[pclayton]

You are playing in the GNT qualifying at the club level. Somehow the ACBL pretty much guarantees that everyone gets in, so you just have to follow suit for a few hours. Still, there is some pride on the line as you play the best team in the room that contains all previous national champs.

On the 1st board, pard overbids and puts you in a tenuous 5 of a major contract that you bring home. The stress level is already pretty high when you look at:

Scoring: IMP

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1♣ on your right (you and pard pass throughout). 1♥ on your left, 2♣, 2♦ (artificial), 2N, 3♥, 4♥. You don;t ask, but presumably 3♥ is forcing.

Pard leads the ♠2 (3rd and low) and declarer ducks in dummy. After you win the King, what do you play. Try to do as good as a job as possible and reconstruct the unseen hands.

[cherdano]

Leads?

[pclayton]

cherdano, on Feb 11 2006, 08:38 AM, said:

Leads?

Edited.

[awm]

It seems pretty clear to me to cash the diamonds. Partner likely has a trump trick -- otherwise declarer would probably rise with the ace of spades, pull trumps, and run the clubs. Declarer almost surely doesn't have three clubs (he could've tried for a club slam opposite partner's supposed six card suit) so I don't think partner's ruffing there. Declarer's shape should be something like 3631 or 3622 with good (but not solid) hearts. A seven-card heart suit is also possible (3721 or 3712).

[cherdano]

awm, on Feb 11 2006, 07:02 PM, said:

It seems pretty clear to me to cash the diamonds. Partner likely has a trump trick -- otherwise declarer would probably rise with the ace of spades, pull trumps, and run the clubs.

I am not sure about that. Wouldn't declarer duck with ♠Qxx ♥AKQxxx ♦Qxx ♣x? Against this hand, we have to switch do ♦8. I think the strongest inference against this hand is that he might bid 3N over 2N (I think the should).

I wonder whether declarer would ever duck without the queen. If not, I think partner has ♦J, as he should prefer a lead from ♦xxx over a lead from ♠Jxxxx or ♠xxxxx. So the ♦8 is really tempting...

[Codo]

If we can cash 2 Diamond tricks, we need one more trick elsewhere.
To play the 8 of Diamond now is just good, if declarer has exactly Qxx in Diamonds, quite unlikly. He is marked with 4 spades (given std. leads) and 6 Hearts, 6 not 7, because he bidded 3 Heart as a choice of game. This does not leave much room for the minors...
So I play the simple defence and cash my diamonds, hoping for a late trump trick from pd.
-But of course, if this is the solution, there had been no problem....

[000002]

Jxx
AQJTxx
QJ
Kx

is it possible?

[cherdano]

Jlall, on Feb 13 2006, 06:22 PM, said:

cherdano, on Feb 11 2006, 01:09 PM, said:

Wouldn't declarer duck with ♠Qxx ♥AKQxxx ♦Qxx ♣x?

Only if he has very little respect for your game.

How so? This is playing for opening leader to have ♠K. Why is this less likely than ♣K onside? I would think the auction is calling for an aggressive lead. (Not rhetorical questions.)

Arend

[mikeh]

Jlall, on Feb 13 2006, 11:22 AM, said:

cherdano, on Feb 11 2006, 01:09 PM, said:

Wouldn't declarer duck with ♠Qxx ♥AKQxxx ♦Qxx ♣x?

Only if he has very little respect for your game.

Sorry, Justin: I don't get it.

There are some (very) bad players who refuse to lead away from a King, unless dealt 4 of them, but the opps we have on this board are not of that ilk. I cannot understand rising with the A with the posited hand, unless I have seen where the black Kings are )

[Winstonm]

It appears that declarer has a holding such as:

xxx, AKQxxx, QJx, x.

And he is trying to ruff a spade in dummy, expecting to be able to return to hand with club ruffs - what he doesn't know is the Kx is onside.

I will return a heart, taking away an entry back to hand and forcing a return with club ruffs. I expect declarer to follow this plan and cross to the spade Ace then play club Ace and ruff a club. When he ruffs the third spade in dummy, he still has to return to hand and whether he plays another club or a diamond the uppercut with the hoped for Jxx has occurred.

Winston

[pclayton]

000002, on Feb 13 2006, 03:06 AM, said:

Jxx
AQJTxx
QJ
Kx

is it possible?

THIS hand we can rule out. Pard would certainly lead a stiff club holding Kxx of trump.

[pclayton]

Winstonm, on Feb 13 2006, 08:44 AM, said:

It appears that declarer has a holding such as:

xxx, AKQxxx, QJx, x.

And he is trying to ruff a spade in dummy, expecting to be able to return to hand with club ruffs - what he doesn't know is the Kx is onside.

I will return a heart, taking away an entry back to hand and forcing a return with club ruffs. I expect declarer to follow this plan and cross to the spade Ace then play club Ace and ruff a club. When he ruffs the third spade in dummy, he still has to return to hand and whether he plays another club or a diamond the uppercut with the hoped for Jxx has occurred.

Winston

Your national champ LHO wouldn't tie himself up like this.

He would fly with the A♠ and lead a low one. Win the (supposed) trump return, A♣, ruff ONE club, trumps and knock out two diamonds.

Ducking the A♠ just creates timing problems on this layout.

[pclayton]

Jlall, on Feb 13 2006, 08:55 AM, said:

mikeh, on Feb 13 2006, 11:44 AM, said:

Jlall, on Feb 13 2006, 11:22 AM, said:

cherdano, on Feb 11 2006, 01:09 PM, said:

Wouldn't declarer duck with ♠Qxx ♥AKQxxx ♦Qxx ♣x?

Only if he has very little respect for your game.

Sorry, Justin: I don't get it.

There are some (very) bad players who refuse to lead away from a King, unless dealt 4 of them, but the opps we have on this board are not of that ilk. I cannot understand rising with the A with the posited hand, unless I have seen where the black Kings are )

Mike, I am pretty confident if you had AJ8 or KJ8 of diamonds, you would shift to the jack looking at Txx in dummy. Against you I would pop queen without a doubt.

But with AJ8x or KJ8x?

[joshs]

Hmm, well declarer is likely 3631 but he may be 2632 (partner has stiff K) or 3721.
We either need 3 diamonds or 2 diamonds and a trump trick. I believe partner has a trump trick: here is why:
If declarer had AKQxxx or better in trumps he might have just bid 4H, but since he went to the bother of offering a choice of contracts, its more likely that his trumps are not self-sufficient. Its not an iron clad deduction (he might be tring to get to 3N with Qxx AKQxxx Qxx x) but since we don't know he has the spade Q, and we don't know he would bid like this with this hand, I rather cash my AK of diamonds and see what happens...

Josh

[mikeh]

Sorry, Justin, I interpreted your earlier post as commenting on the duck of the ♠A, not declarer's play to the posited ♦8 switch: I agree with you that for declare to duck with Qxx is insulting to the defender

As to the winning defence, I do not think that there is any compelling argument to choose between two possibilities.

One can play partner to have a ♣ void and switch to a low ♣. This (essentially) requires opener to be 3=6=1=3. BTW, I would always have asked about the 2♦ rebid: so that I can exclude some hand types: problem posters should not ignore this point. We are being asked to make a decision on less information than would have been available at the table. I am assuming that the 2♦ rebid was (in the context of the problem) information-free.

Or one can play partner to hold a red winner: declarer to be 3=6=4=0 or 3=6=3=1 with some combination of 3♦ losers (perhaps including a ruff) or 2 ♦ losers and a trump loser.

Partner's silence is meaningless: I would hope that he would pass 1♥ with Jxxxx Kxx Qxxxx void at this vulnerability.

However, it is possible that I would know, at the table, that declarer would probably have bid 3♣ over 2N, especially if 2♦ showed 6♥.

If opener could have 3=6=1=3 on the auction, I switch to a low ♣. This is not always fatal when declarer has 3=6=3=1 and it will be essential if he has 3=6=1=3.

If he cannot logically hold Kxx♣ (that is to say, if he held it, he has distorted his hand in a constructive auction), I will play KA♦ and another ♦.

[pclayton]

Here's the entire hand:

Scoring: IMP

---

At the time, here was my reasoning: Pard is marked with a doubleton club (otherwise he leads his stiff) and 5 spades. Declarer has exactly six hearts (otherwise he jumps to 4 hearts over 2♣).

A rebid of 3♥ (versus 4) over 2N is intriguing. Either the hand really needs something in hearts or its interested in 3N. I can't tell which. Further, trying to read too much into this call might just be noise.

I also placed declarer with a pretty good hand. Otherwise, the hand just rebids 3♥ over 2♣. Frankly, I think that's what the actual hand calls for; I think forcing to game on a non-fitting 11 is a bit of an overbid. However, they are vul, so its reasonable.

Whats the spade situation? I think its somewhat dependent on the club situation. For instance, if declarer has the stiff ♣K, wouldn't it make more sense to fly with the ♠A, and try to take diamond pitches right away, and ruff a spade later?

At the table, I constructed Qxx, AKQxxx, Qxx, x in less time than it takes to type this and shifted to Arend's 8♦. Declarer ducked to the J. Pard now made a really cute (bad?) play. He shifted to a low club (!). Maybe he couldn't read my 8-spot, I don't know. Declarer rose with the A, and lost a ruffing finesse for -2.

At the other table, they just cashed the ♦AK and took their heart trick for -1.

Some of the comments I find very enlightening, and have caused me to somewhat rethink this hand. Here's what I think now:

1. Pard can still have a stiff club, but only if he has a trump trick. Pard still might lead the stiff K♣, with the suit rebid on his left.

2. I love Justin's comment about Declarer not rising with the Q♦. Dead on! It is insulting to me that I led small diamond away from A (K) J8(x). By rising with the Queen he now makes an unmakeable contract.

3. Mike gives some interesting alternate constructions. I wouldn't have considered a club ruff, although pard probably bids a sandwich NT with a lot of 5=3=5=0's and declarer rebids clubs over 2N with 3=6=1=3. I know my opponents system well enough that 2♦ doesn't promise 6 hearts.

4. An interesting side problem is what does is the best call over 2N with Qxx, AKQxxx, Qxx, x? I'd probably rebid 3N myself. So the fact that pard probably has a trump trick might be reason alone to bang down the ♦AK.

Overall, I love this problem.