[Apollo81]

♠K9
♥K10987
♦AK85
♣93

1♥-(Dbl)-2♥*-(2♠)-all pass
* 5-8

You lead the ♦A and dummy shows:

♠A732
♥Q64
♦Q2
♣AQ102

Declarer calls for the ♦2 from dummy, partner plays the ♦3 and declarer the ♦6. You are playing low encourages.

What's your plan for the defense?

[skjaeran]

I'll play for partner to have a doubleton ♦ - as his signal implies. Declarer should be 4252 then, and we'll need to make 2 ♦'s, a ruff ♥AK or ♥K♣K and need a trump trick in addition to set the contract.

There's a danger though. If partner holds the ♣K and I continue ♦'s, declarer will throw a ♣ from dummy. The ♥ switch will be ducked to my king. If I switch to ♣'s now, dummy will win, ♥A is cashed, followed by ♠ to the ace and a ♣ is discarded on the ♥Q. If I instead continue with my last ♦, another ♣ is discarded from dummy. Declarer wins the ♥ return with the ace and plays the ♠Q, pinning partner's potential J and again makes the contract.

What I need to do to set the contract whenever it's possible, is to switch to ♣'s. A wide awake partner wouldn't encourage ♦'s holding the ♥A and no ♣K (since I'd switch to ♥'s if he discourages) and we'd still have the tempo for the ruff.

Partner's hand: Jxx Jxx xx KJxxx.

[Fluffy]

Declarer looks like 4243, he has nowhere to hide, les try a ♣ and pray he has no ♣K9x

[Apollo81]

No one likes my play problem huh

I challenge anyone to get this right.

[Halo]

I would switch to 10 of hearts after cashing the diamond Ace

[bhall]

I wonder if partner is giving me more credit than I deserve. He might reason as follows: This partner would not lead the A of an unbid suit at trick 1 without the K, unless he was seeking a ruff. That's clearly not the case, so he has both. What's more (this is the ticklish part) he knows that I know this.

If I discourage with a high diamond, he will most likely switch to "our" suit, but I don't have the A or K there, so that could be fatal. If I encourage, maybe he can work out that I am unlikely to be short in diamonds, and he will find a club switch.

Actually, I am blessed with a partner who thinks this way, and sometimes I can live up to his expectations.

[Fluffy]

Apollo81, on Jun 16 2007, 11:13 PM, said:

No one likes my play problem huh

I challenge anyone to get this right.

I know that you never ever read my posts, but Harald made a deep analyss at least, I think at least he should be anyone.

[Apollo81]

Anyone who played a club gets a 9/10. For a full 10 out of 10 you needed to specify that you would lead the ♣3. Here's why.

It's likely that given the trick 1 signal that partner wants a club switch. If he has three or five clubs nothing matters, but it does if he has four. Suppose you lead the ♣9, Q, K, low. Partner returns a diamond to your king. Now you lead another club. At this point declarer has to guess whether to finesse the ♣10. If you have led ♣9-3 he will simply rise ♣A and play two rounds of hearts setting up his ♥Q to pitch the remaining club. However if you have led ♣3-9 he has a legitimate problem and may go wrong.

This was exactly the case on this hand, partner has xx Jxx Jxxx KJxx.

[pclayton]

Noble - its clear that the KH is in my hand. Inconceivable that his RHO would shift to a heart after winning the club holding the KH. So why would declarer duck the heart?

Isnt it obvious to play AH, hook spade(s) and play heart? How can declarer take less than 9 tricks?

[Apollo81]

pclayton, on Jun 17 2007, 06:12 PM, said:

Noble - its clear that the KH is in my hand. Inconceivable that his RHO would shift to a heart after winning the club holding the KH. So why would declarer duck the heart?

Isnt it obvious to play AH, hook spade(s) and play heart? How can declarer take less than 9 tricks?

The play has gone

dA
c3 to Q,K,x
d to K
c9 to ?

No hearts have yet been played. How does declarer tell whether you started with the hand you have or this hand:

Kx
J9xxx
AKx
J93

[cherdano]

There is so many things I am not getting here...

Why does partner's signal imply he has club honors? I also don't see how the club matters so much, why would I play the 3 not the 9 from J93? Wouldn't the same logic imply I would have to lead the 9 from that?

So declarer has QJTxx Ax xxx xxx. Assuming the play goes as you say in your last post, and LHO (us) has Kx J9xxx AKx J9x, doesn't declarer still make 8 tricks if he goes up with the ace, heart to the ace and a heart? He loses two in each minor, and one heart.

I must be missing a lot of things... Nothing new here...

[Apollo81]

Quote

There is so many things I am not getting here...
Why does partner's signal imply he has club honors?

Partner's signal effectively means "doubleton diamond or nothing in hearts" Since the former is unlikely the latter must be true (or partner's HCP are in spades and it doesnt matter). If partner discouraged the diamond I would probably cash the other high honor and switch to a heart.

Quote

I also don't see how the club matters so much, why would I play the 3 not the 9 from J93? Wouldn't the same logic imply I would have to lead the 9 from that?

Exactly. I can promise you that 99.99% of all declarers are not deep enough to take this into account and will just read 9-3 as a doubleton and 3-9 as a 3-card suit. Even those who are deep enough probably won't make the effort since this is a partscore.

Quote

So declarer has QJTxx Ax xxx xxx. Assuming the play goes as you say in your last post, and LHO (us) has Kx J9xxx AKx J9x, doesn't declarer still make 8 tricks if he goes up with the ace, heart to the ace and a heart? He loses two in each minor, and one heart.

He could make 10 tricks by ducking, and he will always make 9 unless you defend as such. You've held him to 8 tricks here. I'm sorry overtricks in partscores aren't exciting as slams, but I liked this deal. It came from a MP game where the difference would have mattered quite a bit.

Quote

I must be missing a lot of things... Nothing new here...

So you're implying that this hand wasn't interesting? I think this hand was more interesting than most everything people post.

[pclayton]

Apollo81, on Jun 17 2007, 04:19 PM, said:

pclayton, on Jun 17 2007, 06:12 PM, said:

Noble - its clear that the KH is in my hand. Inconceivable that his RHO would shift to a heart after winning the club holding the KH. So why would declarer duck the heart?

Isnt it obvious to play AH, hook spade(s) and play heart? How can declarer take less than 9 tricks?

The play has gone

dA
c3 to Q,K,x
d to K
c9 to ?

No hearts have yet been played. How does declarer tell whether you started with the hand you have or this hand:

Kx
J9xxx
AKx
J93

Yes, I realized that later - sorry.

You do understand that Declarer is still making 8 tricks under your scenario, since the heart gets pitched on the 4th club?

[Apollo81]

pclayton, on Jun 18 2007, 11:09 AM, said:

You do understand that Declarer is still making 8 tricks under your scenario, since the heart gets pitched on the 4th club?

Allow me to quote myself from my previous post:

Quote

I'm sorry overtricks in partscores aren't exciting as slams, but I liked this deal. It came from a MP game where the difference would have mattered quite a bit.

[pclayton]

Apollo81, on Jun 18 2007, 07:12 AM, said:

pclayton, on Jun 18 2007, 11:09 AM, said:

You do understand that Declarer is still making 8 tricks under your scenario, since the heart gets pitched on the 4th club?

Allow me to quote myself from my previous post:

Quote

I'm sorry overtricks in partscores aren't exciting as slams, but I liked this deal. It came from a MP game where the difference would have mattered quite a bit.

Very well then.

I still like the idea of trying to beat the contract as Harald suggests, nevertheless,

It is an interesting hand, and if pard understands you might lead a low club as deceptive, its even more intriguing.

Understanding pard's tendencies in cases like this can be very helpful. In the Balboa Sectional last week, I had opened, rebid clubs and we defended a spade partial. Pard held ♠9xxx / ♣Kxx and lead the ♣K (!). Naturally, declarer ruffed high on the 3rd round expecting a doubleton and we enjoyed a surprise promotion.

Another one of this same pard's tendencies is to NEVER underlead a Jack, but occasionally underlead an Ace. This has proved helpful as I've held Qxx over dummy's KT9 / K9x / KTx and declarer calls for small spot. If you win the Queen in tempo, declarer can never figure out where the Ace is.

[cherdano]

Apollo81, on Jun 18 2007, 08:40 AM, said:

Quote

There is so many things I am not getting here...
Why does partner's signal imply he has club honors?

Partner's signal effectively means "doubleton diamond or nothing in hearts" Since the former is unlikely the latter must be true (or partner's HCP are in spades and it doesnt matter). If partner discouraged the diamond I would probably cash the other high honor and switch to a heart.

Does this really hold without having agreed obvious shift? That was the logic I didn't follow.

Without obvious shift, wouldn't it be more natural to encourage without ♣K ("Partner, we have to run away with our tricks, I don't have clubs stopped.") and discourage with ♣KJ ("Partner, don't cash the other diamond, we have to set up club tricks")?

Quote

Quote

I must be missing a lot of things... Nothing new here...

So you're implying that this hand wasn't interesting? I think this hand was more interesting than most everything people post.

I didn't understand your logic, and it would have really helped if you had said in the original post that this was a MP hand...