[FrancesHinden]

In another thread, I said I 'hated' trusting partner rather than opponents, and Justin jumped all over me. I don't think we're actually that far apart, and this hand - which came up yesterday - is an example of what I meant.

You are South. Dummy is East.

Scoring: IMP

1♥ P 1♠ P
2♥ P P P

---

Partner picks out the unusual lead of the king of clubs.
The play goes:
CK, low, low, declarer's Ace
Ace of hearts (all follow, partner with the 5 and dummy with the 3)
Spade towards dummy, on which partner goes up with the ace
10 of clubs, declarer gives it a look, Jack, Queen, low
Low club, 9, ruff with the 6, club
Ace of diamonds (you encourage, for what it's worth)
Low diamond to your king.

You have 5 tricks. Where is the 6th one coming from?

[Free]

Lead a ♦. LHO has a 2-6-2-3 or 1-6-3-3. In the last case, you endplay LHO (or he ruffs and can't finesse ♥ anymore), in the 1st case why didn't partner overcall ♦? Btw, what's the connection with trusting partner, you're allowed to think right?

There's only 1 way I'm leading another ♣, and it's when we play standard count and partner really shows a 3 card ♥, because then we get trump promotion...

[benlessard]

If im leading kx i will give count. The setup could be xxx facing bare KQ.


im not fond of giving trump count. But here its automatic. So i play clubs and i don't mind the -110. Ive seen so many bad declarer play even at decent level that trusting the opponenet more then your partner is a losing proposition. Both for score and for partnership.

When they make 110 and partner is asking why you thought he had 3h you just tell him that you trust him and next time he will think about it.



Ben

[temp3600]

FrancesHinden, on Jan 29 2006, 06:51 AM, said:

In another thread, I said I 'hated' trusting partner rather than opponents

I return a diamond, playing declarer for 1=6=3=3.

[Kalvan14]

Partner is asking for a club return, otherwise she'd have played small diamond rather than the ace.
When she takes the spade ace, my count should be true: she should know that declarer has 2-6-2-3 or 2-6-3-2.
After ruffing the 3rd round of clubs, everything is clear, and the only way of beating 2♥ is making declarer misguess the trump suit.

Declarer's play does not make much sense, in particular at IMP: with either 1-6-3-3 or 2-6-2-3 he should cash AK in hearts, and 8 tricks are there. Playing as he did, he gave defence a chance.

[benlessard]

If LHO is 1633 hes doomed anyway

if 2623 There is no way playing a diamond will succed where playing a clubs would fail. Opp cannot misread the trump position when you fail to play a 4th round of clubs.



But that doesnt really matter. Partner show 3h you have to trust him


2533

return club will succed when partner have the J♥ or the 7h♥

return a D will work when hes got the ♦Q.

But with the AQ♦ he will play A and Q♦ by himself (low diamonds is too risky) . So you have to trust partner for the ♥7





so that why clubs is the i trust my partner lead.

Very interesting hand by the way.

I know rebidding 2h with xx AKJxx Qxx A9x seems far-fetched but...maybe they play 4cM


Further analysis (like in the Mike Lawrence books )


With
Axx
xx
AQTxxx
KT

partner will overcall.


With

axx
jxx
aTxxx
KT

He might try the K♣ lead.

I think you have a very good partner keep him/her




Hope im not too far off on this 1


Ben

[Kalvan14]

Further analysis on declarer's play: if his hand is x AKJxxx xxx A9x, drawing exactly 1 round of trumps before playing the singleton spade succeeds in finding the only loosing strategy

[mauro_1946]

Always trust on partner................else, change partner.
If we play standard carding, following first with the 5 and then ruffing with the 6, means he/she has only 2♥. This is suggested also by the bidding.
I dont agree with Ben: if dealer has 1-6-3-3, he isn't doomed anyway, since, reading the trump situation, if i play ♣ he sluffs the Q ♦ , takes the trick with dummy's J and finesse ♥.
So i agree with Free and retourn ♦

[Kalvan14]

mauro_1946, on Jan 30 2006, 03:36 AM, said:

Always trust on partner................else, change partner.
If we play standard carding, following first with the 5 and then ruffing with the 6, means he/she has only 2♥. This is suggested also by the bidding.
I dont agree with Ben: if dealer has 1-6-3-3, he isn't doomed anyway, since, reading the trump situation, if i play ♣ he sluffs the Q ♦ , takes the trick with dummy's J and finesse ♥.
So i agree with Free and retourn ♦

Declarer played the ♣J over my partner's T.
My ♣8 is master, and it does not cost anything to play it.

[FrancesHinden]

Possibly I should have mentioned that we don't play count signals of any sort in trumps.

---

When declarer has this hand (the actual layout) a club back is right.
However, a club can cost if declarer has the same shape with the H7 but not the DQ: he is on a trump guess on a club return but he is definitely off if we play a diamond forcing him to ruff in the dummy.

As benlessard & Kalvan said, with AQ of diamonds he would have played Ace then Queen, not ace then a low one; or he would have started with a low one. Interestingly, if he had AQxxxx (and had forgotten to overcall) he should start with the Queen on the first round... he knows declarer has at least 2 and he is playing us for the King anyway.

So we know he wants us to win the second round of diamonds and not play a third one.

The point about trusting partner is that declarer only has 5 hearts, but partner's defence makes it clear he wants you to play another club so trust him. (If you are totally shocked at the idea that declarer has only 5 hearts you haven't played against poor English players enough....)

Declarer probably misplayed the hand, but the actual club layout must have come as rather a shock... where did partner find that lead? We won 5 imps on this board. We won the match by 5 imps....

[benlessard]

Great agressive lead by your partner with ♠Axx and ♥xxx he knew something had to be done to put this 1 down.

Quote

Possibly I should have mentioned that we don't play count signals of any sort in trumps.

Yeah me too but when im leading for a ruff you got to give trump count no ?
I thought it was automatic. Its easier for the defender holding the ♥A knowing if he can go for 2 ruff or only 1 plus he if got bare ♥KQ its sure fun knowing if partner can ruff



Secondly parter after cashing the A♦ he should make life so easy by returning a high diamond instead of a low 1.

[hatchett]

The most telling fact is that pard didn't play AQ♦ , hence a ♣ must be the right return