Well done Kaustubh Nandi
Semi finals of interstate- Nandi held S AJ9876, H X, D K, C AKQXX, his side Vul and oppo non vul. Over a 3rd seat 1D opening on his right ,he overcalled 1S( slow auctions get u more info from opponents,if u blast a high level two suit bid u lose that ) ; Lho Doubled, and a slam search landed him in 5S. Lho led C x. Dummy SQ10X,HAQXX DJX,C 109XX.
lets analyse before we join Nandi; simple line (A) is to attend to trumps to stop the club ruff ,increasing your chances by playing A and another ; however this fails when lho holds SKXX and Rho has D A. Can lho hold H K in addition? Not only he can but quite likely he has for his X , as they are usually careful bidding over 3rd seat fav vul opener ! Why ? Because such an opener is likely to strain to tell his partner he has a genuine opening hand in subsequent auction ! So line (B) is to take a heart hook to pitch DK. Seems a better line ?
lets join Nandi now – he went a step further ; worked out that if H finesse is working there is no need to take it ! After all the finesse was for cutting communications for the club ruff and not gaining a trick , in that case the scissors coup will do . So he played H ace and continued with HQ …… sluffed his D K when rho did not cover , lho won and had no defence to beat 5S . Lho held SKxx H Kxxx DQ10xxx C x .
if rho had turned up with H King , Nandi would have ruffed and reverted to line A , WELL PLAYED !
Yes indeed, great play. Just one rejoinder though. On the table bhabesh opened 3rd seat 1D , sukamal doubled 1S and eventually also doubled 5S.(this final double was missing in bbo telecast) The final double almost marked him with atleast one of HK and DA, alongwith SK.
Just adding another twist — if it is LHO who shows out on the SA, now the declarer’s logic is slightly different. Now there is the possibility that the DA is on the left, and LHO is trying to give RHO the ruff, and you must take evasive action like before by trying to lodge the DK under the HK from the RHO. This is where Spy vs Spy comes in!
If you are the defender with Kxx in spades, you should play low on the HQ, in tempo, to preserve the entry to partner’s hand with the D Ace!
Sorry, I did not realize that it was only a 9 card fit, and not a 10 card fit in Spades, until it was pointed out to me by Kripakaran. In the post above, I had assumed it was a 10 card fit.
In a 9 card fit, if the declarer strongly felt that LHO held a singleton club, and the S King, my preferred play would have been to lead the S Jack out of hand at trick 2…