[S2000magic]

MPs, solid partner, W v R, RHO deals and you hold:

♠ 9 7
♥ 9 6 3
♦ A J 5 2
♣ K 10 7 5

The bidding:

(P) - P - (1♥) - P
(1♠) - P - (2♣) - P
(2♥) - P - (4♥) - P
(P) - P

Partner opens ♦10 (standard leads), and dummy puts down:

♠ A J 6 5
♥ 10 4
♦ 8 7 6 4 3
♣ J 8

Dummy follows with the ♦3, you win the ♦A, declarer drops the ♦K.

Where do you go from here?

[nigel_k]

It would be good to know partner's overcalling style because, in my style, his failure to overcall non-vul rules out a number of possible layouts. But I am probably playing a trump.

[inquiry]

Strictly intermediate answer.
As with any defensive hand, start by asking yourself a few simple questions.
1) How many hcp do you expect opener to have?
2) Do the math and figure out the reasonable range of points partner holds
3) What is declarer's most likely distribution.
4) Best guess where partner's hcp might be.

Declarer should have a very good hand, lets say at least 17 hcp, and didn't jump to 3♣s over 1♠ so not too many more. Dummy has five and we have 8, that gives partner somewhere around 10 hcp at a maximum, lets call it 8-10.

Declarer told us he had five hearts and four clubs (min each), and he never support spades. In addition, he jumped to 4♥ opposite a possible doubleton heart, so there is reason to think he will have a sixth heart.

There is every reason to assume partner's hcp are scattered in the remaining suit, especially if he doesn't have the ♦Q (ten could be from ♦QT9 so the king was singleton I guess, with diamonds unbid suit), or from T9 singleton (a clever declarer with ♦KQ9 could false card with king if he was on the top of his game). ♦ play here should scare you. If diamonds are 2254, declarer maybe able to pull trumps, use the spade entries to dummy (assume partner has one of the missing spade honors, which is finessable), to take a ruffing finesse through you ♦Jx if you return a diamond now. So if declarer dropped the king from KQ9 he got me. (a possible neat position is declarer has Kx of spades, when a low spade is played towards dummy, partner has to play 2nd hand high to block the suit).

I have two options. One is to return a trump, to cut down on club ruffs in dummy -- useful if partner has any club honor, the other is to try to remove one of the spade entries from dummy before the diamond queen can be cashed dropping partners nine. Both lines have some merit. Swaying my decision is the following points. Even if the spade return now can stop the pull trump and set up diamond (ruffing finesse after trumps are pulled), the line with ruffing clubs in dummy might still work on this line. 2nd, if declarer has two diamonds, there is a great chance he is 1-6-2-4 so he never has entries to set up and use diamonds, but we might let him ruff a certain club loser.

So I will go with a trump here at trick two. There is one additional side benefit of not returning a diamond, if south is 0-6-3-4 and falsecarded from KQ9 of diamonds, he will never get to dummy on a trump back, and I will eventually score my diamond JACK, although I might be endplayed late on the hand I guess in clubs.

[FrancesHinden]

I don't buy into this convoluted thinking about the diamond suit. Declarer will have at least 6 hearts (if he doesn't, I'm not worried, because then he's a poor player) and 4 clubs. If he has KQ diamond then he has a singleton spade.

[inquiry]

FrancesHinden, on 2012-April-07, 02:55, said:

I don't buy into this convoluted thinking about the diamond suit. Declarer will have at least 6 hearts (if he doesn't, I'm not worried, because then he's a poor player) and 4 clubs. If he has KQ diamond then he has a singleton spade.

Your right that if declarer has five hearts he will be a poor player. I noted in my convoluted thinking that "In addition, he jumped to 4♥ opposite a possible doubleton heart, so there is reason to think he will have a sixth heart."

However, if this was bbo as stated, poor players abound so sadly or happily, depending on your point of view, declarer may easily have just five strong hearts like ♥AKQJX, ♥KQJXX, ♥AQJXX. I do agree that if he has five only hearts he will not be able to think about dropping the king from KQ9 to talk us out of a potential diamond ruff.

Anyway, maybe I made too much of a problem out of the hand, but the question I think is what to return. I considered reasons why to return every suit but clubs (I talked myself out of a club return without the need for any thinking, so no doubt club is best...: ). Anyway, I gave my thoughts on each suit. The only reason to return a diamond is if partner has a singleton, there is a potential reason to return a spade, but a trump looks best to me. You didn't say, so what would you play at trick two?

[FrancesHinden]

I can probably construct hands where almost anything is right, but I'd go for the simple approach: dummy has a doubleton club, declarer has bid clubs, I have some nice cards in clubs, therefore I play a trump.