[twcho]

Scoring: IMP

W N E S
- 1♣4♦X
P P P

---

The auction was short. Your pd led ♣A, winning, with declarer follow with 6. He continued with ♣K and declarer ruffed. Declarer led ♠5. Your pd inserted the Q and declarer covered with K. Your turn now

[cnszsun]

Maybe i missed something, but i will play it simple.
Win ♠A, return a small ♥.

[inquiry]

hand looks familiar. I kibitzed a lot of the matches so I maybe influenced from prior knowledge, although all i recall is a long string of good diamonds in the 4♦ bidder hand. Partner opened 1♣ with at most ♠QJ and ♥QJ outside of clubs (we are fairly certain he lacks a diamond honor and more power to us if he has some). If he had ♣AK he would start a club. So we think he almost has something be exactly ...

♠QJ9x
♥QJxx
♦x
♣AQxx

Partner can not have five clubs or he has AKQxx and would lead top one. Likewise, partner can not have ♥QJT as he would prefer a heart lead from that holding rather than a spade from QJ9. So declarer has at least one of the heart honors.

There is no rush to lead a ♣, surely partner lacks a five card major, and surely he is short in diamonds, so declarer has a stiff !C honor. Declearer can get to dummy to hook us in ♦s, but we have to be aware that the spade Ten in a threat to be set up with a low ♠ towards dummy, so a merrimack coup comes to mind. If partner has the ♥Q, we should get 2♠, 1♥, 1♣. Even if partner disappoints us and has only ♥J, we should get 2♠, 1♣, and possibly his ♥J if he has only three of them.

[whereagles]

Is the problem correct?.. If I doubled, how come pard led? Was there a lead out of turn or something?

[FrancesHinden]

I don't understand inquiry's response at all. We opened the bidding, not partner. And partner led the AK of clubs from his AKQx.

[winkle]

I'm going to focus on down 1 since it's not assured. There are three shapes to consider: declarer 2281, 2371, or 1471.

If 2281, I must return a heart. In theory a small heart is preferable to give declarer a guess if he has QT, but in practice I think he's going to guess right.

If 2371, there is no immediate danger (even if he has the S9, he can't pitch all the hearts away because I can ruff the 4th spade). A club or a spade return is safe. A low heart would blow the contract if declarer has the HQ. The HK would blow the contract if declarer has HQJ.

If 1741, partner's hearts must be QJ or QT to give us a chance. Here I can return anything other than the HK.

So in summary, there are three defenses I can adapt:

A. Spade/club loses if declarer is 2281 without the HQ.

B. Small heart loses if declarer is 2371 with the HQ.

C. HK loses if declarer is 2371 with the HQJ, or 1741 lacking either the QJ or QT.

Which case is least likely to be wrong? It seems clear that C is less likely than B; but to decide between A and C it helps to know the opponents. I'm not going to pick one since I know the hand.

[Walddk]

I know the layout because I was present when the hand came up. So it would be unfair to comment in detail. All I can say is that it was very dangerous to do what Katz actually did.

Roland

[FrancesHinden]

Why hasn't declarer played on trumps? Because he wants to set up a spade while he still has an entry to dummy.

What shape is declarer? Can we read anything into partner's SQ? As partner is always going to play an honour with QJ, perhaps the Q rather than the jack shows an even number and the jack an odd number?

We can ignore the trump suit; any trump tricks we are getting aren't going anywhere.

Anyway, partner won't have 5 spades because with QJ9xx in spades and AKQx surely he would have bid spades or raised clubs rather than double. So declarer is
2281, or 3181, or 2371, or 3271.

If he is 2281 with the HQ, he is now making (partner should have switched to a heart at trick 2); without the HQ we need to switch to hearts.

If he is 3181 here is nothing we can do.

If he is 2371 without the HQ we want to switch to any heart at once.
If he is 2371 with the HQ and the 9 of spades we want to switch the HK now; without the S9 staying passive will also beat it, but the HK won't cost.

If he is 3271 with the HQ we are stuck, I think.


So the only time it matters, we need to switch to the HK now.

[winkle]

I excluded 3271 as a possibility for no good reason. In that case I have to return a heart. As in the 2281 case, a small heart is preferable in theory, but in practice it shouldn't matter.

[inquiry]

FrancesHinden, on Aug 29 2006, 07:50 AM, said:

I don't understand inquiry's response at all. We opened the bidding, not partner. And partner led the AK of clubs from his AKQx.

Not enough sleep.... too much vugraph.. gack.... forget my stuff....I guess I agree now with Francis Line...

Ok, so partner was AKQx of clubs, and still probably 4-4 in the majors. This suggest declarer's most likely distributions is 2-2-8-1. That gives declarer 8D and one heart trick. If he can set up the Spade TEN, he will make unless partner has singleton diamond Queen (or ace). Since if partner has a diamond honor he is down, I will not worry about that. But I am worried about our heart trick.

If declarer has Qx of hearts he is going to make this. If he has xx of hearts a heart return sets it. So a heart back is automatic. What if declarer has only 7 Diamonds? Then he will have three in one major, and two in the other. If he had 3Spades, then the fourth spade will set up for for a heart discard (spades 4333) so we are in the same boat we have to return a heart. What if he had three hearts? Then we should always score 1H, 2S, 1C for down one as one discard on spades is not enough. Unless, declarer has the heart Qxx and we lead low. Now he scores two hearts, a spade, and his seven diamonds.

Since if declarer has Qx of hearts, he makes on any return, I guess the same merrimac coup is called for that I suggested in my crazy rambling above. Knock out the heart entry to the spade ten by leading the heart King. This works if declarer is

xx xx AQJxxxxx x,
xxx xx AQJxxxx x
xx Qxx AQJxxxx x

And loses to

xx Qx AQJxxxxx x

But in the last case, nothing works.

[twcho]

Well stated by Ben and the other posters. So the best return should be ♥K with least chance for letting the contract to slip through.

But pitifully, Ralph Katz who was sitting North didn't work this out at the table and returned a small ♥ instead. So Hampson was able to score his ♥Q from Qxx. His distribution was actually 2371. So at the end Hampson made his doubled contract with 7♦, 2♥ and 1♠ tricks.

[whereagles]

Well I give up. I don't understand the question even

[FrancesHinden]

whereagles, on Aug 29 2006, 03:41 PM, said:

Well I give up. I don't understand the question even

You opened 1C on the North hand.
East overcalled 4D
South doubled
Everyone else passed

South led the ace of clubs.

[whereagles]

Ahh.. got it now. Thx. I think I'll do this then: take ♠A, play ♥x.

[winkle]

I was also disoriented initially. And I think so was Ben. My suggestion to twcho is that in the future, state very explicitly in the text what direction I'm sitting. It also helps if you rotate the hands so that defenders are always east/west, but no one ever does this.

[Walddk]

whereagles, on Aug 29 2006, 05:18 PM, said:

Ahh.. got it now. Thx. I think I'll do this then: take ♠A, play ♥x.

Yes, and concede 510. Mind you, it's not as bad as it sounds. You will get a flat board because your team-mates have 500 from 3NT doubled at the other table. And you can actually blame it on them since they should have taken at least 800 (possibly 1100).

Meanwhile, be happy that it's not B-a-M.

Roland

[whereagles]

Feeling a need to point out someone else's mistakes, Wald?

[Walddk]

whereagles, on Aug 29 2006, 05:38 PM, said:

Feeling a need to point out someone else's mistakes, Wald?

Indeed, because you didn't explain why it can be right to switch to a low heart. If it's correct to switch to hearts (it may well be), then the king is the right card, because that will definitely knock out dummy's entry.

It may not matter, but it doesn't cost to return the king (assuming that a heart switch is necessary). "Take ♠A, play ♥x" is useless information if you can't tell us *why* the low heart return is correct.

Roland

[whereagles]

Walddk, on Aug 29 2006, 03:50 PM, said:

whereagles, on Aug 29 2006, 05:38 PM, said:

Feeling a need to point out someone else's mistakes, Wald?

Indeed, because you didn't explain why it can be right to switch to a low heart.

Roland, if you're interested in knowing why someone takes action A or B, isn't it normal to just ask him why he does so, instead of making remarks that may be taken offensively by the person in question?

Quite frankly, I wasn't fond of hearing what you said. I wouldn't want to think you did it on purpose, although I do have to mention I find it strange that you complain about me failing to provide an explanation for my bids when 50% of the posts out there also don't come with any explanation for the bids.

Now that we got the humans relations part sorted out, are you still interested in the technical part?

[Free]

If you want to play ♥, ♥K is clearly superior! I think this is the solution, but I'm not sure if I'd do it at the table... I'd probably play another ♣.