[vang]

you play a matchpoints tourney and have in 3rd position:
♠ Jx
♥ 7xxx
♦ A10x
♣ Q10xx

all vulnerable, the bidding starts from your partner (SAYC):
1♣ - (1♠) - 2♣ - (2♠)
3♣ - p - p - (3♠)
all pass

for some reason, you lead ♣Q and see in dummy:
♠ 6xxx
♥ AKx
♦ Q9x
♣ 9xx

low from dummy, partner the lowest available ♣ 5 and declarer ♣ J from closed hand. matchpoints, you think that ... and continue with...

[Codo]

I would lead a low Diamond. PD has AKxxx in Clubs. If he wanted a continuation or a trump switch, he could have won the King and do so. He wanted you to stay on lead for a diamond through dummy.

Of course, if pd does give pure attitude signals, he just wants no Club continuation, so I would switch to a Diamond again.
If you play udca, he warns you from switching to diamonds and you better continue passivly with a club.

If he plays strict length signals, you must figure out by yourself, what should be done. I would stay passive and play another Club.

[cherdano]

I play ♦A and another diamond.

[temp3600]

It could be urgent to return a heart (AKQxx Jxx Jxxx J) or a diamond (AKxxx QTxx xxx J). Partner could have overtaken if he wanted to continue clubs, and he knows declarer is singleton, so his signal should be suit preference, i.e. diamonds.

I'd return a low diamond. ♦A runs the risk of crashing partner's stiff KJ.

[ArcLight]

Pard has 5 cards to choose from, Attitude and Count are not going to be important.
Pard will be pretty sure you have 4 clubs for the raise. He wouldn't discorage other wise, he'd be worried about South discarding.

Pard could signal a middle card to continue, Ace and another Dime.
Good thing pard has KJx.

[cherdano]

temp3600, on Dec 6 2006, 07:16 PM, said:

I'd return a low diamond. ♦A runs the risk of crashing partner's stiff KJ.

But a low diamond has the risk of partner, with ♦KJxx, being worried that declarer duck the diamond ace when he wins the Jack.

[vang]

Scoring: MP

---

thanks for all your answers. not much of a problem, i just wanted to see if there are people considering the small diamond return. with an expert partner, it seems there are, and with good reasons.

i played this against non-expert opponents and i was quite intrigued by the diamond return (which led to a diamond ruff). but after all, for a non expert player, it may looks like a 50% guess, return diamond or heart.

btw, would you have signaled for diamond (playing small club) in your expert partnership?

[Echognome]

Jlall, on Dec 7 2006, 02:44 PM, said:

Wow Ax of spades and 2 little diamonds...that's a surprise! I admit I wouldnt have figured out to play my lowest club with that

If west's intent was to get a diamond ruff, why not overtake and play a diamond through. It's also possible that East has the K and north the A (whereas I know you will be cut off from partner's hand in that case, perhaps there will be another trick in the offing or declarer will make a mistake).

[ArcLight]

>If west's intent was to get a diamond ruff, why not overtake and play a diamond through.

I agree. The actual play reminds me of something from Hugh Kelsey, but the opposite.

"Take pard by the hand and help him find the right play when you can"
(don't present him with a problem he may get wrong when YOU know what to do)

In fact -
Hugh Kelsey would write in "Even More Killing Defense"

"Since pard did not over take your Q and lead a diamond back, you can infer that he doesn't have a low doubleton. He must have the KJxx so cash your ace and lead low to his Jack, so he doesn't make a mistake"

[pclayton]

Playing with someone I REALLY trust, with ♠Ax and ♦xx I would expect an overtake with the King (not the Ace) and a diamond shift. With a stiff ♦, I would expect an overtake with the Ace.

If pard wanted the ♦ shift from our side, he should play as he did. Obvious Shift makes things a little clearer IMO, but I'm probably a little biased.

[kgr]

pclayton, on Dec 7 2006, 06:15 PM, said:

Playing with someone I REALLY trust, with ♠Ax and ♦xx I would expect an overtake with the King (not the Ace) and a diamond shift. With a stiff ♦, I would expect an overtake with the Ace.

Why is that? Is there some logic in this or is this an agreement you have?

[pclayton]

kgr, on Dec 7 2006, 02:38 PM, said:

pclayton, on Dec 7 2006, 06:15 PM, said:

Playing with someone I REALLY trust, with ♠Ax and ♦xx I would expect an overtake with the King (not the Ace) and a diamond shift. With a stiff ♦, I would expect an overtake with the Ace.

Why is that? Is there some logic in this or is this an agreement you have?

Its an extension of "building a fence" around pard.

When pard knows you have the ♣AK, and you win the Ace, you have a reason for doing so, and that reason is that you want him to win (in this case the ♦A) and play you for a stiff ♦. And you certainly don;t want a club continuation, because you have an inferential count on the suit, so you want to dissuade pard from continuing clubs.

Conversely, when you win the King, you are sending a different message. The messages depend on the context, but here it should mean please duck.

[MFA]

Partner seems to want a ♦-shift (the small club), so I'll try that.

Usually, declarer is 5431 or 5341 and we need to play his trebleton.
But as Jlall says, partner should not request a diamond with ♥Qxx and ♦KJx. However, he might have taken his eyes off the ball, as our actual shape is a big surprise when we didn't negX. He might for instance be hoping for ♦1087x and a spade entry (+♥J if declarer is cunning enough to duck the ♦-shift).

In the end, I trust pd to have got it right and thus play a small diamond.