[inquiry]

This one is a little different from the normal Defensive Play hands I have presented. I had an chance to review the hands played by one of our forum regulars, and this was one of the hands. I thought it presented an interesting point in the context of card reading at trick one, where you can place every relevant card with pretty good accuracy. See how you do.

Your playing matchpoint. Your partner is a devote of Larry Cohen and the law of total tricks. Opening leads: fourth best, top from sequences, low from three small.

Opening led: [dl]7
Trick one... ♦7-3-J-K

Answer these questions:
1.) How many spades do you expect your partner to have?
2.) How many hearts do you expect your partner to have?
3.) How many diamonds do you expect your partner to have?
4.) How many clubs do you expect your partner to have?
5.) What club honor(s) do you expect partner to have?
6.) What spade honors do you expect your partner to have?

Give the "best" and "worst" hands you think your partner can have for this auction.

---

[Phil]

Figuring out the two shapes is easy. Figuring out the specific honors: not so much.

Anyway, it doesn't have much of an impact for the 1st few tricks does it?

[inquiry]

Phil, on 2012-January-24, 14:53, said:

Figuring out the two shapes is easy. Figuring out the specific honors: not so much.

Anyway, it doesn't have much of an impact for the 1st few tricks does it?

NONE AT ALL.... just thought it was neat thought process.... are you sure you can't figure out some specific cards, given the shapes and the bidding?

[dwar0123]

Pard should be 4522 and declarer 4225

Reasoning.

Pard would bid michaels with 5 spades and opponent would open spades with 5.
Diamond lead can not be from a 3 small and a stiff would leave declarer with 4 clubs.

pard might overcall 2h with 6 and declarer would double 2h if he had a stiff heart and 3 diamonds.

Declarer should have akq of clubs to rebid with only 5.

Pard does not have ak of spades(would have led if had both) but probably has one of them for his overcall.

[Phil]

True - Declarer should have stellar clubs for the rebid. Sometimes partner has AK of a side suit, but I can't see leading a doubleton > AK.

I'm guessing declarer wins the diamond, plays a spade up and ducks /plays the J/T spades on the way back.

Might get interesting.

[Antrax]

1) Partner can't have five spades or he'd have either bid Michaels or bid them first. Any less than four gives declarer a five-card suit that he'd surely introduce, so partner has four spades.
2) Five. With six he'd probably compete to the 3-level.
3) The missing diamonds are 27TK. Partner didn't have all of them, and from 27T he'd lead the 2 (right?), so he has two or less. Since declarer didn't rebid a four-card club suit, it must be a 7-2 doubleton.
4) Two.
5) None? Declarer chose to compete to the 3-level on a five-card suit, it's probably a good one.
6) Beats me.

[phil_20686]

I think its pretty unthinkable that south is 4225. He could dble 2h with that shape, and partner would bid 2N with diamonds + club tolerance. Maybe that isnt fit for the B/I, but I have certainly observed many weaker players doubling here with four spades without three diamonds.

If we give south 4126, and partner then 4621, then we have to ask why he didnt lead a heart or a spade, a doubleton is not ver attractive lead, so I would place him with both black aces, Axxx Axxxxx xx x, although its hard to see him not bidding 3H on this hand. We are told he is a devotee of larry cohen so presumably this construction is impossible.

If partner is 4-5-2-2 then, then declarer is 4225, then declarer has two hearts to lose, and presumably one spade. If declarer has the spade J to go with his K, then this contract is unbeatable, unless partner has a club trick. I expect then the defence will go spade to the Q spade to the T, won by partners J. Partner can then just play a third round of spades, declarer wins or ruffs this but when he hooks a club into partners club trick we get two hearts one spade one spade ruff and one club.

[inquiry]

Thanks for playing along.

The logic that parnter has only 5♥ comes from several lines of evidence, but let's start with the lack of the lawful competition to 3♥ which we would expect if he held 6♥'s. This is not the only piece of evidence, as we shall see. A 2nd question is where are the missing 8 spades? IF south had five of them, regardless of however many clubs he might have, he could have bid 2♠ over 2♥. If partner had five of them, he could have used michaels, or began with 1♠ planning on rebidding hearts. IF neither partner nor opener has five spades, they must be split 4-4.

Partner's diamond led is inconsistent with his holding three diamonds (he would not led the ♦7 from T72. So the only remaining option from the diamond spots (alone) is partner has a singleton or doubleton diamond. Since partner is "known" to have 4♠ and 5♥, if he had only 1 ♦, that would leave him with three clubs.

Let's compare hands for declarer, we know he has 4♠ = 2♥ if he had 3♦ he would have just rebid a four card club suit at the three level, with support for all the non-heart suits. IT is a little difficult to consider he rebid a five card club as the logic so far places him with 4♠-2♥-2♦-5♣. This gets us to the 2nd piece of evidence that partner has only 5♥'s. IF partner had 6♥, along with his 4♠ and a singleton diamond declarer would be 4=1=3=5 and would clearly double 2♥. Finally if partner had 4=6=2=1 distribution (in addition to him surely bidding 3♥), odds are long he would not start with a doubleton diamond at trick one.

So I agree with the posters who guessed declarer was 4=2=2=5 (and indeed he was).

NEXT question is to try to imagine the location of the hcp. dwar0123 was right about this as well. Declarer has very good club suit to bid it at the three level. In fact he did hold AKQ as dwar0123 speculated (AKQTx). Partner did not have the spade AK, as we might guess from his speculative led, and partner didn't want to lead a heart despite our raise, because he held the Ace.

So let's place some high cards. South has "at least" akq of clubs to be bidding a five card suit like this (I suspect some might bid it on akjtx). south also has at least one of the top black suit honors (A or K), since we don't think partner has both of those. We place partner with at least the heart Ace because with qxxxx, jxxxx, or qjxxx for his 1♥ bid, he would have started that suit.

Would partner have a 1♥ overcall on something like this (maximum without spade honor)
♠J x x x
♥A Q J x x
♦ x x
♣ J x

maybe. Competitive bidding being what it is today. More likely, however, is partner has some sort of a spade top spade honor (ace or king). Let;ts turn to south's hand. if he had
♠AKxx
♥ any doubleton without ace
♦ KT
♣AKQTX

would he rebid only 3♣. I think this might be too strong, therefore, I would place a spade honor with partner. In fact, partner had this ♠AJ87, ♥AJTxx, ♦xx ♣Jx

You might get some cards wrong, who has tthe spade ace, who has the king, and you don't know if partner has the ♥queen or jack, and the black suit jacks are a mystery. But you could make a pretty good guess at what was where. This hand was discovered as part of a "what can you know" review of play for defensive purposes during hand review for a forum member. I just thought it was interesting. For the record, declarer misplayed (forgetting the diamond spots) or ruffing a spade in dummy and ended up losing 3♠ and 2♥'s. Perhaps declarer should be studying his hands rather than the defender on this one...