[kgr]

MP's; W/-
You hold:
♠T96
♥A
♦Jxx
♣AQT9xx
And the bidding goes:
(1C)-DBL-(P)-P
Play:
Your partner leads ♠K and dummy tables:
♠8xxx
♥xxxxx
♦Axx
♣
     ♠T96
     ♥A
     ♦Jxx
     ♣AQT9xx
Declarer takes the ♠A and returns a small ♣ for partner's 5 and your 6 (♥ discard in dummy)
Questions:
- You expect that partner leads a ♣ after this auction?
- What do you play now? Is ♣ return best?

[Codo]

1. yes trump lead is standard, I guess he has Kx and decided to lead another suit.

2. Why should I lead a trump now? this will cost our side two trumps and his side just one. And declarer tries to cash trumps so I should not help him. I would cash the Heart and lead the ten of spades.

[Fluffy]

dummy misses 1 card.

I don't know what is the best defence, I like ♠10 followed by ♥A and a club (do you remember small clubs?)

[ralph23]

I will cash the Ace of ♥ and lead the ♠ ten. This will end up setting up the ♠8 in dummy but the alternative of leading ♦ is not good.

I will have to eventually though it seems as partner may win the Jack ♠ perforce and return a ♥.....

[kgr]

---

This is an 'estimate' of all 4 hands.
Seems like ♥A will cost a trick (not sure of that)? Declarer can then play ♦ and play a ♥ from dummy and you have to ruff nothing?
2♣! was -1 and that din't make me happy (I was North). Ther end result on the hand wasn't that bad as most NS were in 3NT-1. And when I saw partner's hand I had to confess that therer was no other option then passing.
... should I have opened with my singleton ♣ or looks a save ♠K better here?

Thanks!
Koen

[kenberg]

The usual idea is that the auction calls for a club lead but the king of spades seems sensible enough.

If I were W, I would take the spade ace at trick 1 and return a spade. My plan would be to get my aces plus as many clubs as I could wrangle, hopefully by ruffing small or over-ruffing (or maybe pitching) after S.

As the play to the first two tricks went, I guess (looking at the hands, but maybe not so terribly double dummy) you could cash the ace of hearts and switch to a small diamond. Whether declarer ducks in dummy or not NS now have a club trick at T2, heart at T3, and can get a spade trick, a diamond trick, and two ruffs with the 9x of clubs. That's six tricks for the defense. Assume for definiteness declarer wins the trick four D switch on the board and leads another diamond. After the ruffs (with the spade trick in between), W will have nothing but clubs left while S is down to AQT of clubs, one spade and one diamond. W will perforce win the next trick and have to lead from his hand into this combo, and S still has an exit. Thus, regardless of the club spots, after the first two tricks as given the declarer can be held to four tricks. (If instead declarer ducks the diamond at T4 then it goes ruff, spade, ruff, diamond to the ace. Just as before, S has AQT and two side spots. W has five clubs. S gets two more tricks.)

If, at T2, W leads back a small spade it seems to get trickier. Presumably it still goes down. The size of the club spots may determine how much.

[lowerline]

kgr, on Aug 23 2007, 04:44 PM, said:

---

This is an 'estimate' of all 4 hands.
Seems like ♥A will cost a trick (not sure of that)? Declarer can then play ♦ and play a ♥ from dummy and you have to ruff nothing?
2♣! was -1 and that din't make me happy (I was North). Ther end result on the hand wasn't that bad as most NS were in 3NT-1. And when I saw partner's hand I had to confess that therer was no other option then passing.
... should I have opened with my singleton ♣ or looks a save ♠K better here?

Thanks!
Koen

There isn't a problem with the bidding or with the lead. The issue here is the defense. Ken has already described a defense that leads to down 4...

Steven