How do you play Four Hearts?

[James Dow Allen]

After a long hiatus I've taken up Bridge again.
I'm playing rather badly but I did make 4H here!
I'm afraid that it was just a fluke, but am hoping
rgb'ers tell me I played it OK after all!

You declare Four Hearts with these cards
♠ A4
♡ 953
♢ AQJ83
♣ 932

♠ 732
♡ AK864
♢ 7
♣ AQ64

Opening lead is Jack of Spades.
The auction:
p - 1H - p - 2D
P - 2H - 2S - 3H
p - 4H - all pass

(Was my 4H bid a stretch?)

How do you play to make 4H? if you duck the
opening lead, East wins and returns a club.

No fair peeking first, but West is *very* weak for
his 2S bid: JT986 - JT - T5 - KJ85 )

[rhm]

Post by James Dow Allen
After a long hiatus I've taken up Bridge again.
I'm playing rather badly but I did make 4H here!
I'm afraid that it was just a fluke, but am hoping
rgb'ers tell me I played it OK after all!
You declare Four Hearts with these cards
♠ A4
♡ 953
♢ AQJ83
♣ 932
♠ 732
♡ AK864
♢ 7
♣ AQ64
Opening lead is Jack of Spades.
p - 1H - p - 2D
P - 2H - 2S - 3H
p - 4H - all pass
(Was my 4H bid a stretch?)
How do you play to make 4H? if you duck the
opening lead, East wins and returns a club.
No fair peeking first, but West is *very* weak for
his 2S bid: JT986 - JT - T5 - KJ85 )

The contract is normal, though not a good one, due to the duplication in diamonds and the club finesse being wrong.
The club switch is a subtle defensive error, a simple spade continuation defeats the contract.
East was probably worried that you might hold the diamond ten.
Given that the club finesse is wrong, declarer has 2 black losers and at least one trump loser.
Therefor trumps must break and since you can not afford another club loser, you need either two club discards on the diamonds, or you must make all your trumps in hand "en passant". In the latter case your second club loser will fall together with your trump loser. The latter requires RHO to have three trumps

To keep control duck the spade.
When a club comes back you need to decide whether

a) the club finesse is working
b) how to play diamonds

If you assume the club finesse is not working and give East the diamond king you can make as follows:

duck spade, but win the club switch.
Trump ace and king
ace of diamond, diamond ruff.
spade ace, ruffing finesse in diamonds
spade ruff, diamond winner, diamond ruff

This gives you 10 tricks, but only because you placed the minor suit kings both correctly. This looks to me like a guess.

[James Dow Allen]

Post by rhm
The club switch is a subtle defensive error, a simple spade continuation defeats the contract.

Good point. Thanks for responding.

...

Post by rhm
This gives you 10 tricks, but only because you placed the minor suit kings both correctly. This looks to me like a guess.

There's an inference that West lacks the Diamond King:
his delayed overcall means his hand "got better."
Holding DK it would have gotten worse. (But this may not have
applied giving opponents' uncertain caliber.)

BTW, I see you played to accomodate doubleton Diamond King in West.
But doesn't this create another risk? -- the hand with
three trumps having only three diamonds.

[Robert Chance]

Post by rhm
This gives you 10 tricks, but only because you placed the minor suit kings both correctly. This looks to me like a guess.

This all looks a little double-dummy to me. Not only do you need the diamond finesse right, you also need West to have the doubleton heart.

I'm sure that at the table I would duck the spade, and take the losing club finesse at trick 2. Winning the (presumed) spade return, I would cross to the ace-king of hearts and take a diamond finesse at trick 4. If it wins, I play ace of diamonds and ruff a diamond, hoping to bring the king down.

That doesn't work on the actual lie of the cards, but will almost always work when the club finesse is right, and when it is wrong you still usually make if West has Kx or Kxx in diamonds (assuming trumps break 3-2, or course).

I'm not convinced that you can infer the diamond finesse is wrong - why does having several small diamonds improve West's hand? It seems more likely that West simply forgot to overcall 1S.