Finesse, drop, or...?

[David Goldfarb]

AJT4
KQJ
AJ98
J4

K2
A8
KQ65
AK962

It's imps, and your side is behind after your partner doubled their
weak notrump opening and went for 1100. You deal and open 2N, and
after you deny a 4-card major partner bids 7N. Opponents play upside
down count and attitude.

You run the diamonds; West follows twice then pitches a high heart and
the CT. East pitches a low heart. Now you run the hearts; West follows
once then discards two more clubs, East follows to all three. You cash
two more rounds of spades, and both follow.

Here's the detailed play if you think it will help:

S9-T-Q-*K*
*DK*-4-8-3
*DQ*-7-9-2
D6-H9-*DJ*-5
*DA*-H2-D5-CT
HJ-6-*A*-7
H8-C5-*HK*-5
*HQ*-4-C2-C3
*SA*-6-2-3
*SJ*-5-C6-8

Needing all three of the last tricks, the position is:

4
--
--
J4

--
--
--
AK9

Time to play the clubs. How do you play them?

[Robert Chance]

There is certainly no point in finessing - East still has a couple of hearts, and no more than one club.

West appears to be 4225, and has therefore been squeezed out of the long club. Cash the clubs from the top and the queen should drop. We are making the contract unless West was 3226, in which case there was no play for the contract.

[Player]

West cannot have 6 clubbs unless there are 14 cs in the pack. Play for the drop.

[David Goldfarb]

Post by Robert Chance
There is certainly no point in finessing - East still has a couple of
hearts, and no more than one club.
West appears to be 4225, and has therefore been squeezed out of the long
club. Cash the clubs from the top and the queen should drop. We are
making the contract unless West was 3226, in which case there was no
play for the contract.

Very good. When I was defending, the declarer did finesse and went
down one, which made for a nice pickup when our teammates stopped
in 6. Her husband noted that I had been squeezed.

I'm not sure why Player says that 3=2=2=6 vs. 4=6=3=0 is an impossible
defensive distribution: I didn't have East playing a club at any point.
But you are correct that there is no winning play in that case.

[Player]

Hq 4 c2 c3
If one opp has 6 clubs how can both pitch one?

[Player]

Forget what aI said. I misread the cards.

[David Goldfarb]

Post by Player
Hq 4 c2 c3
If one opp has 6 clubs how can both pitch one?

The club deuce was played by declarer.

[Robert Chance]

On Friday, 4 November 2016 05:30:02 UTC, David Goldfarb wrote:
When I was defending, the declarer did finesse and went

Post by David Goldfarb
down one, which made for a nice pickup when our teammates stopped
in 6. Her husband noted that I had been squeezed.

The hand is also a good illustration of how it is so easy to concede a contract with a blind lead - if West leads a red suit then the contract will usually go down (OK, I know it went down anyway, but it shouldn't have).

The book play in spades is of course to play KS and finesse the ten, playing for Qx or Qxx onside (or Qxxx plus a black-suit squeeze). In practice, however, in 7NT you could also run the jack of spades through East - it is very, very difficult for East to cover this when defending 7NT.

However, on a red suit lead, you should play West for the queen of spades, as it is a version of restricted choice; without the queen, West might have led spades instead.

[Charles Brenner]

Post by David Goldfarb

Post by Robert Chance
There is certainly no point in finessing - East still has a couple of
hearts, and no more than one club.
West appears to be 4225, and has therefore been squeezed out of the long
club. Cash the clubs from the top and the queen should drop. We are
making the contract unless West was 3226, in which case there was no
play for the contract.

Very good. When I was defending, the declarer did finesse and went
down one, which made for a nice pickup when our teammates stopped
in 6. Her husband noted that I had been squeezed.
I'm not sure why Player says that 3=2=2=6 vs. 4=6=3=0 is an impossible
defensive distribution: I didn't have East playing a club at any point.
But you are correct that there is no winning play in that case.

In any case it is 100% that East didn't have 3 clubs, so the finesse is pointless.