[Stephen Tu]

Scoring: MP

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W [space]N [space]E [space]S
 [space] 1[cl] 1[di] 1[he]
p 2[he] [space]all pass

West leads the 3 of diamonds to your J and declarer's ace. Declarer leads a spade to the Q, partner playing the 2. What now?

No matter what you do, declarer persists in spades, draws two rounds of trumps, partner following, and plays 3 more rounds of spades, partner showing up with Txx. What do you do on the 13th spade & why?

[bhall]

Looks like the only hope is that you can get in with the ♣Q to play your trump Q. This requires that partner passed your 1♦ overcall holding 10xx xx Kxxx Kxxx, which is unlikely. If he holds 3 ♦ and 5 ♣, declarer already has his cross-ruff set up, pitching a ♣ on the last spade.

Declarer would be Jxx Axxx Axx Jxx in the first case, and should have ducked a ♣ before playing the ♥AK and the last ♠. It seems you must have returned a ♠ on winning the ace, to arrive at this position. In this layout, you would pitch a ♦ on the last ♠ to keep your ♣ entry.

[han]

My guess is that declarer is 3-3-4-3 and put a diamond with his hearts.

[skjaeran]

I've no idea what to do since we seem to be playing with a defective deck - one of the minor suit kings obviously is missing.

If partner held both kings he'd have supported to 2♦ holding Kxxx and another king. If south held any he'd have invited game.

Abstain.

[Stephen Tu]

Why are people placing partner with 4♦? Surely he'd raise with that. Much more likely he has 3. Also, keep in mind this is MP, you probably aren't beating this contract, the goal is to hold the uptricks.

Quote

My guess is that declarer is 3-3-4-3 and put a diamond with his hearts

And also why would one assume this? Surely the most likely distribution for declarer now is 3442.

[han]

Stephen Tu, on Sep 23 2007, 02:00 PM, said:

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My guess is that declarer is 3-3-4-3 and put a diamond with his hearts

And also why would one assume this? Surely the most likely distribution for declarer now is 3442.

As Skaeran pointed out, if that's the case then a king is missing. It is inconceivable to me that partner has 2 kings and 3-card support yet didn't raise.

On the other hand declarer would certainly have invited with two aces, a king and a jack.

So a diamond with his hearts seems the most likely explanation.

[Stephen Tu]

Quote

As Skaeran pointed out, if that's the case then a king is missing. It is inconceivable to me that partner has 2 kings and 3-card support yet didn't raise.

Well, you have to go on what evidence is there. You can argue with partner about his bidding later. In the post mortem partner can justify not raising on 3 by the fact that if you compete to 3d you are -800.

You really think it is more likely that opponent bid a 3 bagger heart than partner decided not to raise on 3? Would declarer play this way holding 7 trumps?

Anyway, for the purposes of the problem, assume your opponents are more reliable than partner. It happens. You still have a problem here.

[han]

Who said anything about 3D?

Anyway, I don't see the problem. If the layout is:

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Then as Skaeran said you cannot prevent the crossruff and you will take only 3 tricks total.

If declarer was 3-4-3-3 then we should keep our clubs so that we can win the second round and pull a trump.

[Stephen Tu]

Are you so sure you will take 3 tricks? Pretend you are playing 3rd/low leads so you know the distribution exactly, partner has 3d

[han]

Ah ok, you have to ruff now because otherwise you will ruff a loser.

[Stephen Tu]

Right, if you don't ruff the last spade, depending on whether you or declarer forced a diamond ruff before the spade plays, you end in this position with either north or south on lead.

Scoring: MP

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If south on lead, ruff D, club, or if north on lead, ruff club, diamond, and the third trick evaporates into the ether.

I thought it was a really tough defensive problem, the importance of ruffing this trick doesn't jump out at you unless you are on top of things & really visualize everything. In real life, I was declarer & luckily didn't have to make this play. It seems other tables, either defenders got this right, or maybe more likely declarer messed up the timing & didn't pose the problem, as only 1 out of 7 in hearts scored 11 tricks.