beat you.
Ending three: Stiff heart Jack (or Ten)
Quote
♠--
♥743
♦JTx
♣K
♠-- ♠--
♥KT86 ♥J
♦A98 ♦--
♣-- ♣QJTxxx
♠J9
♥AQ95
♦--
♣3
Ok, with a stiff heart king, you can no longer duck a heart to set up the squeeze while keeping the re-entry to your hand after you cash the club King as the squeeze card. But if you transpose the ending, giving East a stiff middle honor (jack or ten), and if you lead the heart QUEEN instead of the nine (pinning the singleton middle honor), isn’t this the same as ducking the nine? The answer is YES, and NO. If West wins the heart Queen with the king, he is looking at a heart return from J8x into your A9x, which is now equivalent to leading from KTx into your AQx from ending one above. But here, WEST has a second killing defense, the one I found earlier before I made my initial reply to this post. West “simply” (yea, real simple looking at KT8x) let’s the heart queen hold, reusing to “correct the count” for the squeeze. You can’t duck a second heart, or he will win and return the suit, severing the connection between the two hands. Nor can you effect a squeeze by running your trumps, as he simply keeps the diamond ace and two high hearts. And what about the dreaded throw-in you could use if he ducked the heart nine in ending one? That no longer works. As his last three cards will be
♥KT and
♦A. When you throw him in, he wins the diamond ace, and exits a heart and will win the last trick with his second heart honor.
A truly entertaining ending, and shows that examining what looks like the best holding for the offense and ignoring what would seem to be the best holding for the defense can lead you astray. You have to correct your count (heart duck) at
precisely the RIGHT time before you cut your own communication (timing of
♥9) in ending 1, the defense has to avoid the correct the count line in line 3 until you weaken your communication and then they break it with a deadly heart return. It is the strong holding can’t prevents the count correction, while the weaker ones can. A really a fun hand to analyze and see why it works.
Hey FRED, would this hand be equivalent to a level 5 hand? How about level six, just because it is so cute. Great problem paul... very entertaining.
Ben
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