[Miron]

Scoring: IMP

2♦! - 2♥ - x! - 3♠
p - 4♠ - all

---

2♦= multi, here: 6-10, 6♥
x! = p/c, slightly encouraging (I can play 2♥x or 2♠)

2♥ were probably some take/out.

The lead is ♥x. You win the ♥A, the ♥K dropping. How will you proceed?

I led ♦x hoping to find partner with ♦Kx. But partner has ♦Kxx and returned the diamond (the declarer ruff third diamond, played two rounds of spades and claimed). Partner has ♣Qx...
Should I play the diamond? Should he switch to clubs after I played the low ♦ and he takes the ♦K?

[whereagles]

Not easy, but you can play the ♦A. Seeing that pard encourages, you can reason like this "I won't beat this unless we get a club trick" and switch to a club..

[Miron]

whereagles, on May 23 2006, 01:46 PM, said:

Not easy, but you can play the ♦A. Seeing that pard encourages, you can reason like this "I won't beat this unless we get a club trick" and switch to a club..

But I loose if partner has ♦Kx without the ♣Q...
With ♦Kx, we have ♥A and ♦AK and a ♦ ruff...

[ochinko]

Declarer seems too weak to make the contract, so I don't see any need for active defense. I simply return a trump, and watch how the things are going to develop.

[whereagles]

Miron, on May 23 2006, 12:58 PM, said:

whereagles, on May 23 2006, 01:46 PM, said:

Not easy, but you can play the ♦A. Seeing that pard encourages, you can reason like this "I won't beat this unless we get a club trick" and switch to a club..

But I loose if partner has ♦Kx without the ♣Q...
With ♦Kx, we have ♥A and ♦AK and a ♦ ruff...

Well, and underleading the ♦A loses because pard won't guess he needs to switch to a club before continuing diamonds.

Basically you have to play for something. Either pard has doubleton king of diamonds or he has a club honor. You have to guess which.

[FrancesHinden]

I think partner probably could have got this right.

When he's looking at Kxx in diamonds, he has the choice of playing you to have the king of clubs, or a diamond singleton. The former is not only more likely, but also doesn't depend on declarer having misplayed the hand!

Underleading the DA could have been right, but was also dangerous. Given we've found out that partner had xx Qxxxxx Kxx Qx, wouldn't partner also open a multi on

x
Qxxxxx
10xxx
Ax

?

[jdonn]

I'm not saying partner should have continued diamonds (probably he shouldn't), but I wouldn't play partner for Kx. With that holding and essentially a takeout double on his left, and a partner who showed values, I think he would have led the diamond on opening lead rather than a heart from a bad suit. So I think you should return a club.

[cherdano]

FrancesHinden, on May 23 2006, 05:14 PM, said:

Underleading the DA could have been right, but was also dangerous. Given we've found out that partner had xx Qxxxxx Kxx Qx, wouldn't partner also open a multi on

x
Qxxxxx
10xxx
Ax

?

Well, apart from the tiny detail that partner can't have our ♦T, I wonder whether we really lose anything here. Won't we usually duck anyway when declarer plays a low diamond from dummy?

Of course it depends on how the play goes, but it seems declarer can usually arrange to lead a diamond before we know any of count, ♦A = setting trick or that declarer wont need club discards on ♦QJ.

Arend