Two hands from the past 24 hours that were particularly frustrating.
Board 1
South leads a heart after overcalling spades (suspicious). I can count eight top tricks, and would like to have West lead clubs to my king eventually. Another possibility comes from the spade suit. I suspect West is missing a spade card in sequence - otherwise, a spade lead would be nearly automatic
This means I can place North with a singleton spade honor. The spade layout may be something like
T
763 AK82
QJ954
I might convince West to lead a high spade later and create a potential endplay situation. The layout I would be angling for resembles
_
_ A8
Q4
So I start running my diamonds. When South shows out, I am suspicious he is 5413. He is also hesitant to part with his clubs, so he probably has an honor or two there.
What I missed at the table was the second spade pitch. Now I can promote my long spade by force. All I need is for N/S to screw up leading clubs.
So, rather than cashing the SK and exiting a spade (which forces North to discard carefully), I tried to endplay West when there was no endplay to be had.
But then something amazing happened. North let South win the heart! And then something even more amazing happened: I ducked the spade return :0
It should have occurred to me that I was going to end up being endplayed if I ducked this trick. Oh well.
Board 2
See if you can plan the play better than I did.
Board 1
South leads a heart after overcalling spades (suspicious). I can count eight top tricks, and would like to have West lead clubs to my king eventually. Another possibility comes from the spade suit. I suspect West is missing a spade card in sequence - otherwise, a spade lead would be nearly automatic
This means I can place North with a singleton spade honor. The spade layout may be something like
T
763 AK82
QJ954
I might convince West to lead a high spade later and create a potential endplay situation. The layout I would be angling for resembles
_
_ A8
Q4
So I start running my diamonds. When South shows out, I am suspicious he is 5413. He is also hesitant to part with his clubs, so he probably has an honor or two there.
What I missed at the table was the second spade pitch. Now I can promote my long spade by force. All I need is for N/S to screw up leading clubs.
So, rather than cashing the SK and exiting a spade (which forces North to discard carefully), I tried to endplay West when there was no endplay to be had.
But then something amazing happened. North let South win the heart! And then something even more amazing happened: I ducked the spade return :0
It should have occurred to me that I was going to end up being endplayed if I ducked this trick. Oh well.
Board 2
See if you can plan the play better than I did.