[pescetom]

MP, Friday night tournament (lively with plenty of beer).

---

Your partner is a rather wooden intermediate, you haven't discussed signals or a jump after double.
LHO is better at declarer play than bidding, RHO a new entry who says he last played 20 years ago.
The 2♠ bid was decidedly slow (perhaps no surprise, given your hand).
You lead ♠A with partner contributing the 6, opponents 4 and 2.
How do you read the 6 (if at all) and how do you plan to continue?

[AL78]

A wild stab in the dark:

My guess based on the hesitation and partner's 6 is South holds ♠Jxxx and partner is trying to do a MUD signal. It flashed through my mind that partner could be trying to encourage with J65 or J63 but given partner doesn't know we are leading from AKQ, would he really be desperate to encourage with that holding? I am going to guess partner's 2♥ was a weak jump response holding ♥AJTxxx and nothing outside so if I am right it is virtually certain declarer has the ♦A and ♥Qxxx, possibly ♦Q as well, and has at least nine tricks when they get in. If I have read everything right so far I suspect there is a high risk of conceding 10 tricks if partner holds the ♥A and we don't cash them now, so I cash the spade honors and switch to a heart.

[AL78]

AL78, on 2023-November-05, 14:19, said:

A wild stab in the dark:

My guess based on the hesitation and partner's 6 is South holds ♠Jxxx and partner is trying to do a MUD signal. It flashed through my mind that partner could be trying to encourage with J65 or J63 but given partner doesn't know we are leading from AKQ, would he really be desperate to encourage with that holding? I am going to guess partner's 2♥ was a weak jump response holding ♥AJTxxx and nothing outside so if I am right it is virtually certain declarer has the ♦A and ♥Qxxx, possibly ♦Q as well, and has at least nine tricks when they get in. If I have read everything right so far I suspect there is a high risk of conceding 10 tricks if partner holds the ♥A and we don't cash them now, so I cash the spade honors and switch to a heart.

Sorry the diagram with the bidding and play going anti-clockwise has thrown me. Having looked at it correctly my honors are sitting over declarer's Jxxx so another line is to switch to a heart now and hope partner pushes a spade through so we make four spade tricks and the heart ace.

[mikeh]

I don’t understand the lead. Unless the ace asks for an unblock, which where I play is not standard, why not the Queen….standard is that asks for an unblock of the Jack or count. Then we wouldn’t be guessing

[pescetom]

mikeh, on 2023-November-05, 14:33, said:

I don’t understand the lead. Unless the ace asks for an unblock, which where I play is not standard, why not the Queen….standard is that asks for an unblock of the Jack or count. Then we wouldn’t be guessing

That would be neat, but unfortunately that it asks for count lacking the Jack would not be on his radar
I think N would expect the Ace to promise the K and perhaps also the Q, depending on who he has been playing with... in any case he should be able to figure out that count will interest you, but maybe he thinks your burning concern is (or should be) his Ace.

[pescetom]

AL78, on 2023-November-05, 14:22, said:

Sorry the diagram with the bidding and play going anti-clockwise has thrown me. Having looked at it correctly my honors are sitting over declarer's Jxxx so another line is to switch to a heart now and hope partner pushes a spade through so we make four spade tricks and the heart ace.

Yes it's always a bit tricky to read these diagrams with hand plus dummy (which is not adequately differentiated).
I think that makes more sense.
Although I would expect declarer to have at least 5 spades given their obvious weakness, hesitation or not.

[thepossum]

pescetom, on 2023-November-05, 12:56, said:

MP, Friday night tournament (lively with plenty of beer).

---

Your partner is a rather wooden intermediate, you haven't discussed signals or a jump after double.
LHO is better at declarer play than bidding, RHO a new entry who says he last played 20 years ago.
The 2♠ bid was decidedly slow (perhaps no surprise, given your hand).
You lead ♠A with partner contributing the 6, opponents 4 and 2.
How do you read the 6 (if at all) and how do you plan to continue?

No idea. Lead to partners Ace of hearts and finesse the spades. I think that is 5 tricks

You never know partner may have a few heart tricks too

[pescetom]

thepossum, on 2023-November-05, 16:32, said:

No idea. Lead to partners Ace of hearts and finesse the spades. I think that is 5 tricks

A heart and four spades is clearly our main hope (it's more likely he will have two clubs than both A and Q hearts), but the question is how to go about communicating the spades situation, figuring out whether partner will have a second spade to return and perhaps whether his Ace really is in hearts.

[pescetom]

At the table, South followed with ♠K, North contributing the 8. South then led a heart and the K in dummy held, with declarer taking this and all the remaining tricks (the ♦A of North being squeezed against hearts by the last club)

South blaimed North's bidding and faulty count, but North argued that South had no real need for count from him having seen the dummy and so his 6 suggested a diamonds switch (and that playing the K was illogical in any case).

[mikeh]

pescetom, on 2023-November-06, 06:55, said:

A heart and four spades is clearly our main hope (it's more likely he will have two clubs than both A and Q hearts), but the question is how to go about communicating the spades situation, figuring out whether partner will have a second spade to return and perhaps whether his Ace really is in hearts.

I don’t understand the lead of the ace. How can that be better than the queen, even if one hasn’t agreed that the queen requests the Jack. I mean, wtf can opening leader have once the queen holds? Would any declarer known to mankind duck with the spade AK?

As for finding the diamond shift…no. Some hands are just too tough.

[AL78]

There is no way I am picking up the spade six as a suggestion to switch to diamonds, but then I am not clued up on signals to this depth. If partner makes a weak jump response on a crappy jack high suit, they deserve me to find the wrong switch.

[pescetom]

mikeh, on 2023-November-06, 11:36, said:

I don’t understand the lead of the ace. How can that be better than the queen, even if one hasn’t agreed that the queen requests the Jack. I mean, wtf can opening leader have once the queen holds? Would any declarer known to mankind duck with the spade AK?

As for finding the diamond shift…no. Some hands are just too tough.

I agree with your logic, I just don't think the Q asking unblock of J otherwise count would cross the radar of either player.
With traditional Italian agreements, the K would ask for unblock of any honour otherwise count, but that can no longer be blindly assumed.

AL78, on 2023-November-06, 11:39, said:

If partner makes a weak jump response on a crappy jack high suit, they deserve me to find the wrong switch.

Fully agreed, of course. He also had a chance to make amends by bidding 3♦ over 3♣, or perhaps a double of 3NT if that asks partner to lead his own suit.

[thepossum]

pescetom, on 2023-November-06, 06:55, said:

A heart and four spades is clearly our main hope (it's more likely he will have two clubs than both A and Q hearts), but the question is how to go about communicating the spades situation, figuring out whether partner will have a second spade to return and perhaps whether his Ace really is in hearts.

I didn't think there was opportunity to explore anything
I would confidently go for it straight away
I obviously would have got it wrong though

[pescetom]

You can find the complete board and what happened at other tables at the end of the other thread about this board.