[MFA]

Transnational teams against a local chinese team. You don't have a clue if they can play or not, and you don't know anything about their bidding style. Both teams have 14VP after 1 round of play.

Scoring: IMP

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NS bid:
1♠ (5cM) - 1NT (semiF, 5-7 & 3spades possible)
2♥ - 2♠
3♥ - 4♠

Partner leads ♠2, 6 9 J. (If anything, partner's choice of spot card is a suit preference)

Declarer plays ♦5, 3 (reverse count, even number), K, A.

What's the problem, and what do you do?

[Fluffy]

partner was trying to save your heart tricks with the lead, it seems obvious we should keep playing trumps, but I might be missing something.

[mikeh]

I am placing declarer with 5=5=1=2 and the Ax of clubs: the early diamond play was an attempt to catch the A onside and create a resting place for his low club.

While I am not at all sure of the exact major suit layout, a hand such as AJxxx AK8xx x Ax is consistent with the auction and the play.

Most layouts I come up with have declarer failing at this point. The most likely potential 'problem' is if declarer has A10 in clubs, where a club switch (either high or low) runs the risk of establishing the suit in dummy, while the ♥J is an entry.

I don't see any layout (on the somwhat limited time I have spent on the issue) where a trump continuation costs an otherwise beatable contract. I look forward to seeing where I went wrong

[pclayton]

I think a trump is clear at this point. It appears to me that declarer is 5=5=3=0 and needs the diamond ruff. The club can wait - even if declarer is 5=5=1=2, our tricks aren't going anywhere.

I haven't decided if I need to duck the second diamond when declarer leads it off the board, so that pard can lead a 3rd spade. It looks like the percentage play however.

[FrancesHinden]

mikeh, on Oct 23 2007, 05:19 PM, said:

I am placing declarer with 5=5=1=2 and the Ax of clubs: the early diamond play was an attempt to catch the A onside and create a resting place for his low club.

While I am not at all sure of the exact major suit layout, a hand such as AJxxx AK8xx x Ax is consistent with the auction and the play.

While if declarer has AKJxx KQxxx x Ax he can win a trump return and play ace and another club and in due course draw the last trump in dummy, ruff a club in hand and play a heart towards the jack. We have to stop that by playing a heart now.

Now I'm trying to think up layouts where a heart now loses but a trump gains...

[ArtK78]

FrancesHinden, on Oct 23 2007, 01:24 PM, said:

mikeh, on Oct 23 2007, 05:19 PM, said:

I am placing declarer with 5=5=1=2 and the Ax of clubs: the early diamond play was an attempt to catch the A onside and create a resting place for his low club.

While I am not at all sure of the exact major suit layout, a hand such as AJxxx AK8xx x Ax is consistent with the auction and the play.

While if declarer has AKJxx KQxxx x Ax he can win a trump return and play ace and another club and in due course draw the last trump in dummy, ruff a club in hand and play a heart towards the jack. We have to stop that by playing a heart now.

Now I'm trying to think up layouts where a heart now loses but a trump gains...

If that were the case he would have played a club at trick 2.

I agree with those who are continuing trump.

[cherdano]

pclayton, on Oct 23 2007, 12:05 PM, said:

I think a trump is clear at this point. It appears to me that declarer is 5=5=3=0 and needs the diamond ruff. The club can wait - even if declarer is 5=5=1=2, our tricks aren't going anywhere.

I haven't decided if I need to duck the second diamond when declarer leads it off the board, so that pard can lead a 3rd club. It looks like the percentage play however.

The heart return works too in this layout, as we will give partner a heart ruff when declarer is trying to play another diamond to set up his ruff.

[MFA]

@ FrancesHinden

Perhaps a heart shift really is best. However, if the declarer has the hand, you quote, he has played quite strangely so far. Why not just start on hearts instead of this diamond adventure? Or on clubs even.

--

Well, I continued spades, this seemed reasonable.
This ran to dummy, and declarer immediately asked for a diamond!
Are you ready, folks? You have had several hours to consider this

pclayton:

Quote

I haven't decided if I need to duck the second diamond when declarer leads it off the board, so that pard can lead a 3rd club. It looks like the percentage play however.

Decided now?

[pclayton]

I've got a sneaking hunch pard has the ♥K stiff. He seems marked with a singleton, yet didn't lead the suit.

[cherdano]

pclayton, on Oct 23 2007, 05:45 PM, said:

I've got a sneaking hunch pard has the ♥K stiff. He seems marked with a singleton, yet didn't lead the suit.

Nah, it seems quite normal not to lead into RHO's second 5-card suit.

[Free]

cherdano, on Oct 24 2007, 12:59 AM, said:

pclayton, on Oct 23 2007, 05:45 PM, said:

I've got a sneaking hunch pard has the ♥K stiff. He seems marked with a singleton, yet didn't lead the suit.

Nah, it seems quite normal not to lead into RHO's second 5-card suit.

In that case you might consider leading a low ♣. Declarer may think you have the ♥K and your partner has the ♣K...

[FrancesHinden]

MFA, on Oct 23 2007, 09:30 PM, said:

@ FrancesHinden

Perhaps a heart shift really is best. However, if the declarer has the hand, you quote, he has played quite strangely so far. Why not just start on hearts instead of this diamond adventure? Or on clubs even.

--

Yes, I was wondering that as well, but then I thought... why not play a diamond now on that hand? There's no great hurry to start on clubs, and if the DA is right there's no club loser, and you set up the hearts and you don't need spades 3-2.

I admit my instinct when shown the hand was also to play another trump, but the more I think about it the more I wonder about a low heart back instead.

[brianshark]

Maybe I'm just not seeing it but I don't see any reason for a ♥ return. Even if we give partner a ruff, won't he be ruffing a natural ♥ trick of ours anyway?

It seems likely (?) that partner has a stiff K or Q in ♥s. I don't think declarer would bother make a game try if he had AKQxx. If that's the case, then we have 2 natural heart tricks. Combined with our ♦ trick means we need one more.

If the minors are 1-2 then we always get our setting ♣ trick so we set unless we lead a ♣ now and potentially set up ♣s for a ♥ discard later on.

If the minors are 3-0 then our setting trick is a ♦. And we only need one of the diamonds which means we can afford to let him ruff a diamond which means that after returning a trump and he plays a low ♦, we must rise with the Q to protect against declarer having ♦Jxx.

So trump return and rise with the Q is my play.

[MFA]

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OK, my thoughts.

1) What does partner have in hearts?
Anything but the queen! If declarer had ♥AKxxx, he would surely have played on hearts right away.

2) If declarer is 5512, I'm only on lead once and might as well play a trump. (Maybe this analysis is flawed?)

3) If declarer is 5530 without either ♥A or ♥K, does he have any (realistic) chance? I think not, no matter my defense.

4) Is AKJxx, AKQxx, xxx, - possible for the bidding? I thought it might be. And since this is the critical hand, it decided to play for it.

5) Playing back a heart runs the risk of declarer inserting the 8. Either now, or as a safety play later, if I play a big one now.

So I played back a spade. When the diamond came, I played... huddle-small! I really hated myself! My plan was to play small, but suddenly I got second thoughts.
I live for being ready in situations like this. Making mistakes underway is ok, but not this, please Did you do better? I think a low diamond is the indicated play, but it should be played smoothly!

Anyway, declarer put up the jack, ruffed a diamond and ran the ♥J to partner's ace. Down only 1.

[brianshark]

It seems a big diamond always knocks the contract whereas a small diamond lets it in if he guesses to insert the J (maybe he has no guess and is missing the 9 also) and happens to lead a small heart from hand. A quick-small ♦ is needed if you think ♥s are solid, but I don't think he would make a game try with solid ♥s and a 3 1/2 loser hand opposite 6-9 pts.

[MFA]

brianshark, on Oct 24 2007, 06:53 AM, said:

It seems a big diamond always knocks the contract whereas a small diamond lets it in if he guesses to insert the J (maybe he has no guess and is missing the 9 also) and happens to lead a small heart from hand.

Well, he can't get back to his hand without tapping himself! The actual line of defense might look scary, but it really is not.