[FrancesHinden]

We had a disasterous weekend. But this hand was fun:
(you are SOUTH, dummy is EAST)

Scoring: MP

1NT 2NT P 3NT
all pass

---

1NT = 10-13
2NT = both minors "should be a reasonable hand but not discussed in detail"

Partner leads the Jack of hearts.
Declarer plays the ace from dummy, discarding the 5 of diamonds from hand. You play the 10.
Declarer now plays a spade to the king, the 10 of spades to the queen and a third spade on which he discards another diamond.
Your partner plays the two of spades on the first round (standard count), and then plays the 7, and the 5. This is either suit preference for diamonds, or neutral (playing upwards would be slightly stronger suit preference for clubs than this is suit preference for diamonds).
You play the nine of hearts, on which declarer discards a club, partner plays a middling heart, declarer thinks for a while and plays low.

Now what?

[cnszsun]

If you return a ♣ now, when declarer cashs his last 2 ♠ winners, you will have discarding difficulity.
I think partner must have ♦Q to beat the contract.
So, i will return a ♦.

[pclayton]

SO far we've taken 1 spade, 1 heart.

Declarer appears to be 2=0=5=6 from the play. It feels like declarer is missing the ♦Q. KT, void, Kxxxx, AJxxxx seems likely. If we exit a low diamond now, one of two things happens:

1. Declarer ducks and Pard wins the stiff Q, and hopefully won't make the mistake of cashing the ♥K. Pard hopefully exits a club. Declarer will cash the 2 remaining spades and lead a diamond. I'll pop, and we'll have 1 spade, 2 hearts and 2 diamonds.

If pard cashes the ♥K, bad things happen. Pard presumably switches to a club. declarer wins on the board, and suddenly I'm caught in stepping stone.

2. Declarer wins the diamond in hand, but now the communications are tangled. He can play a club to the King and cash the spades, but I can pitch down to the ♦AJ and save a heart. We'll take the same tricks, although we'll either have to give declarer the ♥Q or the ♣A in the end.

If partner wasn't giving me a real signal for diamonds, and actually held KQxxx (although I really wonder why he'd play this way? Why wouldn't he pitch clubs?), this might look a little stupid.

[han]

pclayton, on Aug 14 2007, 08:02 PM, said:

1. Declarer ducks and Pard wins the stiff Q, and hopefully won't make the mistake of cashing the ♥K. Pard hopefully exits a club. Declarer will cash the 2 remaining spades and lead a diamond. I'll pop, and we'll have 1 spade, 2 hearts and 2 diamonds.

If pard cashes the ♥K, bad things happen. Pard presumably switches to a club. declarer wins on the board, and suddenly I'm caught in stepping stone.

In that case you already took 4 tricks so you shouldn't be worried about a stepping stone.

[Fluffy]

There are 2 chances to beat the contract: partner having ♣J or partner haing ♦Q.

Declarer ♦ discards suggests he has 6 of them.

I think I can afford to play a club back, then discard a diamond and a heart on the spades.

Declarer will play a diamond in wich I can play low, and on after declarer wins ♦K I'll knwo if I have to unblock ♣Q or not.

[Fluffy]

Fluffy, on Aug 15 2007, 11:16 AM, said:

There are 2 chances to beat the contract: partner having ♣J or partner haing ♦Q.

Declarer ♦ discards suggests he has 6 of them.

I think I can afford to play a club back, then discard a diamond and a heart on the spades.

Declarer will play a diamond in wich I can play low, and on after declarer wins ♦K I'll knwo if I have to unblock ♣Q or not.

I though of this and doesn't work, if declarer has ♣J he will endplay me because we will no longer have the second heart trick (discarded it), and after winning ♦AJ only ♣Qx will be remaining.


So we must play the suit in wich partner has a honnor, and our best advice is the middling heart that partner played on the ♥9. That has to mean diamonds, so play low diamond.