From: adam@irvine.com (Adam Beneschan)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: Re: Defensive falsecard.
Date: 9 Oct 92 18:02:47 GMT
Organization: Irvine Compiler Corp., Irvine, California, USA

In article <1992Oct8.211955.22014@ms.uky.edu> taddiken@ms.uky.edu (scott
taddiken) writes:

>  You are in 3NT, holding:
>
>           DUMMY: JT987
>                  3                 The bidding was, perhaps, optimistic:
>                  6432              V vs NV, opps pass throughout:
>                  QT9               2c(strong and artificial) 2d (neg) 
>                                    2h  2s 
>           YOU:   AK                2nt 3nt
>                  KJT82             All pass.
>                  AK95
>                  A2
>
>  LHO leads 5c.  You play the 9c, RHO the K, and you take with the A.
>  The advised line in the text which contained this problem (which I will
>  keep secret for a day or two) was to unblock the s's, then play off the
>  A and K of d to see if d's will provide another entry to get the s's.
>
>  My problem is this.  It is just possible that RHO holds the protected Qs,
>  and the d's break 4-1, and when RHO gets in, he will present us with a 
>  guess (at best) in h's.  Those are, perhaps, long odds.  But at the club
>  where I play, there are very few RHO's who, holding KJ4 of c's, won't
>  play the J at the first trick.  So an ironclad method of making (except
>  against a couple of the better players) is to use the Qc and Tc as your
>  entries to get the s's.
>
>  Question for those of you who defend well:
>  Were I playing against you, for MPs or $, how likely would it be that
>  you put up the Kc from KJ4?  From other combinations?
>
>  (I'm sorry not to provide you with an entire hand, but that is in fact
>  part of the question.  What kind of hands would make you play such a 
>  falsecard?)


You can't use the queen and 10 of clubs as two entries, even if LHO does have
the jack, because you only have one small club to lead to dummy.

You can try using the 10 as an entry and hope the opponents will have to lead
clubs to your queen later.  But you'll still go down if diamonds are 4-1.
Say you win the first trick with the Ac, unblock spades, and lead your low
club to the 10, which holds.  Now you lead a spade, which RHO wins with the
queen.  RHO shifts to a singleton diamond 7 or 8.  Suppose you play the 5
(not a good play, since you're still hoping diamonds break 3-2 so you can get
to dummy; but we're assuming diamonds are 4-1 in this exercise).  LHO does
best to overtake and continue with a diamond honor.  You'd better win (if you
duck again, LHO continues diamonds and you have to lead hearts out of your
hand).  Now, you lead diamonds and LHO takes his last two diamonds, then gets
out with a low heart.  Even if you win cheaply with the 8, you are down to
only hearts and will probably have to give them both the ace and queen.
That's down one---you lose two hearts, two diamonds, and a spade.  You're no
better off if RHO has the four diamonds;  he will either shift to a diamond,
setting up two tricks for the defense, and when he's in with his good
diamonds, shift to a heart, forcing you to guess.  (Actually, there's no
guess;  you have to play RHO for the Qh.)

You might do better by cashing one high diamond before leading to the 10c to
set up spades.  Now, if the person with the Qs started with a stiff diamond,
you may be all right.  Suppose RHO has the Qs and the singleton diamond.
He's forced to return a heart.  Now if LHO has the queen of hearts you really
have no chance, so you play the ten.  If LHO ducks, you cash your other high
diamond and throw LHO in with his good diamonds.  He can't lead a black card
to dummy, and leading ace and another heart gives you the rest of the tricks,
so he leads a low heart which you win as cheaply as possible.  Now you have
to either lead a low heart to the stiff ace or lead the king of hearts to
smother the queen, but by that point you should have a pretty good count on
the hand.

I still think the recommended line of cashing both high diamonds is best.  If
diamonds break 3-2, you then lead the 9d.  If RHO has the last diamond, the
hand is cold because he can't attack your club entry.  If LHO has the last
diamond and leads a low club, you can still try the 10.  If diamonds break
4-1, you can still play as I descsribed in the preceding paragraph---lead a
low club to the 10, knock out the queen of spades, and hope that the person
with the spade queen has no more diamonds.  If this doesn't happen, you're
probably going down no matter what line of play you adopt.

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  Adam Beneschan                     voice: (714) 250-1368  ext. 204
  Irvine Compiler Corp.              fax:   (714) 250-0676
  34 Executive Park, Suite 270       email: abeneschan@irvine.com
  Irvine, CA 92714
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-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Adam Beneschan                     voice: (714) 250-1368  ext. 204
  Irvine Compiler Corp.              fax:   (714) 250-0676
  34 Executive Park, Suite 270       email: abeneschan@irvine.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge