[the hog]

You hold
xxx
AJTxxx
Q
AQx

You open 1D showing Hs and the bidding proceeds
1D (1S) P (3NT)
You lead the HT showing 0 or 2 higher and this dummy tracks
AKJTx
x
98x
Txxx

Partner surprises you by winning the K (good guy) and continuing with the H2 , the 9 and you defend?

[hrothgar]

Hearts are likely to be 6124 arround the table, with RHO holding Q8xx
[Partner failed to find a raise earlier, strong implying that he does not hold Kxx]

I'm guessing that RHO blasted to 3NT on a hand like

Kx
Q8xx
AKJTxxx
K

Given my hand, I am going to bang the Ace of clubs.
If there were fewer Diamonds in Dummy, such that partner might hold a Diamond stop, then I would win the heart and exit with a low heart asking for a club return

[Codo]

Hi,

Opener bid NT with just Q9xx in Hearts and did not search for an alternative. Why?
Ok, what do I know?
I have 4 easy tricks, declarer 5 if the spades run, 1 in Heart if I play two more rounds, maybe one in Club. Does he have 2 Diamond tricks?
Or more and not the queen of spade?

If he has just 8 tricks in spades and diamond, I simple need to defend passiv with a spade.

If he has enoug tricks but not the king of Clubs, I better cash out...
Ok, Pd showed already the King of H and maybe had act with a second king in clubs, so I choose the first way, win the heart and play a spade.

At the table of course this will get me to 3 NT +2 opposite 3 NT -2 from my team mates...

Kind Regards

Roland

[inquiry]

You didn't say if this was IMPs or matchpoints. My defense is different at the two games.

At matchpoints, I would wimp out and cash the top heart and top club and continue clubs (assuming the H Queen doesn't fall of course). My thought is that East is probably looking at running diamonds (with my queen falling). They could easily win 5S + 6D if I don't cash out.

At IMPs, I am going to play partner for a diamond stop. The two options are he has DT7xx or J7xx and east is only 1-4-5-3, or partner has DJxx and East is 1-4-6-2. On both of these hands, a spade back will swamp declearer's boat. So at imps, I win the HJACK and return a spade.

Ben

[the hog]

Thought I said it was teams - Australian play off trials event.

[the hog]

Full hands

AKJTx
x
98x
Txxx

x
Q9xx
AKTxxx
Kx

Best is to cash AH and then put him on the board with the S. Pd has a D stop - Jxx. If you play A and another H he can test Ds by laying down the K and then hooking after seeing the Q drop. This way he only had 8 tricks. I was surprised at this as the datum was -310 NS (EW vul of course).

Gave a lot of thought to Richard's suggestion re banging down A of C, but this guy is a good player and is really marked with KC.

Question - should pd switch to a C after winning H K? Bit hard I suppose - he holds

xxxx
Kx
Jxx
Jxxx

[Codo]

Thanks for the solution, but why do you need to bang down the ace of Heart?