[jdonn]

Scoring: IMP

--- --- 2♠ (2NT)
P (4NT) P (6NT)
P P P

---

You are east. Your partner leads the 6 of spades. Jdonn on your left, GIB on your right (that explains 4NT...), GIB across from you, for money. What is your plan? (If you win trick 1 and your trick 2 play depends upon what I played at trick 1, please say so.)

[rogerclee]

i'm a baaaaaaaad mother ducker

[brianshark]

Win the ace, come back a heart.

[FrancesHinden]

We can't duck this. Partner's spade looks to be a singleton (unless GIB leads low from a doubleton). Declarer can easily have something like

KQJ10
QJx
Axx
Axx

(add pips, jack of clubs etc etc to make it a 6NT bid if you like)

[Poky]

Win spade, return spade.

Spades maybe are KT6, QJ.

[Codo]

FrancesHinden, on Nov 28 2008, 11:37 PM, said:

We can't duck this. Partner's spade looks to be a singleton (unless GIB leads low from a doubleton). Declarer can easily have something like

KQJ10
QJx
Axx
Axx

(add pips, jack of clubs etc etc to make it a 6NT bid if you like)

But if Josh had this hand, how will we beat him? He has twelve tricks no matter what we do.

So I duck too, not because I see a way to beat the contract, but maybe he wil find one to lose.

[jdonn]

Codo, on Nov 28 2008, 10:20 AM, said:

FrancesHinden, on Nov 28 2008, 11:37 PM, said:

We can't duck this.  Partner's spade looks to be a singleton (unless GIB leads low from a doubleton).  Declarer can easily have something like

KQJ10
QJx
Axx
Axx

(add pips, jack of clubs etc etc to make it a 6NT bid if you like)

But if Josh had this hand, how will we beat him? He has twelve tricks no matter what we do.

Don't you mean the opposite, that I would not have 12 tricks no matter what you do?

Quote

So I duck too, not because I see a way to beat the contract, but maybe he wil find one to lose.

Maybe. Say I win the jack at trick 1, play a club to the king, and play another spade. What do you do now, and if you go up what to you do next trick? Again, if your play depends upon any of partner's plays, please explain.

We will see which of us will be the one who finds a way to lose this

[helene_t]

What purpose could it serve to duck?

I switch to a heart.

[Codo]

jdonn, on Nov 29 2008, 12:49 AM, said:

We will see which of us will be the one who finds a way to lose this

That is easy, I am surely leading in this part of the game.

Finding winning lines however is a little trickier. I will leave that to the experts.

I try to gift you the contract by ducking the first spade winning the second and returning a club. Do you claim?
(OF course if pd showed out at the second spade and give a signal, I will follow this signal. IF it looks like you wanted to fool me, I will try a third spade...)

And yes, I saw twelve tricks in Frances example (3+2+5+2), needed some time to count 2 tricks for us.

See, I will find the losing line MUCH quicker..

[jdonn]

helene_t, on Nov 28 2008, 11:01 AM, said:

What purpose could it serve to duck?

Double dummy, none I believe as there is always some suit that you can return to beat me. But what ducking could gain is if I don't have 12 tricks right away, you may have a better idea what suit to play back when you finally win a spade later on...

[ArtK78]

Ducking could be a disaster.

Josh could have a 19 count consisting, in part, of the QJ doubleton of spades. But then would he overcall 2NT?

I have tried to come up with a construction of the cards where it matters what you play at trick two. The only thing I can come up with is when declarer has something like this:

Kx
Qx
Axx
AJTxxx

In that event, you have to win the spade and return a heart.

Or this:

Kx
AQJTxxx
Ax
Jx

In case Josh overcalled 2NT on that hand (kind of strange), you have to win the spade and return a club.

I could not come up with any hand where winning the spade at trick one set up a squeeze.

So, all things considered, the most likely beat is to win the spade and return a heart. But if you want a great story, win the spade and return a spade. You don't want Josh to make 6NT against you when he is off the whole spade suit, do you?

[jdonn]

ArtK78, on Nov 29 2008, 05:54 PM, said:

So, all things considered, the most likely beat is to win the spade and return a heart. But if you want a great story, win the spade and return a spade. You don't want Josh to make 6NT against you when he is off the whole spade suit, do you?

You give me a great story either way

KQJT AQJx Axxx x

[ArtK78]

At least I mentioned the possibility of winning the spade and returning a club.

But my construction was far different from your actual hand.

[FrancesHinden]

jdonn, on Nov 28 2008, 03:49 PM, said:

Codo, on Nov 28 2008, 10:20 AM, said:

FrancesHinden, on Nov 28 2008, 11:37 PM, said:

We can't duck this.  Partner's spade looks to be a singleton (unless GIB leads low from a doubleton).  Declarer can easily have something like

KQJ10
QJx
Axx
Axx

(add pips, jack of clubs etc etc to make it a 6NT bid if you like)

But if Josh had this hand, how will we beat him? He has twelve tricks no matter what we do.

Don't you mean the opposite, that I would not have 12 tricks no matter what you do?

Add the jack of clubs (and the 10 of hearts). Although you might get clubs wrong.

[ArtK78]

Still seems to have only 11 tricks and is off 2 aces.

[jdonn]

ArtK78, on Dec 1 2008, 10:29 AM, said:

Still seems to have only 11 tricks and is off 2 aces.

But if you duck you lose the spade ace (if I guess clubs right anyway?), which I believe is her original point.

[lilboyman]

Based on the bidding I would infer that JDonn has 17 HCP and solid Spade stop. Counting up all the points I can see and infer, partner must have about 5 HCP outside of Spades. Any 5 point combination can prevent an immediate run of 12 tricks. So, I would think you could duck Spades until you get a signal from partner as to how to proceed. If partner doesn't have what you infer, you are probably just surrendering an overtrick.

[Gerben42]

Ducking is dangerous because then when partner wins his Ace, 10-to-1 he won't play ♠ again.

[cherdano]

Gerben42, on Dec 1 2008, 09:43 AM, said:

Ducking is dangerous because then when partner wins his Ace, 10-to-1 he won't play ♠ again.

That's why you should duck slowly.

[ArtK78]

jdonn, on Dec 1 2008, 10:41 AM, said:

ArtK78, on Dec 1 2008, 10:29 AM, said:

Still seems to have only 11 tricks and is off 2 aces.

But if you duck you lose the spade ace (if I guess clubs right anyway?), which I believe is her original point.

True. I guess I was assuming that we would win the ♠A. Then there is no way to make.