[Phil]

I played a few practice matches with Mark Leonard last night. See you can duplicate his nice defense on this one:

---

You lead the ♠T, which declarer wins the A. Partner plays the 3.

Declarer draws three rounds of trump. Partner follows once and pitches the ♥5 and 6 on the 2nd and 3rd.

Declarer leads the ♥3. Do you duck this? If you win, what do you play next?

[wyman]

Spoiler

Declarer has to be 1183 without the ♣A if we have a prayer (edit: I guess he can be 1282, but then we need partner to have AJ of clubs, in which case any club beats it). We need to score 2 clubs, and we can't let declarer get to dummy to pitch on a major suit K. We have to lead a club, and if partner has AJ, we always beat this, so assume declarer has Jxx. The 8 allows declarer to play the 9. The 10 allows declarer to win the J in hand and finesse the 9. The Q forces declarer to rise in dummy, and partner can return a club for -1.

This doesn't seem that hard when posed as a problem, but it's certainly nice to get right at the table. WTG markleon.

[CSGibson]

what are our carding agreements? I mean, wyman's analysis seems right, and you can use bridge logic to get there, but if you give a defensive play problem and bother to give partner's spot cards, I think including the carding agreements are nice too.

[Fluffy]

counting to 11 if I duck is not so hard, declarer could had played a bit better.

[mikeh]

It was a wpd moment, but I would think that any good player who is thinking properly would get this right. At the risk of sounding condescending, this is really a case of avoiding an error by thinking carefully. Any play but rising the A and leading the club Q would be 'obvious' errors to an expert.

[ArtK78]

mikeh, on 2012-May-04, 09:23, said:

It was a wpd moment, but I would think that any good player who is thinking properly would get this right. At the risk of sounding condescending, this is really a case of avoiding an error by thinking carefully. Any play but rising the A and leading the club Q would be 'obvious' errors to an expert.

+1

[inquiry]

Phil, on 2012-May-04, 08:42, said:

Declarer leads the ♥3. Do you duck this? If you win, what do you play next?

Declarer has one spade, eight diamonds, and in all likelyhood (even without signals from partner) only one or two hearts (didn't play in the major). Since he asked for aces quickly, he rates not to have a heart void, and since he didn't go to slam, not the club ace.

The defense is very clear. Win the heart ace, switch to the club queen. This works if declarer is 1183 even if declarer has the club jack, or 1282 but in which case partner needs the club jack.

[wyman]

Also, he rates to not have a heart void when he leads the ♥3.

[ArtK78]

wyman, on 2012-May-04, 09:48, said:

Also, he rates to not have a heart void when he leads the ♥3.

I don't know about this. He could be very tricky.

[Hanoi5]

wyman, on 2012-May-04, 09:48, said:

Also, he rates to not have a heart void when he leads the ♥3.

Changing my sig

[ahydra]

On a tangential note, can someone explain why North did not bid 5C, given that 4NT normally offers a choice of minors? My guess is that this pair was playing 4NT differently?

As for wyman's comment, I was going to link the webpage that has the definition of "invoke" (to follow suit when you can't), but can't seem to find it.

ahydra

[Phil]

Carding is udca, but youve got a pretty count at this point don't you?

[Phil]

mikeh, on 2012-May-04, 09:23, said:

It was a wpd moment, but I would think that any good player who is thinking properly would get this right. At the risk of sounding condescending, this is really a case of avoiding an error by thinking carefully. Any play but rising the A and leading the club Q would be 'obvious' errors to an expert.

Not condescending at all Mike.

This was really just a brag hand for my pard - with an instructional element.

[JLOGIC]

Instructive element...counting is good at bridge.

[Foxx]

ahydra, on 2012-May-04, 10:15, said:

As for wyman's comment, I was going to link the webpage that has the definition of "invoke" (to follow suit when you can't), but can't seem to find it.

http://www.rpbridge.net/3y01.htm

[jbaptistec]

I think there is a defense that gives additional chances if you know declarer is 1282 : you can return a low club after winning the ♥A (best on the second round), declarer with ♣Jx might rise with the King as you would defend the same way with AT8.

However for this you must be sure declarer is 1282 (if he is 1183 with ♣Jxx he can win by inserting the 9 from dummy), and give very honest count so that partner plays the J with AJxx.