[jdonn]

Scoring: IMP

P 1♦ P 1♠
P 2NT P 3NT
P P P

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You are west, in a friendly game on BBO with a world class partner. RHO south is a good player, LHO is the weakest player, I don't know for sure but probably a random flight B or so. Presumably 2NT is 18-19 balanced and 1♦ is 4432 or 4+ (I know, he didn't raise spades so not 4432 any more). Partner leads the 3 of hearts (4th best) to your queen which holds as declarer follows with the 6. What do you return at trick 2 and why?

[kenrexford]

This is interesting.

Declarer cannot bring in the diamond suit easily. If he has the 3442 pattern I expect, he might well have the AQJ10 in diamonds and must keep leaving dummy when he finesses diamonds. As he only has two entries, this is problematic.

If he has AQJx, he can bring the suit in after dropping partner's 10. With AQ10x, he will likely go wrong, as he will with AJ10x.

I'm not sure where this is going, but I want to force Declarer to commit to a line early when I have a surprise. I think I'm attacking the clubs. Club 9.

[Winstonm]

Unless an oddity, declarer is 3442. I place him with a hand such as AQJ, Axxx, AQJx xx.

I return a club - attacking the entries to break up the double squeeze.

[dburn]

Winstonm, on Nov 4 2007, 11:44 PM, said:

Unless an oddity, declarer is 3442. I place him with a hand such as AQJ, Axxx, AQJx xx.

I return a club - attacking the entries to break up the double squeeze.

If declarer has that, you can't beat the contract. He wins the club, finesses in diamonds (dropping East's 10) and plays ace and queen of spades. East can win and return a club, preventing declarer from making a third spade trick - but declarer doesn't need one, since he has two spades, four diamonds, two clubs and a heart.

If, as another poster mentioned, declarer's diamonds are AQJ10, then shifting to a club will indeed beat the contract - but declarer has misplayed; if he had won the first heart (he can tell from the lead that the suit is 4-4) and played on spades, he would take three spades, a heart, three diamonds and two clubs.

Still, the original post said that declarer was not the strongest player at the table. Perhaps, then, a club return is best. It's not easy to construct a layout on which a club fails while other defences succeed against 3=4=4=2.

[dburn]

Having said all of that, it remains to wonder what declarer's best line may be with ♠AQJ ♥Axxx ♦AQJ10 ♣xx (on the assumption that hearts are 4-4).

Technically, it seems to me that he should use his first club entry to dummy to finesse in spades. If West has ♠K, declarer has three spade tricks, one heart, three diamonds and two clubs; the defenders get only a diamond and three hearts.

If the first spade finesse loses, declarer can still succeed if West has ♦K or ♦Kx.

If the first spade finesse wins, there is of course no guarantee that the second one will; a strong East will usually duck the first round holding the king. Even so, declarer's best line is probably to drive out ♦K and hope that ♠K is right after all; he makes the contract whenever West has ♠K or either defender the singleton ♦K.

Of course, if declarer is going to follow that line it does not matter what the defenders do - the contract will fail on the actual lie of cards.